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

People Aren't a Strategy at SouthWest Airlines (LUV)

Kelleher was asked the question once on when the thinking concerning people being a competitive advantage occurred to him. His response was very telling, because he said the idea of people being a strategy never came across his mind.

He repsponded by saying: "We always felt that people should be treated right as a matter of morality. Then, incidentally, that turned out to be good business too. But it didn’t really start as a strategy. It began with us thinking about what is the right thing to do in a business context. We said we want to really take care of these people, we want to honor them and we love them as individuals. Now that induces the kind of reciprocal trust and diligent effort that made us successful. But the motivation was not strategy, it was core values."

Why this is so important is that strategies changes according to various circumstance in the market. If people were considered a strategy rather than a core value of the company, it would be a disaster as many companies have found out.

When core values are truly part of a company and its people, there's not a lot of things that need to be done to remind one of that; it's an organic part of everyday living and working within a business that isn't thought of as something to get an advantage out of.

That's one of the major problems in business around the world, instead of focusing on the solving of problems of people because you legitimately care about them, we instead look at strategies and policies that are made in such inflexible ways that impossible for our people to give excellent customer service for fear of breaking them.

Some companies are starting to get this be being encouraged to do what it takes to take care of a customer. If a company learns to really care for people only for the reason that it's right, all of the other stuff will fall into place.

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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