"Always Operate in Survival Mode"
While it wasn't intentional, it is interesting that in the last post concerning The Common Sense Management of Sam Walton, he talked about the fact that not having much money at the beginning of the business caused him to go in direction that helped the company tremendously. And here we now have Kelleher talking about operating your business as if it's always in survival mode.
Why does he say this? Because whether we know it or not, we always are in survival mode.
When you operate in this way, it kicks in the creative and innovative juices that are required for a business to handle problems and go forward.
If management or a company operate like they're too fat, they can start to handle and operate the business that way. Survival mode takes all of that temptation away.
When you think of it, it's a lot more fun and challenging as well. It's a great feeling when you solve problems that seem insurmountable. There's a satisfaction beyond any type of reward that comes from it.
But if you aren't operating in survival mode, you can even deceive yourself that everything's going great, when in fact there are warning signs all around you that things may not be as good as you think.
Survival mode also breeds continuity, as you have a strong focus on issues at hand and how to make them better. Operating in other ways will tend to lull you into false security and tend to look more to the future without taking care of the present. The feeling is that everything's going great, why rock the boat?
Operating in survival mode wouldn't allow you to come to that place, as you know that becoming lax and disengaged can bring things down on you and the company fast.
Kelleher wasn't caught off guard. He live what he preached, and brought the company profits for years that the rest of the industry could only wish they had. Survival mode: what a blast!
Other Herb Kelleher Sources:
Herb Kelleher on the Record, Part 1
Belief Model for The Leadership of Herb Kelleher (Southwest Airlines)
Herb Kelleher, Chairman, CEO and President, Southwest Airlines
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