How can it be that the competition can lose billions, but one company make millions? What does it take to think differently, be different, get different results in business.
| Entrepreneur |
Herb Kelleher |
| Company |
Southwest Airlines |
| Business type |
Airline |
| Founded |
1971 |
| Head office |
Love Field, Dallas, USA |
| Contact details |
www.southwest.com |
Key Learning Points |
|
Be different
If you want different results you need to recruit differently, train differently and manage your people differently to your competition.
Go for stunning customer service
Different people will give different customer service. Don’t leave it to chance. Recruit people who like helping other people. Train them in your systems and standards. Motivate them to keep excelling and exceeding your customers expectations. Make it fun and easy to do business with you. The golden rule still works! Treat customers the way you would like to be treated and watch the business flow in.
Treat employees as partners and owners
Manage your employees as if they were owners and partners in your business. In fact, give them the opportunity to be partners and owners in your business. Partners and owners look after revenue and expenses about 4000% better than employees.
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The Southwest Story
While the rest of Southwest's competitors lost billions of dollars last year, Southwest made $US120 million profit. Why is that? How could they be so much better than their competition?
The answer, they do things differently. They don't just think things differently, or talk things differently. They do things differently.
They recruit for attitude, not for skills. If you have a brilliant technical expertise (pilot, cleaner, salesperson, finance manager) but don't get on with people, at Southwest you don't get the job.
In their recruiting they advertise for people who ‘colour outside the lines'.
They want people who are prepared to think differently. They advertise for people who are prepared to be innovative.
At Southwest, members of the team you are going to work with have a say in whether you get the job or not.
At Southwest they interview you on your attitude, your caring, your sense of humour and fun.
They not only train you in your technical expertise (how to be a good cleaner, pilot or sales rep) but they also train you in leadership, management, culture, people skills, and team skills.
They have a whole University for People devoted to People Skills. The technical training is handled by the Operations Teams.
Supervisors and team leaders don't manage. Teams manage. Peers manage.
Far more energy goes into celebrating progress, success and what's going right than what is going wrong.
They talk about love, family, caring, and community just as much as they talk about assets, costs, return on investment and return to shareholders.
Most of all, they talk about freedom. The freedom to develop ideas and put them into action. The freedom to try and fail. The freedom to be who you really are, not be someone who you are not.
The eight basic freedoms at Southwest:
They even have eight basic freedoms and logos to explain each one.
- The freedom to pursue good health
- The freedom to create financial security
- The freedom to learn and grow
- The freedom to make a positive difference
- The freedom to travel
- The freedom to work and have fun
- The freedom to create and innovate
- The freedom to stay connected
Teams can choose how they work. People choose how much they work, when they work, how much they get paid. Flight attendants get paid per flight. So they can choose how many or how few flights they do in any one week. People cover for each other. People help each other out. They don't work if they don't want to work.
At Southwest they are constantly focusing on how to maintain those freedoms. They don't just talk about it. They are doing it.