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information most of the US airline
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industry is under assault from
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skyrocketing fuel prices and a sluggish
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economy but the message that Southwest
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Airlines president Colleen Barrett
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brought to the recent Wharton leadership
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conference was about the importance of
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treating employees and customers well
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Innovative leaders such as Southwest
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chairman herb kellerer and smart
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management of non-human resources
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especially southwest's fuel purchasing
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Hedges that have saved the company more
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than $2 billion have certainly helped
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the airline post profits for 35
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consecutive years but the foundation for
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all that she said has been making the
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satisfaction of employees and customers
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the highest priority this was a
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wonderful in a sense a valid dictory if
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you don't mind my using that term uh
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coling coling was at the ception she's
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been there from the creation 30 years
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plus and uh Tom did make reference to
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the fact that Southwest is one of the
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great successes in the aviation industry
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many measures for that one of which is
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that all over the world today those of
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you whove traveled in other countries
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you know just about every country on
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Earth has a Southwest lookalike so Ryan
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a most famously in Ireland and now
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Europe but just about every country
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India uh you name it there is a
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Southwest lookalike it's a great model
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it's one of the great business models of
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the modern era if you think autom you
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think Toyota if you think retail you
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often think Nordstroms if you think
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Airline you think Southwest here's one
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of two people Colleen and Herb kellerer
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an idea way back put it together so I'm
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going to begin with a question about
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Colleen's retrospect on her own career
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uh Colleen you didn't have a bachelor's
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degree in aviation management as I
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recall uh how did you learn to run an
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airline how did you learn to lead uh one
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of the great successes of the modern era
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well um I did not have an aviation uh
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degree I didn't have any kind of degree
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except a legal secretarial one and um my
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passion um is and always has been
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serving other people and um today we
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talk about servant leadership but um I
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not that expression but I really did
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like to um solve problems Herb's passion
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um was really ins serving his clients
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because he was a lawyer by trade and um
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I had always done legal secretarial work
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so um I would love to tell you that I
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had this great career path but I would
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be lying um and I would love to tell you
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that we decided that um we did decide
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that there was no decent Airline service
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in the state St of Texas um we studied
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some Airlines in
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California and um we thought that if
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California could support a short Hall uh
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inate carrier that probably Texas could
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do I'm not from Texas so I can be a
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little sarcastic and say that everyone
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in Texas thinks they're bigger and
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better than everyone else and so um it
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was that was the idea was that we would
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have the best and um so we went after it
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and um we did a pretty good job my my um
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contribution if you will her was the
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Visionary the creative thinker the the
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um I mean just a brilliant guy although
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he never intended to run the airline I
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mean life just evolves you know um he
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only ended up running Airline through a
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series of circumstances that are just
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crazy but in a nutshell I will tell you
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that um he became so passionate over the
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cause of Southwest Airlines and over the
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fact that there were so many people
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trying to keep us on the ground and out
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of the air and uh put us out of business
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once we went into the air that he
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finally just got ticked off and um
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decided during a particularly bad time
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for our industry that there was no point
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in going in and hiring someone to run us
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because of the PCO strike things were
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really really bad uh back in the 80s so
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we went to Southwest on a uh loan if you
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will and we never actually canceled our
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leave of absence from the law firm which
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we took in 1981 and here we are all
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these years later so I mean it just sort
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of happened um I've spent most of my
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time on the people side and um the
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customer service side we do build our
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pyramid a little bit different than what
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you've heard today from most of the
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speakers um we're pretty bold about it
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and and pretty vocal about it we um say
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that at the top of our pyramid in terms
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of the most important priority that we
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have is our
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employees and um if we treat them right
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now you heard one speaker say this today
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but we we we spend I spend certainly my
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85% of my time is spent on
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employees and on delivering proactive
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customer service to our employees if I
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do a good enough job of that
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um and if my fellow um peers do a good
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enough job of that they in turn spend
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their life trying to um assure that our
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the second most important customer to us
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on in our pyramid which is our passenger
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feels good about the service that they
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are getting because they are getting
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proactive customer service delivery um
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and if those people feel good enough
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about it hopefully some of you are um
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are sitting in the audience a today then
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you come back for more and if we have a
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decent business model which we we do um
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I say humbly and with pride um then the
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shareholders uh we make a little bit of
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money and our industry that's pretty
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darn hard these days but we've managed
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to do it uh consistently for 35 years
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which is really unheard of in our
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business and um you come back off the
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passengers come back often enough that
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means that our third uh customer in
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terms of importance our shareholder is
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um satisfied and I won't dwell too much
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on it but um we did just have our um
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shareholders meeting on May 21st and
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truthfully it um that would make a case
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study Southwest is all over the worlda
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different case studies finances
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marketing culture customer service you
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name it but to
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see really and truly the love Fest that
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took place at our shareholders meeting
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was awesome for anyone um that takes
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pride in what they do and uh for anyone
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that um wants to be a well-respected and
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well-liked uh
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organization um there was not a dry eye
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in the house by the time that um herb
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walked out of that room and it was um it
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was really spectacular to see got a
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question about your relationship with
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herb Warren Ben one of the great
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observers of leadership of the modern
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era entitled one of his books
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co-leadership and it's about the rare
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phenomenon but sometimes seen of two
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people running the outfit at the same
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time he really did that with herb for 30
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years what was the secret of working
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with herb as in a sense the co-leader of
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this great Enterprise I think it was um
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and I I agree that that did happen I of
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course I did all that without a title
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for many many years but but that's okay
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um I never wanted a title in the first
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place um I think it's just because we
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shared absolutely shared common values
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um we were pretty much raised the same
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um we um love people um like I said he's
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you know creative and a genius and all
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that and I'm much more of a plugger I'm
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a computer finisher um but if for those
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of you who have taken Myers Briggs herb
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and I share the first three l and we're
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26 percentage points apart on the last
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one so that's why somehow we've survived
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I think um together because we uh
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compliment each other but herb has
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always treated every person and he's
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been the best Mentor in the world but
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he's treated everyone on his team
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whether it was practicing law or running
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an airline or um he has worked with a
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lot of the people that you introduced or
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that someone introduced earlier today
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he's worked with Homeland Security he's
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worked with all of those groups TSA um
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the Air Force all branches of the
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government he has um gone at their
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request to teach them um things about
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leadership and um
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organization and he has always treated
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everyone um on his team as an equal and
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uh when I say that inegalitarian
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um spirit and um he never he doesn't see
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Rank and he doesn't see um tears on a
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ladder and and because I knew that you
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know I don't know I think I was a
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somewhat cocky little girl from the
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sticks of Vermont but you know if he
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said I could do something I just assumed
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I could do it and my mother always told
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me I could do whatever I wanted to so I
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just sort of followed suit and he never
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um he never embarrassed you even when
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you really did something really silly
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because you were naive or foolish or not
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too bright um he always supported you
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and he always treated the team as
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complete equals to him and and um that
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was his law clerk his secretary his um
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which I was his uh you know two-year law
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firm uh partners and or or his you know
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30-year uh Law Firm practitioners they
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were all part of the same thing if he
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went to court we went to court he went
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to Lobby we went to Lobby I didn't know
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I was getting all these I mean I didn't
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know these were different or unusual
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opportunities for me I didn't know any
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better
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so it just sort of evolved really
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touched on the next question steu
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Freeman earlier today used the phrase
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leaders really made it a question are
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leaders uh born or made and his answer
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was yes uh you were definitely born how
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about the ma part uh just going back on
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your 30 years legal secretary president
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of an airline in between that and this
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how how did you learn to lead what were
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the moments the expi I think I'm a
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better follower than I am a leader maybe
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we'll have to ask David that I don't
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know how much exposure he's had to that
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but I like being part of a team um now I
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love tell me I can't do something I'll
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kill myself trying I'm an overachiever I
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not um you know I don't score off the IQ
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um charts or anything like that but I
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plug away and I work uh hard and um so
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tell me I can't do something kind of a
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firefighter Problem Solver and um and I
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love to solve problems so I think that
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um I'm as good a follower as I am a
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leader and and um if I am one I love to
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motivate people I love to surprise
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people all the things that Southwest
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stands for I enjoy doing I love to
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celebrate victories no matter how small
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no matter how big um I love for people
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to feel part of a bigger thing I love
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that family spirit that you see there
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that's not made up it's real no we're
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not perfect by a long shot we know that
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but the support that we give each
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other um is is really just an incredible
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thing and um I'm from a you know poor
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little family that really never had much
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and
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um I I think you just learn to
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appreciate that when you don't have
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anything and then somebody gives you
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something you really know that you're
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getting something pretty unusual and I
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think that's how a lot of our employees
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feel um I don't know David's background
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I don't know you know what he comes from
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but I can tell you this when
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um when we have employees that have a
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problem or we have employees that see a
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passenger having a
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problem um we adopt them and and we
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really work hard to try to make
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something optimistic come out of
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whatever the situation is and um to try
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to make people feel um good um about
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whatever the Dilemma is that they're
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dealing with and um you
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know I Philadelphia certainly is not um
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one of the bigger points on our system I
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hope it will be someday okay um but I
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hope some of you have been touched by
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all of that because you know life's
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pretty short and
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um most of us have to do something to
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feel you know to do put bread and butter
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on our table and so if you can do
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something and uh feel like you've made a
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positive
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contribution um in any little way that's
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a pretty darn unusual thing and I think
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we've got 35,000 people that feel that
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they can do that every day and
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um we've got a great business model it
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works it's it's um you know we've been
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successful but I think if we've been
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successful mainly not we've got bright
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people we've got very smart people and
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they've worked very hard and of course
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our fuel hedge is probably the best of
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anything in today's environment of of
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any company out there at least of any
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Airline but you
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know um
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it's um pretty remarkable in the overall
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scheme of things if you can say that
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whatever you do for a
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living that you enjoy it that you've
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contributed and helped in some way make
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the world a better place um I can't do
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what Johnson and Johnson can do but what
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I can say is that we've helped um people
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achieve dreams we've we've helped people
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just because of our very model of what
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we offered I don't know that it will
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stay this way forever but we've allowed
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people to go see and do things they
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never could have done before us because
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in 1971 before we went into the air 133%
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of America flew and those 133% were all
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male quite frankly and they were all
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businessmen um women only flew if there
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was some family crisis and today and I'm
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not saying that it's because of us but I
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am saying we changed the way that people
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thought about flying we taught people
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that uh it that fairs could be you know
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price elastic that that um that you
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could make
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money by filling your planes you could
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um allow grandmothers to go see their
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grandkids you know four five six times a
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year instead of once a year because they
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could afford to on us and if you gave
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them good low fairs and you gave them
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frequent flights and you gave them
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decent customer service and and and just
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practice the Golden Rule with them that
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um they would come back for more and
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more and more and it's just truly
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amazing um what has happened out of all
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of that I mean we have um we carry
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hundreds of thousands of uncompany
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miners every year and um between
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divorced parents I get hundreds of
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letters every year from parents saying
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thanks to your low fears your high
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frequency and the way that your people
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take care of me of my kids I've watched
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my kids grow up hundreds of thousands of
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uh people that meet and form business
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Partnerships on us um open seating isn't
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all bad guys and gals I'm telling you
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we've had people fall in love on us
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we've had people we've had people that
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um literally um open business offices
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based on where we fly because they know
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they can rely on our service I get
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letters particularly from mothers that
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will say if is there any chance that
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you're going to be at this city or that
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City because my kids about to go off to
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college I'm not sending them any place
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that you can't get them to and from
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because I'll never see them again um you
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know uh wedding invitations from people
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that say we've courted for four or five
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or six years living in different states
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living going to different colleges and
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we just feel that you're so much a part
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of keeping us together we want you to
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come to the wedding so herb used to send
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herb used to go to the receptions meet
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all the women I used to send the wedding
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gifts you know but that's just you know
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the way it is and it's um it's just a
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great my both of my parents are deceased
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and I just hate it because now my mother
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always believed I'd make out okay but my
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dad never did he thought I was nuts when
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I left I left you know a flaw firm that
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was paying me you know fairly okay money
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and why would you do that I've been on
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two airplanes in my life and um you know
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so I I in a way I wish that they could
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see um How Great Southwest has become
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um and we we do all the things that your
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other speakers talked about you know we
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try to be part of the community we um we
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have we call leadership expectations
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versus we do a lot of training and and
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all of that I I think you can be trained
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I think you can learn um but I think you
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have to instinctively and intuitively
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want to lead if you're going to
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um and you know our mission statement is
00:18:32
so simple and it's posted every 3 feet
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all over every location that we have
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you've probably seen it if you're a
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customer but it's really as simple as
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following the Golden Rule just follow
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just treat people the way that you want
00:18:43
to be treated and pretty much everything
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else will fall into place um it's a fun
00:18:50
company as I hope you saw and I've got a
00:18:53
has show at hands how many kind of like
00:18:56
have flown a little bit on us
00:18:59
all right how many have flown a lot on
00:19:01
us all
00:19:05
right thank you out standing when
00:19:07
academics have turned to people near the
00:19:09
end of their career and asked how is it
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you learn to if you're Jack Welsh this
00:19:14
is just before 911 how is it you learn
00:19:17
to lead that particular company uh
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usually the answers are
00:19:22
three-fold uh number one I was a a
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pretty good student of leadership not in
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the formal sense but I just I love to
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watch po politicians people come and go
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I learn from everyone number two people
00:19:32
say I had a range of experiences but
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number three and this is my question
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half of my question number three people
00:19:38
say over my career I had people that
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wouldn't probably have even known that
00:19:43
they were doing this with me but they
00:19:46
were my mentor my coach my guide my
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Guru the second half of the question uh
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Bill George former Chief Executive at
00:19:55
metronic has written a couple books in
00:19:58
in his book North Star he makes an
00:20:02
argument that if you look at people like
00:20:04
yourself and I actually forget if you're
00:20:06
in this book but in any case uh he's
00:20:09
asked how is it that people like Andrea
00:20:12
Jung has ended up at Avon or in rui at
00:20:15
Pepsi uh or can Chenal at American
00:20:19
Express and just about everybody that
00:20:23
that bill George did interview said you
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know there was a moment somewhere along
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the way
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where I
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realized I was going to make a
00:20:32
difference that I was a person who could
00:20:34
indeed step forward didn't necessarily
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use the L word but there was a moment of
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identity a transformative experience
00:20:43
anyway back to the two-part question
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just a couple words about your mentors
00:20:48
along the way and were there one or two
00:20:50
formative moments that really stand out
00:20:52
as you look back across 30
00:20:54
years I've had only really One Mentor
00:20:56
and that's Ben Herb At but you have to
00:20:59
realize I went to work for him I was
00:21:00
like 21 years old and you know I'm 63
00:21:03
today and that's about all I've done I
00:21:05
mean I've worked for lawyers when I was
00:21:06
a junior senior in high school and a
00:21:09
couple years when my husband was in the
00:21:10
service so he's been my only Mentor I've
00:21:13
learned a ton uh from watching others um
00:21:17
both the goods and the bads I make most
00:21:20
of my decisions I'm right or wrong I'm
00:21:22
very quick probably too quick some would
00:21:25
say um to make decisions about what I
00:21:28
like and what I don't like and I hardly
00:21:30
ever changed my mind um so
00:21:34
um
00:21:36
I have learned from watching people
00:21:40
speak from watching people interact with
00:21:43
um people um from being active in
00:21:46
Grassroots I think life is just one big
00:21:48
Grassroots campaign by the way and and
00:21:51
honestly that's I did Grassroots stuff
00:21:54
from when I was in high school and I've
00:21:56
never stopped and to me um
00:22:01
it I just use the word a lot you
00:22:05
know I believe in causes your cause can
00:22:08
be little it can be big but if it's
00:22:11
really important and our cause at
00:22:13
Southwest uh we finally defined it uh we
00:22:17
decided that we wanted to really give
00:22:19
America the freedom to fly we wanted to
00:22:21
open up the Skies of America so that
00:22:23
people would we really we would
00:22:25
democratize the SKU and um
00:22:29
we give a ton of freedoms at Southwest
00:22:31
and I'm sort of in the freedom business
00:22:32
and um and and we do it with our
00:22:35
employees we do it with each other we we
00:22:38
do it all the all the time um I suppose
00:22:42
the defining moment for me would be that
00:22:44
her through me into I I never sought it
00:22:50
I never looked for it I I was there
00:22:52
somebody that was talking earlier today
00:22:53
and I was laughing about um how
00:22:56
sometimes you just get put into a
00:22:58
position that you don't really ever
00:23:01
want and um we were we were doing a
00:23:04
commercial one time for um a political
00:23:08
um office holder that was running for
00:23:12
reelection and um and I was her
00:23:15
secretary and and her was putting the
00:23:17
commercial together and he had all these
00:23:18
speakers that were supposed to come and
00:23:20
talk i' never been on camera I I didn't
00:23:24
even really you know I mean I knew the
00:23:26
candidate but barely I'd been in Texas
00:23:28
maybe 7 months anyway we get to the TV
00:23:32
studio and um the there was supposed to
00:23:36
be one woman and she no showed so I
00:23:39
literally was in jeans
00:23:42
pigtails I mean oh and he just said well
00:23:46
Colin you're going to have to do it and
00:23:47
he throws me in the chair I was
00:23:50
literally I was sick at my stomach a TV
00:23:52
cameras on me and I'm introduced as a
00:23:55
single mother a single Homemaker and I'm
00:23:58
I'm like oh my God so I I don't even I
00:24:02
don't I couldn't tell you what I said
00:24:04
during the show but the next day I got a
00:24:07
call from actually it was from one of it
00:24:10
was her's father-in-law and he said
00:24:13
honey cuz they all say that in Texas
00:24:15
honey he
00:24:16
said you were the only genuine person on
00:24:20
that whole damn panel and I said well
00:24:25
yeah but anyway I think I decided then
00:24:28
and there that if you just spoke from
00:24:30
the heart you'd probably be okay and um
00:24:33
probably wouldn't win any medals but you
00:24:35
know you get through life so it's great
00:24:37
job try do that
00:24:39
excellent thank
00:24:45
[Music]
00:24:47
you for more information please visit
00:24:49
knowledge. won. up.edu
00:24:53
[Music]
