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

Sometimes You've Got to Go with what You've Got

There are a number of managers and business owners that are so committed to perfection in the sense of completing something, that by time they implement it, competitors may have beat them to the punch and pulled far ahead.

Kelleher has talked about how Southwest Airlines (LUV) faced that with a "very sophisticated computer system for our dispatch department and it was probably the most sophisticated in the industry."

One day when those that had been working on the project for a long time came and talked to Kelleher, they told him it was only about 80 percent complete.

In response, Kelleher asked them, " "why don’t we get that 80% into operation and get the benefit now and we can complete the remainder later. They said yes. We would have waited another 11/2 – 2 years for that final 20%."

This is one of those cases where it was better to bring the system into play and take advantage of all it could do to help the dispatchers, then to wait until the thing was completed.

I know that this can't be the way of doing things in every area of a business, but we do need to know when these types of exception present themselves. Obviously it worked great for Southwest Airlines in this specific situation.

Now I'm not one to panic or encourage someone to do things halfway so they can simply get something put out there in some portion of their company. But in this case, and many of our own, when something takes a lot longer to get going than we thought - yet it can still add some operational value to the company and its customers - it's better to put the system into play than to keep it on the sidelines until its completed.

There are many times and conditions within our companies when waiting for absolute completion can harm and hurt it rather than help it. It's better at times to get benefit out of what we have than get nothing until its finished. Going with what we got is sometimes a necessary strategy to follow.

The key to making the decision is whether value can be added, while working on completing the rest. If it can, it is probably wiser to include it now rather than wait till later.

Other Herb Kelleher Sources:

Special Event

Leadership: The Essential Herb Kelleher

The CEO as Brand Guardian

Herb's way

Speeches and Presentations from Southwest Leaders

Southwest Airlines: The Hottest Thing in the Sky

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