AOM 2010 Montreal (Day Four – Part 2)
Hi again, and thanks for all the emails, as you know it’s one of my favourite subjects. Getting back to the conference though, I attended a standout standing-room only session. ‘Do The Right Thing’ and find out why! After missing out on a session that I really wanted to attend, (Positive Deviance, it seems, is a topic that fills and spills large conference rooms and I was on time – but still couldn’t hear or jump high enough to even get a glimpse of the speaker and slides over the heads of the crowds who had also missed out on getting in) I raced in early and took up a good position. It was a good move because, long before the presentation started, there wasn’t even standing room.
The session was about Southwest Airlines and presented by its ex CEO James F Parker (I was in North America; you have to use the middle initial). Now he is a one commanding speaker.
He started by giving the facts and figures about Southwest Airlines. It’s big, it’s the most successful, passengers and staff love it, it has a cult following and it makes a profit (very, very rare in the airline industry). It has a reputation for being cheap and cheerful (with emphasis on the cheerful), and loyalty to it is astounding. Ok, I knew all that and clearly, so did the other few hundred people who turned up to listen, or we wouldn’t have been there.
He started with a very simple statement, “I love Southwest and would never do anything to hurt it, but I am going to give you the secret to its success”. There was an intake of breath in the audience and then an anticipation-filled silence. He continued. “You see, you won’t believe me and even if you do, you won’t do anything about it”. Now that was a gutsy statement!
And so the story unfolded, it was entertaining and informative and the key secret was Look After Your Staff First and the Rest Will Follow.
Now there was plenty of explanation about that and some guiding principles which he provided (these are the ones they actually use):
- Do The Right Thing (no ifs and or buts)
- If you are going to make a mistake, make it in favour of the client
Yep, that’s it, the whole list. He has written a book called Do The Right Thing – which I have now read and digested – if you’d like a copy please let me know as I am ordering a bunch.
To reinforce the above James told the moving story of 9/11 from his perspective as CEO.
As soon as they knew that there was a crisis they also knew that people would become scared to fly – so they immediately issued a statement that all and every ticket would be completely refunded without question to anyone wanting that. This single decision could have taken the airline to the wall. But instead of people chasing refunds, there were lots of people who sent in cheques(!), saying that the airline had stood by them so they’d stand by it – wow! Employees went the extra mile and there were myriad examples of employees driving stranded passengers in their own cars, providing care and assistance, etc. There were lots and lots of stories but in the end Southwest made a profit, no staff were stood down or took a pay cut and not one single flight was cancelled once the US allowed commercial flights to resume.
Some time after 9/11, James was speaking at a conference and was telling this story and a crusty old dude stood up and said, “This might all be bull sh*t, I notice there is a table of people from Southwest over there” . “You”, he said pointing to a woman at the table, “What is it about Southwest that makes it successful?”. She reportedly stood up and without missing a beat said, “Well, I love working for Southwest because it loves me back”.
I’ll stop there, but the session then went on with several people providing Southwest stories and analysing aspects of why it’s successful. I paid full attention to every word – and there is a wealth of stuff there that I’ll bring to you in tomorrow’s final update of the conference.
Oh, this one wasn’t about PM but it was timed, I heard – something positive!
Best regards, Diane