Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

Kelleher Didn't Make Long-range Plans

This is a really great insight into a little talked about area. From the beginning, let's make sure that we don't mistake long-range plans from a long-term outlook; they're two different things.

A long-term outlook deals with knowing your business, and having predictable products or services that can be reasonably projected out and counted on. Long-range plans on the other hand, will lock you into systems and ways of doing things that can make it very difficult to break and get out of when the need arises. Kelleher considered not making long-range plans a strategic weapon that he could use against his competitors - and he did.

So what was it that Kelleher did then? There were only two things he really focused on for Southwest (LUV): What were the current trends within society and where within those trends did their customers want Southwest to be? It was completely focused on the customer and if they were trending in a different direction than where the company was currently at.

Because he didn't put long-range plans into play, it allowed the company to be in the place where it could nimbly respond to any place that their customers were going. When you have long-range plans in place, it takes a lot of time to rethink them before even starting to make the changes in the airline industry.

Kelleher eliminated that from Southwest by simply not making these type of plans. Sometimes it's the easy things that are the hardest to see. In this case it was not doing something that was the lever that gave Southwest such an advantage over their competitors.

It seems to me what that says to us managers is that there are definitely times where you can over-manage a business. This is definitely one of them. Kelleher responding perfectly, keeping Southwest always on the leading edge of the industry they competed in.

Other Herb Kelleher Sources:

A Culture of Commitment

HERB KELLEHER

The wild turkey

Herb Kelleher on the Record, Part 1

Herb Kelleher Talks about How Southwest Airlines Grew from Entrepreneurial Startup to Industry Leadership

Belief Model for The Leadership of Herb Kelleher (Southwest Airlines)

Herb Kelleher, Chairman, CEO and President, Southwest Airlines

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