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Herb Kelleher: Manage in Good Times So You'll Do Well in the Bad Times (2006)

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Re: Herb Kelleher: Manage in Good Times So You'll Do Well in the Bad Times (2006)

#11

Post by raincom »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #7
gkanai wrote: post #2

Notably, Kelleher stepped down from the CEO role at Southwest in 2001. So this crazy debacle of 2022 is largely a result of management that has not followed Kelleher's guidance.

lol, no Herb built up quite a cult, and he was around on the board of directors until 2008. While Gary is a colossal prick what we're seeing is absolutely Herb's legacy. Southwest had already outgrown its reputation as Herb's scrappy little airline by the 2000s. The meltdown is due, in large part, to practices that worked well enough with 90 jets but don't scale to the largest 737 fleet in the world. That lack of aut…

Love HN for outstanding rebuttals.

Re: Herb Kelleher: Manage in Good Times So You'll Do Well in the Bad Times (2006)

#12

Post by gedy »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #7
gkanai wrote: post #2

Notably, Kelleher stepped down from the CEO role at Southwest in 2001. So this crazy debacle of 2022 is largely a result of management that has not followed Kelleher's guidance.

lol, no Herb built up quite a cult, and he was around on the board of directors until 2008. While Gary is a colossal prick what we're seeing is absolutely Herb's legacy. Southwest had already outgrown its reputation as Herb's scrappy little airline by the 2000s. The meltdown is due, in large part, to practices that worked well enough with 90 jets but don't scale to the largest 737 fleet in the world. That lack of aut…

> The meltdown is due, in large part, to practices that worked well enough with 90 jets but don't scale to the largest 737 fleet in the world.

Sounds a lot like the post IPO companies I've worked with where the leadership is still from the startup days..

Re: Herb Kelleher: Manage in Good Times So You'll Do Well in the Bad Times (2006)

#13

Post by baxtr »

etempleton wrote: post #8

Good times are for getting the house in order so things don’t go sideways in the future and creating frameworks for when things inevitably do go sideways. If you have good plans and everyone is one the same page people can fall back to standard operating procedure and not over think things or panic because they don’t know what to do. In the case of Southwest they failed to invest in critical infrastructure and probab…

What exactly happened at Southwest?

Re: Herb Kelleher: Manage in Good Times So You'll Do Well in the Bad Times (2006)

#14

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #7
gkanai wrote: post #2

Notably, Kelleher stepped down from the CEO role at Southwest in 2001. So this crazy debacle of 2022 is largely a result of management that has not followed Kelleher's guidance.

lol, no Herb built up quite a cult, and he was around on the board of directors until 2008. While Gary is a colossal prick what we're seeing is absolutely Herb's legacy. Southwest had already outgrown its reputation as Herb's scrappy little airline by the 2000s. The meltdown is due, in large part, to practices that worked well enough with 90 jets but don't scale to the largest 737 fleet in the world. That lack of aut…

> They only just integrated ticketing (with Apollo, SABRE, and Amadeus) in like 2017. Their scheduling (which is the biggest pain point right now) is still done the old-fashioned Herb way

Is this why you STILL can’t see Southwest prices and book them on Google Flights, HipMunk, Kayak, etc?

Re: Herb Kelleher: Manage in Good Times So You'll Do Well in the Bad Times (2006)

#15

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

baxtr wrote: post #13
etempleton wrote: post #8

Good times are for getting the house in order so things don’t go sideways in the future and creating frameworks for when things inevitably do go sideways. If you have good plans and everyone is one the same page people can fall back to standard operating procedure and not over think things or panic because they don’t know what to do. In the case of Southwest they failed to invest in critical infrastructure and probab…

What exactly happened at Southwest?

They canceled close to 3000 flights in the last few days, stranding hundreds of thousands of people.

Re: Herb Kelleher: Manage in Good Times So You'll Do Well in the Bad Times (2006)

#16

Post by late2part »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #15
baxtr wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly happened at Southwest?

They canceled close to 3000 flights in the last few days, stranding hundreds of thousands of people.

More like 10k:

"This week, with cancellations from other major airlines ranging from none to 2%, Southwest has canceled nearly 10,000 flights as of Wednesday and warned of thousands more Thursday and Friday, according to FlightAware. "

https://apnews.com/article/business-transportation-us-depart...

Re: Herb Kelleher: Manage in Good Times So You'll Do Well in the Bad Times (2006)

#17

Post by vba616 »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #7
gkanai wrote: post #2

Notably, Kelleher stepped down from the CEO role at Southwest in 2001. So this crazy debacle of 2022 is largely a result of management that has not followed Kelleher's guidance.

lol, no Herb built up quite a cult, and he was around on the board of directors until 2008. While Gary is a colossal prick what we're seeing is absolutely Herb's legacy. Southwest had already outgrown its reputation as Herb's scrappy little airline by the 2000s. The meltdown is due, in large part, to practices that worked well enough with 90 jets but don't scale to the largest 737 fleet in the world. That lack of aut…

I don't understand. If their problem is lack of automation, I wonder why were they reportedly melting down due to the automation failing.

Superficially, I'd think that's because they were too dependent on automation.

Obviously I don't know how to run Southwest better than Herb Kelleher.

Re: Herb Kelleher: Manage in Good Times So You'll Do Well in the Bad Times (2006)

#18

Post by el_benhameen »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #7
gkanai wrote: post #2

Notably, Kelleher stepped down from the CEO role at Southwest in 2001. So this crazy debacle of 2022 is largely a result of management that has not followed Kelleher's guidance.

lol, no Herb built up quite a cult, and he was around on the board of directors until 2008. While Gary is a colossal prick what we're seeing is absolutely Herb's legacy. Southwest had already outgrown its reputation as Herb's scrappy little airline by the 2000s. The meltdown is due, in large part, to practices that worked well enough with 90 jets but don't scale to the largest 737 fleet in the world. That lack of aut…

Tech, business, and inside baseball on my preferred airline? Man, I would absolutely devour more of your writing on this, or at least any good sources you have. Any pointers?

Re: Herb Kelleher: Manage in Good Times So You'll Do Well in the Bad Times (2006)

#19

Post by listenallyall »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #14
inferiorhuman wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lol, no Herb built up quite a cult, and he was around on the board of directors until 2008. While Gary is a colossal prick what we're seeing is absolutely Herb's legacy. Southwest had already outgrown its reputation as Herb's scrappy little airline by the 2000s. The meltdown is due, in large part, to practices that worked well enough with 90 jets but don't scale to the largest 737 fleet in the world. That lack of aut…

> They only just integrated ticketing (with Apollo, SABRE, and Amadeus) in like 2017. Their scheduling (which is the biggest pain point right now) is still done the old-fashioned Herb way Is this why you STILL can’t see Southwest prices and book them on Google Flights, HipMunk, Kayak, etc?

This is a conscious decision by Southwest, it is willing to trade off the lack of exposure on the booking engines for not paying any commissions and keeping 100% of its fares as revenue.

Re: Herb Kelleher: Manage in Good Times So You'll Do Well in the Bad Times (2006)

#20

Post by listenallyall »

el_benhameen wrote: post #18
inferiorhuman wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lol, no Herb built up quite a cult, and he was around on the board of directors until 2008. While Gary is a colossal prick what we're seeing is absolutely Herb's legacy. Southwest had already outgrown its reputation as Herb's scrappy little airline by the 2000s. The meltdown is due, in large part, to practices that worked well enough with 90 jets but don't scale to the largest 737 fleet in the world. That lack of aut…

Tech, business, and inside baseball on my preferred airline? Man, I would absolutely devour more of your writing on this, or at least any good sources you have. Any pointers?

A subscription to the Wall Street Journal will provide insight into the internal workings and personalities at many major companies.
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