Case Study: Delta Airlines Successful Business Turnaround Strategy

In 1924 Collet Everman Woolman and an associate started the Huff Daland Dusters crop dusting operation, this was the first agricultural airplane made for the purpose of crop dusting for getting rid of boll weevils and insects. The dusting speed was 80-85 mph and the advantage it had was low speed flying, heavy payload capacity and low maintenance cost. This creation was the roots of Delta Air Lines. In 1928 the crop dusting operation broke away from the parent company and became Delta Air Service. The company began getting contracts in delivering airmail and then in 1929 Delta began transporting passengers flying them to Dallas, Jackson and Mississippi. Later other routes were added to Atlanta and Charleston. Delta’s success was growing and began getting popular when the U.S. government awarded it an airmail contract in 1930. It remained in business during a temporary but costly suspension in the airmail contract Continue reading

Ashridge Portfolio Matrix

Corporate Parenting is a strategy employed by highly centralized and diversified firms  with large resource pools. It views the corporation in terms of resources and capabilities  that can be used to build business units value as well as generate synergies across  business units.  Corporate parenting generates corporate strategy by focusing on the core competencies of  the parent corporation and on the value create from the relationship between the parent  and its businesses. There are basically three styles of corporate parenting as follows; financial control,  strategic planning and strategic control. Financial Control:  Under this style the role of the corporate parent is to monitor and  evaluate the financial performance of investment portfolio of the respective business  units. The corporate managers act as agents on behalf of share holders and financial  markets to identify and acquire viable assets and businesses. The business unit  managers are given the autonomy to carry out business Continue reading