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More reasons Southwest Airlines was profitable for over 30 straight years.

It's interesting to not some of the key elements of Herb Kelleher in enjoying over 30 years of profit in an industry notorious for struggling to profit at all, and being one of the worst places to invest our money.

I say interesting because Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) thrived through many slow periods of time like we're going through now, in one of the toughest industries in the world.

Legendary Cost Controls

A major part of the reason it thrived was Herb Kelleher focused on cost controls more than anything else. He was legendary for it. Anything over $1,000 had to be personally approved by him, which flies in the face of many business gurus who say that type of control is detrimental to a business.

The reason it worked with Kelleher is his strong relationship and trust he built with his employees, where his explantion of it not being a trust issue between him and them, but a check and balance included to ensure everything thought carefully through why they needed to spend the money they were requesting.

Cross-training

The other major thing Kelleher employed in the company was cross-training employees to be able to perform a number of tasks. That prevented problems when unancticipated absences or business occurred, and there was a need for immediate resolvement of that problem.

A secondary aspect of the cross-training was it brought people together in the company in a way that helped create the unique culture of the business. Pilots would help clean cabins, those working on the ramps would sell tickets, and Kelleher would show up and help load the baggage, or do any task needing to be done at the time to set an example. It helped create the family-like atmosphere the company enjoyed, and in regard to work, broke down the barriers sometimes erected by those thinking they're too good to work with the ordinary person.

Over the decades, statistics confirmed that within the airline industry, workers from Southwest Airlines continually worked harder and longer than those at any other airline; in other words they were more productive, and the results of Southwest year after year confirmed it.

Results

Because of all this, the turnaround time at the airline dropped to an amazing 15 minutes, as workers took on any task they could to make the experience for the customer their top priority.

Even the most recent quarter in 2008 had the airline the only major one to turn a profit, and they're looking at growing at a modest, but significant 4 percent in these extremely challenging times.

Part of the more recent success was the adaptability of the company, as they foresaw the challenges of increasing fuel costs, and responded by implementing a fuel-hedging program several years ago, which is helping with managing costs in the business.

The point is that under the foundation that Kelleher laid, the company continues to look at ways to cut costs and get the best out of its people. The results speak for themselves.

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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