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June 26, 2007
DMreview: Three Little Cores
When Herb Kelleher was asked how long it would take to train his successor, he replied, "About five minutes," which is about the length of time it would take to explain the importance of making decisions at Southwest based on the core concept of being the lowest-cost provider. Is it really that simple? Why not fire the flight attendants and maintenance personnel? This would certainly lower the costs of doing business. However, in the long term this would increase the costs of the business and force Southwest to increase prices. This is an oversimplification of an obviously successful business model, but think about the message this sends to the employees.
Posted by Todd at 12:24 AM