do the right thing: how dedicated employees create loyal

DOTHE

RIGHTTHING

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DOTHE

RIGHTTHING

How Dedicated Employees Create Loyal

Customers and Large Profits

JAMES F. PARKER

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Parker, James F. (James Francis), 1947-

Do the right thing : how dedicated employees create loyal customers and large profits /James F. Parker.

p. cm.ISBN-13: 978-0-13-234334-3 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Southwest Airlines Co.—

Management. 2. Airlines—United States—Management 3. Customer relations—UnitedStates. 4. Customer services—United States. I. Title.

HE9803.S68P37 2008387.7068’3—dc22

2007018393

Editor: Yoram (Jerry) Wind

Publishing as Prentice Hall

Prentice Hall offers excellent discounts on this book when ordered in quanti-

To my mom, who taught me, “You’ll catch moreflies with honey than with vinegar.”

And to my dad, who sat outside on the steps withthe black soldiers who were not allowed to eatat the inside lunch counter during the long bus

ride home to Texas after World War II.

Thanks for teaching me todo the right thing.

vii

Contents

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 1 Stumbling into the Business World . . . 5

Chapter 2 9/11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Chapter 3 The Question Was Answered… . . . . . 17

Chapter 4 …But I Don’t Want to Be aCorporate Bureaucrat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Chapter 5 Getting Off the Ground . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Chapter 6 The Ten-Minute Turnaround . . . . . . . 39

Chapter 7 The Great Texas Whiskey War . . . . . . 47

Chapter 8 I Just Couldn’t Resist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Chapter 9 Some of the Obvious ThingsI Learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Chapter 10 We’re in What Kind of Business? . . . 65

Chapter 11 With a Little Help from OurCompetitors… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Chapter 12 Leaders Are Everywhere . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Chapter 13 Great Organizations Have GreatLeaders at Every Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Chapter 14 In Case You Didn’t Get It… GreatOrganizations Have Great Leadersat Every Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Chapter 15 Great Leaders Make the PeopleAround Them Better . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Chapter 16 People Recognize a Phony . . . . . . . . . . 97

Chapter 17 People Follow a LeaderThey Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Chapter 18 Who Wants the “Best” People? . . . . 105

Chapter 19 Looking for the Right People . . . . . . 109

Chapter 20 Interview for Attitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Chapter 21 Attitudes Also Matter at30,000 Feet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Chapter 22 Everybody Remembers TheirInterview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Chapter 23 Every Job Affects Others . . . . . . . . . . 131

Chapter 24 People Need to Understand TheirMission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Chapter 25 Shared Goals, Shared Knowledge,and Mutual Respect = A SharedMission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Chapter 26 Do People Think Like Employeesor Owners? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Chapter 27 Making Employees Owners . . . . . . . 155

Chapter 28 A Sense of Ownership . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Chapter 29 Make Work Fun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

viii Do the Right Thing

Chapter 30 Build a Customer ServiceCulture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Chapter 31 Everything He Did Was So I CouldCome to Work… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Chapter 32 Fun Can Have a Purpose . . . . . . . . . . 181

Chapter 33 Celebrate Success andAchievement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Chapter 34 Creating Entrepreneurs . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Chapter 35 Encourage UnconventionalThinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Chapter 36 Suggestion Boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Chapter 37 Many Roads Lead to thePromised Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Chapter 38 Define the Right Goals and GivePeople Room to Succeed . . . . . . . . . . 215

Chapter 39 The Two-Minute Drill . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Chapter 40 Give People Something to BelieveIn—Define a Grand Mission . . . . . . . 225

Chapter 41 Create a Culture in Which PeopleWant to Do the Right Things . . . . . . 229

Chapter 42 It’s a Family Affair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Chapter 43 The Tactics of Success May Vary,but the Principles Are Constant . . . . 239

Chapter 44 Be Yourself and Have Some Fun . . . 247

Chapter 45 It’s a Round World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

ixContents

Acknowledgments

When people ask me what I am doing thesedays, since I retired as CEO of SouthwestAirlines, I like to tell them that I am trying to

avoid work, and it is a full-time job. I guess writing abook should qualify as work, but thanks to the out-standing publishing team at Pearson Education, it wasa labor of joy.

I want to express my sincere appreciation to SeniorEditor Jennifer Simon for her role in shepherding thisfirst time author through the labyrinthine process ofturning thoughts and stories into a book, toDevelopment Editor Russ Hall for helping me find myown voice as an author, to Associate Publisher AmyNeidlinger for her insightful suggestions, and to AnneGoebel and Krista Hansing for their prompt and bene-ficial refinements of the manuscript. Special thanks goto Publisher Tim Moore, for believing that I had some-thing worthwhile to say, and to author BarryRosenberg, who initially suggested that I might have abook in me.

The book would not have been possible without theassistance of my longtime executive assistant, MarilynStrickland, who understands the marvels of moderntechnology better than I ever will. Thanks for the week-ends and evenings you spent on this project, Marilyn.Thanks also to the two good friends who reviewed themanuscript and shared their insights and comments.

Of course, I must also thank the people of SouthwestAirlines, who started with a dream and turned it into anairline that changed the world. Thanks for being myinspiration, and for allowing me to be part of your teamfor 25 wonderful years.

My greatest debt of gratitude goes to my wife andfriend, Pat. Thank you for your patience, love, andstrength—and for our two wonderful children, Jamesand Jennifer.

About the Author

James Parker is a lawyer by trade, having receivedboth his undergraduate and law degrees from TheUniversity of Texas. After serving as law clerk to a

federal judge and as an assistant attorney general ofTexas, Jim joined the San Antonio law firm ofOppenheimer, Rosenberg, Kelleher, and Wheatley. Asluck would have it, one of the cofounders of that lawfirm, Herb Kelleher, also cofounded a small Texas air-line called Southwest, and Jim soon stumbled into theairline industry. After serving as outside counsel forSouthwest for 7 years, Jim became General Counsel for15 years and ultimately served as Southwest Airlines’CEO for 3 years, including the period of the 9/11 terror-ist attack and its aftermath.

During Jim’s tenure as CEO, Southwest was theonly major airline to remain profitable after 9/11. Italso became the largest domestic airline in the UnitedStates in terms of passenger enplanements, and its mar-ket capitalization (the value of its outstanding stock)exceeded that of all other U.S. airlines combined.Southwest was named as the most admired airline andone of the three most admired companies in America byFortune magazine, Airline of the Year by Air TransportWorld magazine, and one of the World’s Most SociallyResponsible Companies by Global Finance magazine.Jim was also named co-CEO of the Year in 2001 by

Morningstar.com and was named to InstitutionalInvestor’s list of Best CEOs in America in 2004.

Jim’s proudest accomplishment, however, comesfrom the fact that Southwest Airlines was able to pro-tect the jobs of all of its employees, with no furloughsor pay cuts in the aftermath of 9/11, while also remain-ing profitable every year and, in fact, every quarter dur-ing his tenure as CEO. Jim is presently retired from theairline industry and serves on the board of directors ofthe successful Texas Roadhouse restaurant company.He also serves on the Advisory Council for the MITLeadership Center. This is his first book.

Most people have a passion for success and cre-ative self expression somewhere deep insidethem. They want to be part of something

meaningful, to make a contribution, and to find fulfill-ment in what they do. Sadly, these yearnings are oftenmanaged out of people in the unrelenting quest for pre-dictable mediocrity that most organizations pursue.People are seldom encouraged to be themselves, havefun, or seek fulfillment in their jobs. Instead, they arepushed to just do their jobs, meet their quotas, and notmake waves. Think outside the box? Proceed at yourown peril.

A lot of companies say their employees are theirmost important asset, but they don’t really mean it. Thetruth is, they treat employees as depreciable assets, to beused up and then discarded. This is the root cause of theculture of conflict that infects many major corporationstoday.

You can see the results in any customer service busi-ness. When you ask for help at the drug store or hard-ware store, does the person you ask groan because you

1

Introduction

interrupted his other duties, or does he cheerfully walkyou over to the proper aisle and start telling you aboutthe products you could choose? When the cable guyshows up at your house, does he really care about yourbusiness, or does he spend most of his time telling youhow lousy the cable company is and that you ought toget satellite?

The truth is that employees who love their jobs willcause customers to love their company. Employees whohate their jobs will make customers hate the company.Quite simply, people who enjoy their work do a betterjob than people who don’t. And it doesn’t necessarilyrelate to how much they are paid. From the shop floorto the executive suite, it can fairly be said that the mosthighly paid people in their professions often do theworst jobs.

The ultimate success of any organization requiresconsistently excellent performance at every level.Vibrant and successful organizations are not built on afeeling of detachment by employees. Rather, they arebuilt on a culture of engagement, in which employeesbelieve in the mission they are trying to accomplish andknow that they are contributing to its success. Peoplewho are given the room to succeed usually will.

For 25 years, I had the opportunity to be associatedwith such a vibrant and successful organization, as out-side counsel, then as General Counsel, and finally forthree years as CEO of Southwest Airlines. To be sure, Iwas always thrilled to accept the many honors that werebestowed on our company—Airline of the Year, one ofthe three most admired companies in America, co-CEOof the year, one of the world’s most socially responsible

2 Do the Right Thing

companies, and so forth. But I never deluded myselfinto thinking that I had much to do with it. I knew thehonors really belonged to our people, who showed theirdedication and spirit every day. In fact, in our writtencommunications at Southwest Airlines, we always capi-talized the E in Employees, the C in Customers, and theS in Shareholders, to help us remember why we were inbusiness. As the guardian of our corporate culture,President Colleen Barrett was certain to correct any-body who did not show the proper respect for any ofthese three constituencies in their writing or otherwise.

To those who are looking for a definitive history ofSouthwest Airlines; or a critical commentary on the bril-liant leadership of the company’s legendary cofounder,Herb Kelleher; or what the airline’s business strategyshould be from here, this is not your book. Of course,no book that touches on Southwest Airlines can avoidsome of the rich stories from its colorful past, or somemention of Herb, but this book is not really aboutSouthwest Airlines. Rather, it is about some of the les-sons I learned from working with the people ofSouthwest Airlines for more than 25 years—mostlyfrontline workers and employees, whose deeds trulydefined the culture for which Southwest Airlinesbecame famous.

The overriding lesson I learned doesn’t involve a lotof management guru buzzwords and acronyms. It is thesimplest of principles, which we learned from child-hood: When in doubt, just do the right thing. It is still apretty good rule for doing business, dealing with peo-ple, and building successful organizations.

3Introduction

Shortly after the public announcement that I wouldbecome Southwest Airlines’ new CEO in June of2001, I was on one of our planes, flying from San

Antonio to Dallas. Once we were in the air and theflight attendants had finished serving their first round ofrefreshments (yes, you can expect more than one roundon Southwest, even on a 55-minute flight), each of theflight attendants stopped by my seat to chat for amoment and wish me well.

The fellow next to me, who looked like a West Texascowboy, took note of the flight attendants’ comments.After the flight attendants resumed serving and bondingwith other customers, the cowboy looked up from hisnewspaper and asked why the flight attendants allseemed to know me so well.

“Oh, I work at Southwest,” I said. “We’re just kindof like family.”

“I figured that out,” he said. “What do you dothere?”

5

Chapter 1

Stumbling into theBusiness World

“Well, I’ve been the General Counsel for 15 years,but I just got a promotion.”

Now the cowboy curiously looked me over. “You’rethat guy whose picture was in the paper.”

“Yeah, I’m afraid it was in so many papers that myson and daughter want to know if they’ll ever be able topick up a newspaper without seeing a story about theirfather in it.”

As I chatted with the cowboy, he filled me in onsome of his experiences flying Southwest Airlines. Itturned out that he was actually a lawyer from Amarillowho had been flying Southwest for all of the years it hadbeen serving that city. He told me how Southwest hadrevolutionized his law practice. Suddenly, Amarillo wasno longer just an isolated energy and farming town inthe Texas Panhandle. He could practice law anywherein Texas now. He could appear in court in Dallas in themorning, meet a client for lunch in Houston, and attenda State Bar function in Austin in the afternoon—andstill get home to sleep in his own bed that night. Besides,he said, flying Southwest was fun. The flights were usu-ally on time, the service was great, the planes wereclean, and, best of all, the employees always seemedhappy and cheerful. He hated it when he had to flysomeplace Southwest didn’t go.

Needless to say, this was all music to my ears, and Itook in every word of it. The flight seemed all too shortas we made a typical Southwest landing (touch theground, hit the brakes, push up the thrust reverser, andget to the gate early). As the passengers stepped into theaisle and began to gather their belongings, the cowboy


reached into the overhead bin and pulled out hisStetson. He turned to me with a look reflecting an inten-tion to give me some serious advice, and he did.

“You’ve got a hell of a good airline here,” he said.“Don’t screw it up.”

It was a fair comment. As Southwest won customersatisfaction awards time after time, while making con-sistent profits, researchers and competitors wonderedhow we did it. People had fun working at Southwest yetworked as hard and efficiently as any group of employ-ees anywhere. Customers loved the airline, and share-holders appreciated the consistent profits. It’s like thecompany had some “secret sauce” that no other com-pany possessed.

Perhaps there is a grain of truth there. While it maybe no secret, there are elements of corporate culture Ibelieve in that are less than obvious. There is no hardformula or mystic process, but there is an honest, no-nonsense way of encouraging leadership up and downthe ranks, of respecting each other and sharing humaninterests, and of hiring and nurturing that leads to akind of corporate DNA many businesses would like topossess. There is no single pat (or secret) answer, but I’llbe glad to share some of the aspects with you.

As a matter of fact, I’ll try to tell you the whole darnstory, so you might as well grab your favorite refresh-ment and settle in. As you will see, refreshments do playa role in the history of Southwest Airlines. In fact, leg-end has it that the idea for Southwest was hatched on acocktail napkin. Our story will show that there is oftensome serendipity and good fortune to the way certain

7Stumbling into the Business World

people handle a crisis or adversity, and some folks man-age to do it with a smile. While there is no single for-mula for success, the goal of this book is to share a fewexperiences that might be useful, or at least interesting,for people at all levels of any organization.

So here goes. Everything I’m about to tell you ispretty much true.


255

I n d e x

ATA Airlines, 204attitude, importance of,

109-114. See alsocorporate culture

in hiring process for pilots(Southwest Airlines),121-126

in interviewing job candidates, 115-119

awards programs, 187-188, 230

BBarrett, Colleen, 3, 12, 18,

30, 252benefits package. See

compensationBethune, Gordon, 67Boeing 737, 56brand value, 71-72Braniff

bankruptcy of, 52competition with Southwest

Airlines, 39, 47origins of Southwest

Airlines and, 35-38price wars with Southwest

Airlines, 47-52

AAckerman, Debby, 177Air California, 201Airline Deregulation Act

of 1978, 30, 53airline industry

as commodity business, 65-69

deregulation, 30, 53economic impact of

September 11 terroristattacks, 17-28

history of, 9-11Southwest Airlines, origins

of, 33-38ticketless travel, history of,

199-205Ambrose, Stephen, 103America West, 26American Airlines, 200

corporate culture, 139-140,144-145

interrelationships of jobfunctions, 135-141

Ancona, Deborah, 89appreciation of good work,

187-188

256 Index

Bullington, J. D., 252bureaucracy, 29-30, 189-190Bush, George H. W., 76Bush, George W., 76business ethics. See ethicsbusiness model for Southwest

Airlines, 65-69

CCEOs, public perception of,

73-79Civil Aeronautics Board,

33, 36coaching analogy (leadership),

219-223commodity business, airline

industry as, 65-69compensation

role in hiring, 111-114stock options, 155-162

competitive advantage ofSouthwest Airlines,71-72

Continental Airlines, 67, 200Continental Lite, 200corporate culture. See also

attitude; missionstatements

customer service culture,building, 173-175

ethics in, 229-232inclusion of employees’

families in, 233-238Southwest Airlines versus

American Airlines, 139-140, 144-145

corporate missioncommitment to, 143-149

American Airlines example, 135-141

employee ownership of,151-154

leadership and, 79-81creative thinking,

encouraging, 197-208culture. See corporate culturecustomer satisfaction

as measure of success, 211in Southwest Airlines, 5, 8

customer serviceappreciation for good work,

187-188Dell example, 215-218principles versus tactics,

239-245Round World Theory,

251-254customer service business,

Southwest Airlines as,65-69


customers (of SouthwestAirlines), responseafter September 11terrorist attacks, 23-25

DD-Day leadership analogy,

83-88debt level of Southwest

Airlines, 61-62

257Index

decisions, as exercise of judgement, 209-214

dedication. See pride ofemployees

Dell example, measuring success, 215-218

Dell, Michael, 215-218Delta, 200Denison, John, 185, 203deregulation, 30, 53distributed leadership, 89-91Dubinsky, Rick, 160

Eeconomic impact of

September 11 terrorist attacks, 17-28

efficiency of SouthwestAirlines, 39-46, 57

Eisenhower, Dwight, 84-85,101-103

employee recognition programs, 187-188

employees. See also employees(of SouthwestAirlines); employees(of United Airlines)


encouraging creative thinking, 197-208

enjoyment of work, 169-172

exercising judgement of,209-214

families of, inclusion incompany culture, 233-238

Round World Theory, 251-254

sense of ownership in company, 163-168

employees (of SouthwestAirlines)

enjoyment of work, purposebehind, 181-185

hiring practices, 106, 109-114

for pilots, 121-126importance of, 3interrelationships of job

functions, 131-133lawyer hiring example,

177-180ownership of company,

155-157pride in their work,

151-154recognition for work,

187-188response after September 11

terrorist attacks, 25-28teamwork and efficiency of,

40-46thinking like entrepreneurs,

189-195employees (of United

Airlines), ownershipof company, 157-162

enjoyment of work, 169-172attaining leadership,

247-249purpose behind, 181-185

258 Index

Enron Corporation, 75-78entrepreneurs, thinking like,

189-195ethics, in corporate culture,

229-232expectations, conveying

during job interview,127-130

experience, role in hiring,110-111

Ffamilies of employees,

inclusion in companyculture, 233-238

fare structure changes atSouthwest Airlines,47-52

Fastow, Andrew, 77Financial Accounting

Standards Board, 229flight, history of, 9-11Franklin, Bill, 40-42front line leadership,

importance of, 80-81,89-91

Frontier Airlines, 201fun. See enjoyment of work

G–HGates, Bill, 74Gittell, Jody Hoffer, 138,

143, 149goals. See measuring successGolden Rule, 251-254Golden, Mike, 202-205Goodwin, Jim, 162

Halloween celebrations atSouthwest Airlines,183-185

Hart, G. J., 243Health South, 78hiring practices, 105-107

interviewing job candidates,115-119

expectations conveyedduring, 127-130

lawyer hiring example, 177-180

at Southwest Airlines, 109-114

for pilots, 121-126history

of airline industry, 9-11of Southwest Airlines,

33-38of ticketless travel, 199-205

Hitler, Adolph, 84, 87-88Howdy’s, 181, 183hub-and-spoke route system,

58-60Huntsman, Jon, 232

I–Jinterrelationships of job

functions, 131-133,143-149

American Airlines example,135-141

interviewing job candidates,115-119

expectations conveyed during, 127-130

JetBlue Airlines, 203

259Index

job functions, interrelation-ships of, 131-133,143-149


job interviews. See interview-ing job candidates

jobs, missions versus, 225judgment, exercising, 209-214

K–LKelleher, Herb, 3, 22, 27,

30-35, 54, 74, 204King, Martin Luther, 180King, Rollin, 34-35Knight, Bobby, 220Kozlowski, Dennis, 78Kraft, Bob, 167Krzyzewski, Mike, 220

Lasorda, Tommy, 93lawyer hiring example,

177-180Lay, Ken, 76-77leadership

attaining, 247-249avoiding phoniness in,

97-99coaching analogy, 219-223definition of, 222distributed leadership,

89-91Eisenhower example,

101-103importance of, 73-81qualities of, 93-96World War II analogy,

83-88

litigation, in origins ofSouthwest Airlines,35-38

MMalone, Tom, 213McCartney, Scott, 143, 145measuring success, 209-214

Dell example, 215-218Midway Airlines, 19, 201Miller, Wilbur K., 38mission statements, 225-227.

See also corporatemission

missions, jobs versus, 225Montgomery, Bob, 195Morris Air, 203Muse, Lamar, 37, 51

N–ONeel, Debbie, 177Neeleman, David, 203New England Patriots, 167Normandy invasion leader-

ship analogy, 83-88Northwest Airlines, 200

on time performance, asmeasure of success, 211

operational excellence of Southwest Airlines, 62

Oppenheimer, David, 177Oppenheimer, Rosenberg,

Kelleher & Wheatleylaw firm, 31, 177

organizational culture. Seecorporate culture

260 Index

origins. See historyOrtiz, Steve, 234-235, 243ownership

of corporate mission, 151-154

by employeesSouthwest Airlines,

155-157United Airlines, 157-162

employees’ sense of, 163-168

Ozark Airlines, 201, 253

Pparties at work, purpose of,

181-185past conduct, questions

about during jobinterviews, 116

people. See also employeesenjoyment of work,


hiring practices, 105-107at Southwest Airlines,

109-114interviewing job

candidates, 115-119,127-130

pride in their work, 151-154

performance, interrelation-ships of job functions, 131-133,143-149


phoniness in leadership,avoiding, 97-99

Piedmont Airlines, 201pilots, hiring process at

Southwest Airlines,121-126

point-to-point route system,58-60

price, as part of value, 71-72price wars, Southwest Airlines

versus Braniff, 47-52pride of employees, 151-154principles, tactics versus, 233,

239-245profit-sharing plans, 155-156profitability, as measure of

success, 210PSA (California intrastate

airline), 34, 201

Q–Rqualities of leadership, 93-96quality, as part of value,

71-72

Ramirez, Pete, 32recognition for good work,

187-188relational coordination, 139,

143, 149respect, in leadership, 95-99Ricks, Ron, 182, 185Rommel, Erwin, 88Roosevelt, Franklin D., 84Roosevelt, Theodore Jr., 86Round World Theory,

251-254

261Index

route systems, hub-and-spokeversus point-to-point,58-60

rules, ethics and, 229-230Rundstedt, Karl R. G. von, 88Ruppel, Jim, 18, 187

Ssafety record, as measure of

success, 211salary. See compensationSarbanes-Oxley Act, 229September 11 terrorist

attacks, 9-15economic impact of, 17-28

shareholders (of SouthwestAirlines), responseafter September 11terrorist attacks, 25

silo mentality, 209simplicity of Southwest

Airlines, 60-61Skilling, Jeff, 77Southwest Airlines. See also

employees (ofSouthwest Airlines)

Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, effect of, 30

awards of, 230brand value, 71-72business model, 65-69corporate culture, American

Airlines culture versus,139-140, 144-145

customer satisfaction, 5, 8debt level of, 61-62

economic impact ofSeptember 11 terroristattacks, 17-28

efficiency and teamwork of,39-46, 57

employee ownership, 155-157

employees’ sense of ownership, 166-168

encouraging creative thinking, 199-205

enjoyment of work, purposebehind, 181-185

ethics of, 229exercising judgment,

212-214fare structure changes,

47-52hiring practices, 109-114

lawyer hiring example,177-180

for pilots, 121-126honors for, 2inclusion of employees’

families in companyculture, 236-238

keys to success, 55-63mission statement, 225-227operational excellence

of, 62origins of, 33-38people, importance of, 3point-to-point route system,

58-60principles versus tactics,

244-245Round World Theory,

251-254

262 Index

during September 11 terrorist attacks, 11-15

simplicity of, 60-61The Southwest Airlines Way

(Gittell), 138Spears, Dave, 191-195sports analogy (leadership),

219-223stability in business, 29-30stock options, 155-162success

measuring, 209-214Dell example, 215-218

of Southwest Airlines, keysto, 55-63

suggestion boxes, 207-208Summitt, Pat, 220

Ttactics, principles versus, 233,

239-245Taylor, Kent, 233, 242-243teamwork

importance of, 143-149sense of ownership and,

163-168of Southwest Airlines,

39-46, 57terrorist attacks on

September 11, 2001,9-15

economic impact of, 17-28Texas Aeronautics

Commission, 35Texas International Airlines

competition with SouthwestAirlines, 39, 47

conviction for antitrust violations, 52

origins of SouthwestAirlines and, 33-38

Texas Roadhouse, 233-236principles versus tactics,

239-244The Three Amigos (film), 185ticketless travel, history of,

199-205Ticketmaster, 180trust, in leadership, 95-103TWA, 200two-minute drill analogy

(leadership), 219-223Tyco, 78

U–Vunconventional thinking,

encouraging, 197-208United Airlines, 200

employee ownership, 157-162

United Shuttle, 200US Airways, 161, 200

value, as price and qualitycombination, 71-72

The Victors—Eisenhower andHis Boys: The Men ofWorld War II(Ambrose), 103

von Luck, Hans, 88

W–ZWalton, Sam, 75Welch, Jack, 74Western Airlines, 201

263Index

whistleblowerprotections, 229

Williams, Ted, 93Wilson, Charles E., 30wind tunnels, invention of, 10Winners Never Cheat

(Huntsman), 232Woodruff, Paul, 230, 232work

enjoyment of, 169-172attaining leadership,


recognition for, 187-188World War II leadership

analogy, 83-88Worldcom, 78Wright, Orville and Wilbur, 9

do the right thing: how dedicated employees create loyal

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