We 've all heard comments from Employees that this company is not what it used to be in terms of our culture and the overall feel. As you mentioned earlier, in your 30 years here you 've seen some phenomenal growth. It 's simply no longer possible to maintain that small company atmosphere that we once had, now that we have in excess 50,000 Employees. I tell people that culture and the hospitality wheel is their own responsibility. However, what ideas or thoughts do you have that we and our senior leaders can do to enhance our culture to keep it strong as an internal family?
Gary: Well Kim, and I do hear that and I heard it when I started in 1986; you know, that the culture isn 't what it used to be. I think the most important aspect of Southwest …show more content…
It is certainly unique in the airline industry, but much of that is because people care about the culture; and I 'm one of the people. Herb is one of the people; Colleen is one of the peoples, if you will. But there is a care and desire to maintain a great company with great people and generally what that leads to is effort to sustain it and in fact to improve it. But it 's something that everybody has to take accountability for. I think a lot of the burden does fall on the leadership and I accept that. And there are a lot of things that go into the culture. I think the point that I made earlier about the financial success, it’s very difficult to have a strong culture in a company if it does not perform well; if it 's not loved by Customers; if there aren’t raises available because there are no profits and in fact jobs are shrinking; it 's really hard to have a good culture. So there are a lot of things that have to go in to that to make it strong. But I think what makes Southwest, what really sets Southwest apart is that we approach our people here as family and that really is unique and that 's …show more content…
And there 's so much to be grateful for. And back to your earlier question, there is so much to look forward to. There was also a lot of work and a lot of challenges and more competition. There 's a real world out there that we’ll have to confront, but it doesn 't mean that we have to throw culture away. In fact, I believe that if we continue to invest in ourselves and work on maintaining our family that will make us stronger. So our Employees come first. I think implicit in that means that our culture is one of the most important things about Southwest Airlines and the thing I love--as you all know, I 've been here for 30 years and I’ve been at Southwest for 30 years because I love this place because of the values that we have, and that we allow people to be themselves and develop strong relationships, and then we are actually empowered to go do things that our customers love us for. And we get paid! Hey, you know, what could be better you know. So I think we have to work at it. It 's back to the teamwork and we 're all people. There will be conflict and I think one of the testaments to the strength of our culture is how we work through that conflict and just to make sure that we always-- it 's kind of like a marriage. Yes, you can have an argument; you can have a disagreement but you want to stay married. I do. 40 years for me this
Gary: Well Kim, and I do hear that and I heard it when I started in 1986; you know, that the culture isn 't what it used to be. I think the most important aspect of Southwest …show more content…
It is certainly unique in the airline industry, but much of that is because people care about the culture; and I 'm one of the people. Herb is one of the people; Colleen is one of the peoples, if you will. But there is a care and desire to maintain a great company with great people and generally what that leads to is effort to sustain it and in fact to improve it. But it 's something that everybody has to take accountability for. I think a lot of the burden does fall on the leadership and I accept that. And there are a lot of things that go into the culture. I think the point that I made earlier about the financial success, it’s very difficult to have a strong culture in a company if it does not perform well; if it 's not loved by Customers; if there aren’t raises available because there are no profits and in fact jobs are shrinking; it 's really hard to have a good culture. So there are a lot of things that have to go in to that to make it strong. But I think what makes Southwest, what really sets Southwest apart is that we approach our people here as family and that really is unique and that 's …show more content…
And there 's so much to be grateful for. And back to your earlier question, there is so much to look forward to. There was also a lot of work and a lot of challenges and more competition. There 's a real world out there that we’ll have to confront, but it doesn 't mean that we have to throw culture away. In fact, I believe that if we continue to invest in ourselves and work on maintaining our family that will make us stronger. So our Employees come first. I think implicit in that means that our culture is one of the most important things about Southwest Airlines and the thing I love--as you all know, I 've been here for 30 years and I’ve been at Southwest for 30 years because I love this place because of the values that we have, and that we allow people to be themselves and develop strong relationships, and then we are actually empowered to go do things that our customers love us for. And we get paid! Hey, you know, what could be better you know. So I think we have to work at it. It 's back to the teamwork and we 're all people. There will be conflict and I think one of the testaments to the strength of our culture is how we work through that conflict and just to make sure that we always-- it 's kind of like a marriage. Yes, you can have an argument; you can have a disagreement but you want to stay married. I do. 40 years for me this