Corporate Research Assignment: Analysis of Delta Airlines (HOSP4060)

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Delta Airlines, addressing various aspects of its business strategy and operations. The analysis begins with an examination of the company's top management and their relevant experience, followed by an identification of the firm's core business model and strategic goals. The report explores Delta's strategic intent, any changes in its strategies over time, and the competitive dynamics of the airline industry. It delves into the firm's tangible and intangible assets, identifying its core competencies and the reasons behind its past and expected successes. The analysis also considers the company's focus on economic, accounting, or shareholder perspectives. Furthermore, the report offers suggestions for improving Delta's business strategy and strategic position, examines its vertical integration, and identifies its corporate strategy. The report also investigates Delta's mergers, acquisitions, and strategic alliances, providing insights into the motivations behind these actions and assessing their success. This detailed examination offers valuable insights into Delta Airlines' competitive landscape and strategic decision-making.

HOSP4060 – Corporate Research Assignment
Name: _ ______________________________
Assigned Company: _Delta Airlines___________________
1. List the top management of the firm and note what experience and leadership skills
they bring to the firm. If a larger conglomerate, list both corporate and business
managers.
2. What is the principal business model of the firm?
(How does the firm make most of its profits?)
3. Identify the major goals of the company.
Does the firm seem to have any longer-term challenging or stretch goals that would
serve as its strategic intent?
4. Trace any changes in strategy that you can identify over time. Try to determine
whether the strategic changes of your selected firm are a result of intended strategies,
emergent strategies, or some combination of both.
5. How dynamic is the industry in which your company is based? Is there evidence that
industry structure is reshaping competition, or has done so in the recent past?
6. A good place to start with an internal firm analysis is to catalog the assets a firm has.
Make a list of the firm’s tangible assets. Then, make a separate list of the intangible
assets you can identify.

7. Identify the core competencies that are at the heart of the firm’s competitive
advantage. (Remember, a firm will have only one, or at most a few, core
competencies.)
8. Based on information in the annual reports or published on the firm’s website,
summarize what the firm views as the reasons for its successes (either past or
expected in the future). Search for both quantitative and qualitative success factors
provided in the report.
9. Does the firm seem most focused on the economic, accounting, or shareholder
perspective of its competitive advantage? Give quotes or information from these
sources to support your view.
10. What suggestions do you have to improve the firm’s business strategy and strategic
position?
11. Is your firm highly vertically integrated?
12. Use the preceding vertical value chain to identify the corporate strategy of the firm. In
other words, where within the industry has the firm chosen to compete?
13. Has your firm participated in any mergers or acquisitions in the past three years?
What was the nature of these actions? Did they result in a consolidation of
competitors?
14. Research what strategic alliances your firm has entered in the past three years. Based
on company press releases and business journal reports for each alliance, what do you
find to be the main reason the firm entered these alliances?

15. Do you think each of the three alliances achieves the original intent, and therefore is
successful? Why or why not?