Colleen Barrett, President, Southwest Airlines
Soft-spoken Barrett sees the 33K Southwest employees as "family". She has a small team working for her whose task is to keep up with the day-to-day of family needs: celebrating with those with a new child, caring for those with illness or loss. She has penpals across the company, some of more than 25 years. She writes cards copiously: "I keep Hallmark in business".
The Southwest Way is a people-centred philosophy of warrior spirit, humility, sense of humour. They interview in depth to establish that the candidate buys in to the "golden rule" (treat others as you would like to be treated); they hire for attitude, not skills.
Barrett relates an incident when -- as a joke -- HR people came to a group of interviewing pilots, to explain that on Fridays, Southwest only interviews those wearing shorts and Hawaiian shirts. The pilots were dressed in their best suits. HR pointed out the Southwest logo store in the building, and suggested that the pilots purchase shorts and shirts there. Some did. Three pilots walked straight out: "With that sense of humour lacking, we wouldn't have wanted them to join the Southwest family, anyway", said Barrett.
Southwest puts first employee, then customers, then shareholders. Barrett argues that happy employees do a better job of customer service, which is key to eventual shareholder value. The company is consistently voted among the Best Places to Work and is one of the few profitable airlines. Motivated employees, fanatical customers -- good business puts people first?