Who is herb kelleher southwest airlines

They formed a colorful Texas troika of airline chiefs, with Kelleher known for his humor, Crandall for his acerbic personality and confrontations with union leaders, and Bethune for his penchant for profanity-laced anecdotes.

Kelleher developed a loyal following at Southwest because he gave his workforce broad latitude and personal attention. He and Barrett routinely sent notes to mark events such as birthdays, marriages or deaths. A leather-clad Kelleher once rode a Harley-Davidson motorcycle to an employee party. He occasionally helped baggage handlers load luggage on planes, and attendants were encouraged to tell jokes, sing and create games. Kelleher focused on expenses at every level, shunning onboard meals, offering only single-class cabins and setting a goal of keeping jets on the ground for only 20 minutes between flights.

A U. JetBlue Airways Corp. Kelleher credited late-night talks with his mother for helping develop his belief that each person carries the same value, without regard to social standing. It encourages people to challenge the status quo, question deeply-held assumptions and not accept things at face value.

Many years ago, when Southwest had closets on the airplanes, Herb tried to hang a coat up in the flight attendants' closet. The flight attendant, not knowing who Herb was, asked him to move it.

When Herb tried to explain that it was okay and he was Southwest's chairman, the flight attendant replied, "Yes, and I am the King of Siam.

Anyone who has ever competed against or worked with Herb Kelleher knows he could be tough. How do you run an on-time airline with strict accountability and superior performance if you're not tough?

But Herb felt there is a difference between being tough and being mean. Mean is dehumanizing, shaming and belittling.

Mean creates a fear-based culture and sucks the life out of people. In Herb underwent radiation treatment for prostate cancer. It didn't slow him down though; he worked right through the treatments. In light-hearted Kelleher fashion, he said, "I wish it was called the M. Andersen Acne Center or the M. Andersen Hemorrhoid Center, but it isn't. On a conference call with Wall Street's financial community, one of the analysts asked Herb if the radiation treatments impaired his ability to run the company in any way.

Herb responded, "No, but I am very concerned about my uneven tan line! Herb even brought his sense of humor to the hospital and tested his doctors. They went berserk. Put that out! If you want a smoker to put out cigarettes, you ought to have ashtrays. You want me to put it out on the floor? Herb believed that you didn't have to be boring to be successful. To show you how much fun he had being the CEO of Southwest Airlines, check out these must-see video clips:. If you want to know what someone truly values watch the way they spend their money and their time.

During the filming of a customer service video, Tom Peters asked Herb what advice he would give other executives. Herb veraciously devoured books on war history. He was enamored with the battle strategies of great military leaders. And it's not just because the game plans and tactics of famous generals make for good after-dinner conversation over a glass of Wild Turkey.

It is because Herb was continually thinking about how he could apply the things he learned from the great warriors in the current scenarios Southwest faced. I've never gotten tired of fighting. For the past 35 years, my job has been helping Southwest Airlines get through one battle after another.

Three incumbent carriers—Braniff, Continental, and Texas International—drug Herb through three and a half years of litigation and 42 judicial and legal proceedings, including one in the U. Supreme Court before Southwest really got off the ground. Since that time, whenever Southwest has been under attack from a competitor the employees have always rallied — often decked out in camouflage and fatigues.

When Braniff tried to drive Southwest out of business in a fare war, Herb offered a fifth of liquor to anyone who bought a full-fare Southwest ticket. The tactic appealed to business travelers with expense accounts who could buy a ticket on their company's dime and take home the booze. For a short period, Southwest became the biggest liquor distributor in Texas. Herb didn't think much of traditional strategic planning. His famous line was, "We have a strategic plan.

It's called doing things. His view was that if you have a strategic plan that has been approved by the board and a window of opportunity opens in the market, you must be able to spring into action. If you have to create a new plan, polish it up for board approval, run it up to the board and let them debate it for several days or weeks before acting, the opportunity may be gone.

Herb preferred "future scenario generation" which means considering all of the possible, ever-changing scenarios that could happen and being prepared for each one. If number one happens we do this; if number two happens we do that, and so on. This is another way of saying, "No matter how good things are, you can never get cocky and overspend. And, from a marketing perspective, it is. But financially, Southwest may be one of the most conservative airlines in the business.

Kelleher, however, convinced them to persevere. At length Southwest Airlines won the legal battles; the company took to the skies on June 18, Headquartered out of Love Field in Dallas, Southwest initially had only four planes and fewer than 70 employees. As the company remained short of operating funds, executives soon had to decide between selling off one of the planes or laying off employees. They sold the plane and set a precedent: in over 30 years Southwest never had an involuntary furlough.

The next big battle came in when the powerful Texas Congressman Jim Wright sponsored a law that prohibited airlines flying out of Love Field from servicing any states other than those which bordered Texas—New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

Instead of limiting Southwest, however, the new law turned out to be the company's big break. Thus, businesspeople on quick trips to neighboring states preferred flying out of Love Field.

Southwest carved out a niche, soon winning a solid reputation for its convenient, low-cost commuter service. Kelleher was eventually asked to take on increasing responsibilities at Southwest; he became the company's chairman, CEO, and president in , even though he had little executive experience.

Kelleher told BusinessWeek Online how he had prepared for his new job: "I learned it by doing it. I was scared to death when I was summoned off the bench to run Southwest Airlines on a permanent basis.

I stayed up all night familiarizing myself with its problems: The air-traffic controllers were on strike. We had six new airplanes coming in. An industry analyst downgraded the stock when I moved in because he said I was a lawyer—and lawyers couldn't run anything" December 22, Kelleher would prove any and all doubters wrong.

While airlines like Braniff folded and the entire industry struggled, Southwest maintained steady growth. With Kelleher at the helm Southwest became the fourth-largest U. It was the only U. In Southwest operated 2, flights a day to 60 airports in 30 states and employed 33, people. Southwest remained profitable in large part because of Kelleher's legendary cost controls.

Early on, the company cross-trained employees to perform many tasks. They were able to reduce aircraft turnaround time—the time needed to discharge passengers, clean the cabin, refuel, and take off with a new set of travelers—from 55 minutes to 15, with ramp agents, flight attendants, and even pilots pitching in where needed to get the aircraft ready.

Rapid turnaround was crucial when Southwest had only three airplanes, but the company kept turnaround low even as the size of the fleet grew to Those airplanes aren't making any money while they're sitting on the ground" October 26, The low-cost, no-frills strategy permeated every decision at the company.

Southwest avoided large, congested airports in order to reduce flight delays. The company did not offer inflight meals or reserved seating, and it was the first to introduce ticketless travel.

It purchased only Boeing airplanes, so that maintenance would be simplified. Kelleher obsessively monitored key indicators like cost per available seat-mile to make sure that Southwest always operated below the industry average. In fact, under Kelleher Southwest's unit costs ran 30 percent below most of its competitors.

Like Kelleher, Southwest Airlines had a reputation for hard work and high spirits. I was a newly minted editor at HBR , fresh out of business school, and I was attending a big, prestigious and, to be honest, rather boring conference on corporate strategy in New York City.

After a morning of tedious three-ring-binder presentations from executives, and stuffy lectures by professors, it was time for the keynote speaker.

Herb walked to the podium, lit a cigarette, poured a glass of Wild Turkey bourbon, and delivered what remains the most hilarious, baudy, utterly brilliant CEO speech I have ever heard. When I spent a little time with him after the talk, I realized immediately that I was in the presence of leadership greatness — an entrepreneur who was as smart as he was sassy, as competitive as he was human, as consequential as he was approachable. Herb Kelleher died last week at the age of 87 , and with him went a true business original.

As I take stock of his life and legacy, what strikes me is how much all of us can learn from what he created and how he led—that you can create vast economic value based on genuine and generous human values, why what you hope to achieve in the marketplace must be reflected in what you build in the workplace, how in an age of disruption and transformation, simplicity and consistency matter most.

In more than 45 years, in an industry famous for red ink and high-profile bankruptcies, Southwest has never had a money-losing year — ever.