Herb Kelleher, legendary co-founder of Southwest Airlines. NYT. Dallas Morning News.
As much as I complain about Southwest (“your cattle car in the sky”), I have to admit: they aren’t any worse than any other airline (“United Breaks Guitars”) and are frequently cheaper.
And:
By paying his employees well, avoiding layoffs and instilling a spirit of fun in the company’s culture, Mr. Kelleher also set a tone for Southwest that translated into customer loyalty.
“You have to treat your employees like customers,” he told Fortune magazine in 2001. “When you treat them right, then they will treat your outside customers right. That has been a powerful competitive weapon for us.”
What sounded like a business cliché translated into tremendous cost savings for Southwest. Its employee productivity levels were far higher than those of the competition, and even as salaries rose, the company managed to keep fares low and profits high. The company was a perennial choice for Fortune’s “Most Admired Companies” list.
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There’s another story I (kind of) remember about Southwest testing a new route near Thanksgiving. When passengers got off the plane, they were offered either a frozen turkey…or a bottle of Wild Turkey.
They don’t make them like that any more.