Costco Connection - September 2007

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Southwest Airlines president Colleen Barrett, comfortable in any part of a plane.

SOU TH WEST AIRLINES

Flyingoffintothesunset

An airline icon plans to slow down

By Steve Fisher

IN THE AIRLINE INDUSTRY TODAY, most corporate offices seem to have a revolving door for senior management. Southwest Airlines, on the other hand, has boasted a stable leadership team for the majority of its three-plus decades. So it’s major news when two of the company’s top triumvirate decide it’s time to come in for a landing.

One of them is Herb Kelleher, a Southwest co-founder and, until recently, the charismatic public face of the company. The other is Colleen Barrett, Kelleher’s longtime assistant, who has served as corporate secretary since 1978 and in 2001 was named president. Not the woman behind the man, but the one beside him in a less public role.

“My heart tells me it is time to allow the next generation of Southwest Airlines leaders their day to lead,” says the soon-to-be-63-year old Barrett, comfortable in her decision. “I have always thought that one of the best traits of a leader is to know when to follow.”

Though her leadership will soon be coming to an end, her legacy will persist at Southwest Airlines. For Barrett, that legacy is all about a passion for customer service, something she has proudly instilled in every Southwest employee.

“We’re in the customer-service business; we happen to offer air transportation,” she tells The Connection. “We consider our employees to be our number-one customer,

our passengers our second and our shareholders our third. If we give great customer service to our employees as leaders, they will in turn provide it to their customers, who are the passengers. And the rewards will be there for our shareholders.”

In at the beginning

Southwest Airlines is a true corporate rags-to-riches story—based on an idea many said would never fly and that other airlines attempted to keep out of the skies. But the vision of one man, Rollin King, a Texas businessman, combined with the savvy of another, Kelleher, a San Antonio attorney, made the concept take flight.