The Southwest Airlines Way

[canyonblue]

This book is the replacement for "Nuts!" as far as I am concerned. Just bought it and can't put it down. A must read for any Poolie, hopeful and any one who can't understand why we LUV this airline.

http://btobsearch.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?endeca=1&btob=Y&ean=9780071396837

 

[skirt]

I have to agree, it is an excellent book. Another book that talks about the "power of people" is called:

Hidden Values: How Ordinary People do Extraordinary Things, by Prof. Charles O'Reilly and Prof. Jeffrey Pfeffer.

Their book also talks about Southwest, but can be applied to any airline. In fact, both professors are prolific writers and follow the airline industry as a hobby. They teach the subject at Stanford, and use Southwest and JetBlue as examples.

I have spoken to both of them at length about airline culture, and how to fix United. They both think it will be quite difficult. All I can say, is I hope both Southwest and JetBlue can serve as good cultural examples for United, and maybe someday management will figure it out. The United Shuttle (what I used to fly) was getting close in the culture department (it was a blast "competing" against Southwest), but unfortunately the product was not quite well executed as too many flights were scheduled in an out of SFO during the foggy season. Anyway, the Brandies/Harvard professor Jody Hofer Gittel who wrote "The Southwest Way" included the United Shuttle and JetBlue in her book, so it is good for United and JetBlue pilots to read as well as Southwest pilots.

Skirt
the ordinary nerd

 

[singlespeed]

Canyonblue and Skirt

I hope to a be poolie, I am in the middle of Nuts thanks to Chase and looks like I have one in the wings waiting.

Thanks for the info and please keep more coming.

Singlespeed

 

[Swerpipe]

A Passage to Southwest

I highly recommend The Southwest Airlines Way and also A passage to Southwest by Lamar Muse. The first SWA CEO. Most people think of Herb as Mr. Southwest but the fact is that Mr. Muse was as much Mr. SWA as Herb later became. He was a financial and advertising genious and probably the perfect person to lead Southwest at that time. Do you know who came up with LUV, well that was Lamar...

 

[CoopDog]

Good sales pitch

Well, you guys convinced me. I stopped by and bought a copy of "The Southwest Airlines Way" this afternoon. I read "Nuts" a few years ago, and I'm looking forward to learning more about this company.

Only bad news is that I finally had to pick up some cheepo read'n glasses too. The old eye-sight just ain't what it used to be.....guess I been staring at Flightinfo a little too long.

It's true....life really does begin at 40. Sometimes you just can't see it!

 

[JayhawkDude]

And I thought it was those other websites I was looking at that was making me blind!

 

[boeingdriver213]

Those "other" websites would be considered a contributing factor!