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Employing Strategy in a Competitive Environment

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Employing Strategy in a Competitive Environment
Lutuéce Hurt
Dr. Lloyd H. Stebbins, P.E.
Strategic Management BUS 599
May 5, 2013

Create an environmental scan for the company indicating the most significant environmental threats and discuss how the company should respond to each threat to ensure that the impact to the business is minimal. The significant success for any organization is strategic planning. To develop a successful plan would require the organization to have a comprehensive understanding of their current environment. Environmental scanning is used to establish the focus of the strategic plan. To conduct an environmental scan external and internal information should be evaluated. A SWOT analysis will focus on the strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities. We will discuss the most signification environmental threats for Southwest Airlines. There are many environmental factors that could influence the performance of the company, Southwest Airlines, which provides low-cost air travel and service. This student will discuss two environmental threats pertaining to Southwest Airlines. Two environmental factors that have a major impact on how businesses operate are: economic factors and regulations. September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center was a moment in history that effected Nation and the U.S. economy. Most importantly the airline industry was threatened by the aftermath of the economy. “The events of September 11 have had some of their worst economic effects on the airline industry, leading to a dramatic fall-off in passenger demand and substantially higher costs” (Gowrisankaran, 2002). After the attack in 2001 the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) within the Department of Homeland Security were given the safety and security regulation responsibilities (Smith Jr. & Cox, 2008).

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