Please help me give a warm
Georgia Tech Welcome thank you

thank you.

THANK YOU afternoon.

Wait let me give you my best side OK.

Are you all today.

How many of you have ever flown on
Southwest Airlines I realize wow well

thank you very much I I realize
I'm in the Lion's Den One

of our competitors being
in in Atlanta today.

But I'm actually very pleased to see that
many hands go up so I do really appreciate

that we value every customer at
Southwest Airlines I thank you very much.

Southwest Airlines.

Has a rich history.

We started in one nine hundred
seventy one it we actually

many of you may not know this but we
started on the back of a cocktail napkin

over a drink between our two founders
Raul and King and Herb Kelleher.

And if you've read anything
about Southwest Airlines or

about Herb Kelleher you know that
that would be perfectly normal

to have a concept start over a drink so we
started on the back of a cocktail napkin

serving three cities with four airplanes
in one nine hundred seventy one and

Herb and Roland had a vision and
their vision in one thousand nine hundred

ninety one was to give
Texans the freedom to fly.

Here we are.

Forty four years later.

And we happen to be the largest
domestic carrier in the United States

we serve one hundred twenty
million passengers a year.

We have the largest fleet of seven
thirty seven Boeing aircraft in

the world seven hundred roughly.

We are closing in on being
a twenty billion dollar business.

We employ almost fifty thousand
people we serve one hundred markets.

And last year we launched international
service near international service and

now service both Mexico the Caribbean and
parts of Central and South America.

It's a pretty remarkable story for
a company that started on the back of

a cocktail napkin over a drink
forty some odd years ago.

Along the way we've had some
really big successes so

I'm happy to say that we have had
forty two years of profitability

by the way are there any
Delta employees in the room.

I'm sorry you're just
going to have to listen.

We've had forty two years of profitability

which is unheard of in
the airline industry.

All of our competitors actually during
the time of our profitability declared

bankruptcy and
restructured we've never done that.

In our history of our company
we've never had a layoff

we've never furloughed
a group of employees.

We've also had some great success
by winning the Triple Crown which

in the airline industry is like winning
the Triple Crown in horse racing which is

on time arrival bags make it
with their passengers and

lowest consumer customer complaints and
we've run one that more than

any other airline in the history
of the airline industry.

We've also been pretty innovative over the
course of the low the last forty some odd

years so we were the first airline
to introduce ticketless travel

we were the first airline to
sell tickets on the Internet

we were the first airline to actually
have a fully functioning website.

We were the first airline to have a mobile
application and on and on and on.

I tell you all of that because I
want you to understand the fiber of

Southwest Airlines and the fiber of
Southwest Airlines is based in its people.

And the entrepreneurial ship of those
people and the creativity of those people.

We have a very simple business model.

Our business model is we fly and
all sir seven thirty seven Boeing fully.

We fly point to point network
versus a hub and spoke network for

those of you who have studied the airline
industry you know that is a very different

way to operate an airline.

We are a company that prides
herself on customer service.

And therefore we do not charge.

Most fees that are their lines do we
are known for primarily for bags fly free

hopefully you know that
about us bags fly free.

Our business model is really yes
it's those things practically but

a real business model.

And how we've been successful for
forty some odd years.

Is really based in two things.

The first is our culture.

So we have a very simple view
of our culture our people.

Our most important to us.

Our employees come first now a lot of
companies will say their employees come

first but it's Southwest Airlines
our employees come first and

our business model and our belief is
that if we put our employees first

through great servant leadership.

That our employees will therefore
pass that along to our customers and

they'll pass that along to our customers
through exemplary customer service.

In turn our customers will be happy and
they will come back and

fly a suggestion and
if they do that we make money.

And if we make money our investors
are happy and that ultimately is the crux

the secret sauce in my opinion
of the Southwest business model.

The other thing that is
really key to our success.

Is that we have a clear purpose.

So how many of you and by the way I will
not fault you get this wrong because

when I joined southwest I'm not sure I
completely understood this by the way I've

been at Southwest for three years
I'll come back to me in a little bit.

How many of you would say
Southwest primary purpose

is to operate an airline.

OK Now a few of you.

That's not really true we
do operate an airline but

is calling Russell would say.

I'm sorry calling Barrett would
say we are we are in the customer

service business we happen
to operate an airline.

And so we have a clear purpose and
our purpose is to connect people to what's

important in their lives
through friendly reliable and

low cost air travel.

It isn't to make sure that the planes are
clean all the time it isn't to make sure

that we're at all the right airports all
the time it's really a higher calling or

not her purpose which is to connect people
to what's important in their lives we also

have a very clear vision of what we
want to be we want to be the world's

most loved most flown and
most profitable airline and

we're well on our way to being that we
have fans we we talk about customers but

the reality is we have fans that
happen to be our customers.

And that's because of the great great
people that our customers interact with

on a daily basis.

Now.

That's where we are today.

We are a growth focused company.

We just launched international service
a little over a year ago which opened up

an entire new set of markets for us.

That isn't where we want to be five
ten twenty years from now and so

we're in the midst of the second
generation of East set of strategic plans

that will allow us to achieve our
purpose and achieve our mission so

over the course of the next five years at
Southwest Airlines we will change where we

fly we've already started that will change
what we fly we won't change the fact

that we're all Boeing seven thirty seven
fleet but there's a lot of different kinds

of Boeing seven thirty seven's
will change how we fly it and

most importantly it will change
the customer experience that our customers

have when they decide they want to
take a trip they look for that trip.

They actually buy a ticket they get on our
flight they go through the airport they

get to their destination and
the aftercare that we provide to them.

Sounds pretty simple and

I would tell you that's probably one of
the secrets to Southwest successes for

forty some odd years we have
kept it incredibly simple.

Now my role in this is I'm the C.E.O.

at Southwest Airlines I've been there for
a little over three years.

Prior to Southwest Airlines I had
a very long career at Pepsico so

I also realize I'm in
the lion's den of Coca-Cola.

So I'm feeling a little awkward here when
I when I was that Pepsi Co by the way.

A We we didn't actually used
the name Koch we referred to it

as the red company in Atlanta and
I am told although I don't know that they

referred to Pepsi Co as
the blue company in New York.

By the way the airline business is is
a little more collegiate than that.

Collegiate not collusive I
want to be clear on that.

But twenty six years at Pepsico where
I held various roles I did start at

T.-I as a programmer I quickly determined
that I was an average programmer but

what really really got me up and going in
the morning was the fact that I liked that

space between technology in
between our business operation and

that problem that needed to be solved and
the fact that that problem could be solved

with technology I don't really care so
much about what the technology was but

what I really really got excited
about was how to solve that problem

a business problem and so I started in my
career to gravitate into the great space

between technology and business.

And began a long career from
a management perspective holding

various different leadership
roles at Pepsi Co.

Pepsi Co afforded me by the way
it's a great company it afforded me

the opportunity to see
the world multiple times.

I like to say the first time you go to a
place like Shanghai it's awesome the fifth

time it's interesting the tent time it's
like OK the fifteenth time well you know

I could be going to Detroit or L.A.
or Austin Texas right.

But I saw the world and
when I left Pepsi Co I was responsible for

basically all business transformation and

all technology related items
outside of the United States.

And so you ask well why did you do that
why did you come to southwesterly.

Things.

Already told you.

Forty plus years of record profits.

A model that is our employees come
first which allowed me to be a servant

leader which is important to me and
a huge mission.

Which was how do we go expand outside of
the US How do we grow our U.S. market and

how would how do we change the customer
experience at Southwest Airlines and

executive team that actually
lives those principles and

was willing to smartly
invest to actually achieve

that mission so I'm currently the C.E.O.

of Southwest Airlines what that
means is I'm responsible for

all technology at Southwest Airlines
the good parts and the bad parts.

And I am also responsible for
ensuring that all

strategic enterprise initiative
these are delivered.

And that allows me to play in that
space between technology and.

And our business operation now
how many of you in the room

are more business focused in your degree.

In how many of you came expecting I was
going to talk about the latest technology.

A good well OK the two or

three that I was going to do that
I'm going to disappoint you greatly.

I like to tell people I'm not a
technologist and the reality is if you're

a C.E.O. you have to be enough of
a technologist to know what makes sense.

But the role of the CIA it was is
actually very very different and

that's what I want to spend a little
bit of time talking to you about today.

Traditionally the role of the CIA was
mirrored the capabilities of technology so

in in the eighty's most technology
was focused on automation.

How do you automate a task.

In a digitized way to drive
productivity in the ninety's

most of the technology was focused
focused on optimization because now

we've automated those tasks we now have
data which we can then build in jinns to

try to figure out how to optimize
our business operation against that

in the two thousand it was all about
how do you leverage the Internet how

do you allege leverage the explosion of.

Mobility.

Whether it's a smartphone
a tablet a laptop a watch.

My foot whatever it might be.

And here we are today and what I
would tell you is I believe the most

important role of the CIA today is to
understand all of those technologies but

really figure out how to create business
value from those technologies and so

for those of you that are focused
in technology that doesn't mean

that you don't have a long career being
very creative and very innovative and

creating the next big technical
innovation but I would encourage

you to make sure you understand the
business value that can come from it and

for those of you that are focused more on
the business side of it I would encourage

you to make sure that you do you
understand enough about technology so

that you know how to drive the business
value that you'll be expected to drive

when you get into your career.

So my primary responsibilities
are to be a value creator.

Which means.

I.
Need to understand the business

of Southwest Airlines I need to understand
the key metrics of Southwest Airlines and

need to understand the key drivers behind
those metrics so that I can help partner.

With my business operations
leaders to ensure that we

invest in the right things and that they
produce the right business value whether

that's incremental revenue fish and
see some some new product

that wows our customers and
delights our customers and

brings once brings them back
on a more repeated basis.

Another part of my role is to be an
enterprise gov And what I mean by that is

we now live in an age where
technology has been consumer iced.

I have two children they're
both college students and

fortunately they are not at Georgia Tech
but they are college students and

I will tell you that when I have
a problem with my i Phone or

my i Pad I actually asked them
because they actually know more

about what the capabilities
of that device are than I do.

Everyone.

Knows something about technology today
that it was not the case twenty years ago

and because of that technology
has been consumer ised.

That translates into everybody has
an idea about what technology should be

used against any business problem
that they might be trying to solve.

That leads to an enormous
appetite within any business.

For technology services and
as an enterprise governor and

as a value creator My role is to ensure
that we look across the enterprise and

we shape that demand so that we drive
the most business value that we can

with the resources we
have at our disposal.

The third responsibility that I have
is I'll call it financial advisor.

And the reason I say financial
advisor is in most companies the.

Budget for technology is one of
the top five P. and L. items.

I'm not going to tell you where
we are at Southwest Airlines

because we have some Delta folks
in here but I will tell you

most companies it's top five actually
most companies as maybe top three.

Pins on what what what kind of company you
are you're in the service industry it's

probably top three if you're in
the manufacturing industry maybe top five.

If you're in the transportation
industry let's say top five.

What that means is you have a financial
set of responsibilities that require you

to think like a C.F.O..

Is this project worth the investment does
it have the return on the investment

can we afford it.

Will we be able to resource it
with the appropriate headcount.

How does it fit in the overall P.
and L. of the company and

the overall cash flow of the company the
overall income statement of the company.

What strategic initiatives
will be investor worthy.

So you have to be a financial advisor.

The next responsibility that
I have is change leader.

So I said I'm the C.E.O.
but I'm also responsible for

the delivery of our strategic
in our prize programs.

Well the delivery there
is always the construct

a symbol purchase whatever it
might be that's honestly the easy

part the hard part is to get
people to change behavior.

And the only way you drive value
out of an investment in technology

is to get people to change their
behavior they have to use it.

They have to want to use it they have to
actually change the business processes

that go around it and
they have to want to do that.

People don't like to change
you guys like change.

Now I will tell you I love to create
change but when somebody tells me I have

to change I resist and
I think that's human nature and so

I would tell you being a change
leader is really really important.

And then the last one is you know I still
need to run a technology organization.

Now most people think a technology
organization is about the technology

the reality is the technology
organization is about the people.

It is about acquiring the right talent
Skilling the people that you have

the right way putting them in
the right seat on the bus.

And then ensuring that they
understand their purpose

as part of the overall
mission of the company.

And then ensuring that they understand
what their career is so I would tell you

as in the functional leader portion of my
role I spend the majority of my time not

talking about what technology we should
use but where people should be placed

how we should resource the investments
that we make how do we grow people's

careers how do we create the succession
in the bench strength that we need for

the next generation of leaders and
how do we sure ensure that everyone.

In the technology organization at
Southwest Airlines feels like they have

a home and
they know where their next home will be.

No where in there did I say
I need to be innovative.

I need to be really technically savvy.

Except I do have to do those things but
the reality.

Is there a lot more there
are a lot more people

that are a lot smarter that have a lot
more passion about that than I do and so

my overall responsibility is to make
sure that our harness that talent.

And actually apply it against the right
things that we need to go do it

Southwest Airlines it's a pretty cool
job actually it's a great job that's why

three years ago I came
to Southwest Airlines.

I will tell you that I think most C.I.S.
today.

Don't actually do that.

So I read a statistic in
the Wall Street Journal in the C.E.O.

section of The Wall Street Journal
a few months back that said

the role of the CIA will disappear over
the next five years now of course I saw

that headline I definitely
read it multiple times right.

And they're worse than the statistics
in there that were actually

kind of frightening and staggering So
we're in an age where technology.

Is.

So innovative so creative and
so business enabling.

That it can do almost anything in
any part of any business and yet

the C.E.O.'s of the Fortune
five hundred only one in four

actually felt like the CIA understood
what their business challenges were.

So if you're a C.E.O. and you don't
understand what the business challenges of

the business you support are.

How in the world are you ever going
to actually help the business

with its mission and
the answer is you can't.

And that's why I think C.I.S. today have
to step back and I think they have to

reflect I think they have to get out of
the world of thinking about how to run

technology and they have to get into the
world of being a business leader that is

focused on driving business
value driving business growth.

Creating great teams.

And ensuring the success of
the companies that they are a part of.

I would tell you at
Southwest Airlines I am very privileged

I would say I am blessed
I have a great team.

I love them.

Most of the time they love me.

I have a great set of executives that are
my peers that are incredibly supportive

because being a C.E.O. is an easy I
don't know how many of you might have

heard a couple of months ago we had this
little bitty problem with our website for

about three days.

So it's not all rosy all the time but
I have a group of

peers that are incredibly supportive
understand the value of technology and

understand that for them to be successful
in their part of our business.

I have to be successful for them and

the thousands of technology resources at
Southwest Airlines have to be set up for

success to be successful for them.

And I'm really really fortunate that I
have a CIA And Gary Kelly who understands

the value of technology and
is willing to invest in it.

At Southwest Airlines.

Technology is viewed as an enabler.

In a lot of companies today unfortunately
technology is viewed as a cost center.

And you see that in different
ways right a lot of technology

organizations report to the C.F.O..

It's considered a G. and A function of
back office function and a cost center and

therefore the focus for that organization
is how do you reduce the cost of

technology.

If you're in an organization where
technology is seen as an enabler

it is all about what
are the right investment.

It's for us to make to drive the right
return on those investments to drive

the right business value which supports
the purpose and mission of the company and

that's why I'm blessed because that's
the way we think about technology at

Southwest Airlines so
I feel like I've got the best C.E.O.

gig in the industry.

I work in a great culture I
get to be a servant leader.

I get to focus on business problems and
technology I'm blessed with a great

team I'm part of a company that
has a unbelievably rich history

of success.

And we're blessed that we
have fans as customers.

So I've got the best
again in the industry.

So with that.

I'd like to hear from you questions.

OK Well thank you.

I'm going to let you guys pick what
hand you want to go with first.

OK.

I thank you for your talk today you
talked about being a change leader and

how that can be and what are your some
of your strategies or key tips for

getting people on board for
important change you have so.

I don't know your curriculum here so I
apologize but I am assuming at some point

part of your your curriculum
you will study John Kotter and

the eight principles of change in
leadership is that a fair assumption.

You talk about it OK I'm
a huge student of Carter.

And I would tell you I
leverage those a principals

on every change that I do and that may
sound corny and it may sound like a text.

Cancer but
I would tell you it's tried and true so

I've had I've been really really
fortunate in my career to.

Be a part of massive
transformations of businesses.

Effort away I was part of a billion and
a half dollar transformation of

of the supply chain capabilities
that Frito Lay when I was C.E.O.

for Pepsi Co Europe I was part of
a team that acquired nine companies

in the span of eight eighteen months and
integrated them.

And now it's Southwest the transformation
to launch international service and

then all of the other things that are kind
of in our our future strategy and

I can tell you in every one of them.

In every one of them the most
important tool that I've had are those

eight tactics from Cotter's
change leadership.

And it's all about you've got to build
the guiding team you've got to build

the burning platform right and you know
the rest and the most important by the way

is number eight which is
you have to make it stick.

If you haven't read John Carter's
books on change leadership

I would really encourage you to do that.

By the way you don't have to use it just
one big change I used it on my son getting

him prepared for college he doesn't know
that unless he was he sees this video but.

Yes.

It's a good question.

But I guess my question.

Problem is zero zero zero.

Zero. Zero. Zero.

Sure so we.

You know we we have
the distinct pleasure of having

organically grown our business over
the course of the last forty plus years.

And that's awesome but but the reality
is when when most of your growth

is organic sometimes you're the frog
that kind of slowly warms up and

then boils in the pot right and
what I would tell you is

you know at some point you wake up and
you realize you're you're not

three you're not four aircraft flying
to three cities in the stated Texas but

you're given the freedom to fly
to all of America and you're

running thirty five hundred plus flights
a day you have seven hundred aircraft and

you've got let's say forty
five thousand employees

that need to know what they need to do to
run the airline in the most cost effective

way possible well that's a very
different business problem to solve so

day in and
day out the human brain can't solve how do

you manage thirty five hundred flights a
day with the crews that need to be allying

to that across one hundred markets and
by the way right

in the middle of that let's throw
a massive blizzard into the northeast

that shuts down ten of our our stations
our airports and now what do we do

with those planes how do we get
the crews realigned to the aircraft in

the appropriate way and by the way how do
we make sure we fulfill our purpose which

is all of those passengers actually
get where they need to be.

So we're using technology and optimization
engine Zz to actually take that data and

create really really complicated Saul's
which allows us to balance getting

our craft where they need to be having our
crews aligned to where they need to be and

still fulfilling our purpose.

With our customers it's incredibly
complicated but I would tell you the value

in that is enormous There's enormous
productivity with how we use

our craft utilization there's enormous
productivity for our crews by the way and.

Armas work life and
job satisfaction for our crews and

then there's an enormous applied
revenue potential because

our passengers actually see
us as more reliable and

therefore more likely to come back and
be a passenger again.

And so we're working through that
right now it's a very very complicated

problem to solve but
we're using technology to do that.

Yes So you mentioned you've gotten to
travel the world has that changed any of

your perspectives on life if so yes so.

So I grew up in a small
town in southeast Kansas.

And when I say small I mean no stoplights
Twelve hundred people very small.

And so I've had until two thousand and

six when I moved to Geneva Switzerland
with my family I had a very U.S.

centric view of the world and
to be honest with you if you've

never been outside of the United States
it's easy to do one and

I would tell you the world doesn't
view us the same way we view ourselves

and I happened to be.

In Switzerland in Europe at a time when
the U.S. political environment was not

seen upon very favorably by most
of the European Union and so

you can imagine going to
a business dinner with.

You know someone from our French business
somebody from our Spanish business our

German business our U.K. business our
Irish business our Russian business and

sitting down and all the sudden
somebody wants to talk about politics.

You start to get a very different
view of how the world actually sees

the United States and it's it's it's
not as favorable as I thought it was

right I mean I grew up thinking
quite honestly we were helping.

To save the world what I learned
having lived in Europe is not

the world doesn't necessarily always
want to be saved by us right.

But what I would also tell you is I
learned a very important lesson so.

I.
Grew up professionally in a commanding

control kind of environment and
when I went to Europe if you can imagine

my leadership team in Europe I literally
at the table I had a leader from the U.K.

Spain Germany Poland Russia.

France and so on well they don't
necessarily get along very well.

And I was in that were part of my
role was to take those local business

unit technology organizations and make
them a European technology organization

and what I learned was
the art of influence.

The art of influence you cannot command
and control your way through that

environment you have to
influence people with a logic.

Primarily.

I would tell you the other thing that
it changed for me personally is.

I I love to explore now so
I've been in most

major international cities and a lot of
really small cities outside of the U.S.

that you've probably never heard of and
I can tell you when I'm there I

want to be as local as possible depending
on the city I want to be safe while I'm

being local but as local as possible
experience the culture I find.

The cultural aspect of the nations
around the world to be

something that just completely fascinates
me and I think how that translates back to

me professionally is it's
given me a much better view

of the value of diversity.

So.

After I left Europe I was the C.E.O.
for all of the international and

I did travel the world and
when I would have a leadership forum

the diversity that was in that room.

If you can figure out how to harness
that diversity in a productive way

I'm amazing amazing creativity

innovation unique ways to look at things
to solve a problem that if you don't have

that diversity you all just kind of think
well this is the way you solve it and

you never really get better and
maybe of all of my things around

international travel the thing I'll
probably carry with me the most is

the value of diversity.

Yes.

So just curious curiosity's sake what
are the point to point and hub and

spoke models and also.

Because you only fly seven thirty seven's
do you think you ever miss out on any of

the market like maybe commuter flights or
people who want to fly Dreamliner is

international sure someone is going
to take those in reverse order.

So we fly in all seven thirty seven
Boeing fleet one class of service and

I can tell you absolutely
that we miss out on.

Some amount of business travel because
business travelers are enticed by building

up their miles and leveraging those to
use them in a higher class of service

especially when they're taking the family
on vacation right and so sure.

There are a lot of complexities that
go with that and I would tell you.

I'm not completely convinced that that
turns out to be profitable or not.

But we absolutely do limit because we have
a an all Boeing seven thirty seven fleet.

Where we can fly and then.

Our choice around class of service so
so that's true the difference

between a hub and
spoke in a point to point network is this.

So Delta American United pretty much
every other airline runs a hub and

spoke and what that means is for
instance Atlanta as a hub for

Delta right and if you go out to
the airport in any given point time

you're going to see a huge number
of planes sitting on the ground and

because what that what that
is is they they fly in from

smaller cities into the hub and
many people get off of that plane and

they connect to a different
plane to go to San Francisco and

so they've they've built
a really big operation in Atlanta

which allows them to connect
passengers in that fashion it

also allows them to use
multiple aircraft types.

A point to point now work is I
will line of flight so an aircraft

will start in Dallas so the aircraft that
I was on today coming in started in Dallas

came to Atlanta its next
stop was I think Tampa

it was going from Tampa to
Baltimore from Baltimore to.

I want to say it was going to
Kansas City then it was going to Denver.

And then it was coming back to Dallas.

Right it doesn't mean you're always comes
back to Dallas it could end up in Oakland

right but instead of coming into a hub and

then going back out it actually
traverse us a line of flight for

us it's a very different
way to run your network.

The difference in the in the two
honestly as you get higher aircraft

utilization with.

Point to Point network aircraft spend
less time sitting on the ground

back in the day we were the inventors
of the ten minute turn right.

You know this was back in the days where
flight attendants were hop Anson All

right so long time ago but.

The you know we were we were the inventor
of the ten minute turn so literally

during the course of the operating day
an aircraft would be on the ground for

ten minutes or less at any given airport
before is back in the air flying again so

our turns are a little longer than that
now because our aircraft are bigger and

we have more connecting passenger
traffic than we did back then.

You know our traffic used to be primarily
short haul our traffic now is primarily

long haul short haul being Austin to
Dallas long haul being Baltimore to

Dallas or Baltimore to L.A..

My question has to do with
the nonorganic growth of

acquiring Air Tran Yes my
from a customer perspective.

I was thinking what are you guys
thinking you know Southwest doing that.

And I'm sure he had good good reasons but

it seems to me that the cultures
might have been a bit different.

How do so how did you deal with
integrating the two cultures or

where they really not that that different
internally even though from a customer

perspective they seem different Yeah
you know so so a company's culture and

the customer experience that you feel as
a customer are necessarily the same thing

I would tell you and
I think I came to southwest after.

That acquisition was well in progress but
I was what I would tell you was

the culture at Air Tran
was more similar to see.

What's the you you might think
I would say was identical but

what I would tell you is.

The the people of Air Tran came
into the Southwest culture

pretty easily to be honest with you
the South was culture is an easy culture

to come into if you embrace it.

You know in terms of.

In terms of the acquisition itself
I mean obvious business reasons for

that it gave us an opportunity to grow
it gave us an opportunity to grow

our aircraft fleet and
it gave us the opportunity to.

To take possession of routes that allowed
us to launch international service with

Southwest Airlines so.

For the delay of you know it just one

website to purchase tickets and
all the planes having the Southwest label

Hashi's down like most of my peers.

So.

So it sounds really simple but it's not.

So.

It's not as simple as shut
down one one website and have

everybody go to the new website there's
a lot of work that has to be done so

that you can actually connect the networks
because of your member even though

Southwest acquired Air Tran Air Tran
existed in continued to operate for.

More than two years and I don't remember
the exact number of months it was and so

being able to to move to one
Southwest dot com required us

to be able to move the aircraft and
the crew into

our operating certificate you know by
the way the aircraft need to be repainted

the interiors need to be redone
the crew the crews needed to go through

the appropriate training to operate under
the Southwest operating certificate.

And we had to actually hardware all
the technology so that we could get rid

of that old reservation system and
use our new reservation system and

Southwest dot com So it was a it was
a lot of work to be honest with you.

I know it sounds really simple but
it was a lot of work.

So.

Yes I was wondering in what ways
do you allocate responsibility

within your to choosing what technologies
you will invest in selfless.

So I have a leader of enterprise
architecture and his primary role is to

ensure that we are we are trying to stay

true to our philosophy on
the technologies we want to use and.

Our philosophies around where
do we purchase technology and

where do we build our own technology and

so his primary responsibility is to
make sure we stay the course on that.

I have a leader who is responsible for
product development and product solutions

and his responsibility is to ensure
that we produce products technically

that align to the architectural
philosophies that we have agreed to.

The challenge comes in quite honestly with
there are a lot of technologies out there

and in some cases this one piece of
technology looks really really good for

the one business thing we want to do but
it doesn't necessarily fit into

our architectural view of the world and it
doesn't integrate very well with the rest

of our technology or
even our business processes and so

I would say or
biggest challenge there is to.

Influence our business
partners that that piece

of technology might not be as good as
a different piece of technology that fits.

More seamlessly into the.

Rest of the enterprise.

But it's.

My leaders have very defined
sets of responsibility.

And Enterprise architecture is
kind of the key holder for that.

Yes What are the most important part
in decisions you face daily as a.

Southwest Airlines and how is it
different from your time at Pepsi Co.

The most important
decisions I'm I face daily.

You know honestly that really
does depend on the day.

I.
Would say.

Probably the most important decision
that I make on a daily basis

is where I'm going to spend my time.

We have an incredibly large agenda of
things we want to do it Southwest Airlines

they're all really important they all add
tremendous business value I think I can't

focus on every one of them and so I think
to be a good leader you have to focus and

so I think maybe the most important
decision I make every day is what things

are the most important things for
me to really be focused on today and

it could vary depending on
the day the season that we're in.

And issues that we may be having except.

I.
Would tell you kind of outside of that I

think the thing that I spend my
most time focused on are is.

Is the team set up for success do we
have the right resources do we have

the right number of resources do we have
the right people with the right skills

sitting in the right seat on the bus.

I probably spend.

A disproportionate amount of my
personal time focused on that.

OK.

Thanks for that up today I probably won't
have an epithet question for you but

I would be grateful if you could.

Answer that say if there are two
aspects in airline industry one is

craft manufacturer and
one is airline itself so if suppose

there is an innovation and they want
to implement it on the aircraft so

in this customer consumer experience
based industry what's the right Janet for

them to go should they go for
influencing the airline so

that they can influence the aircraft
manufacturer they should directly go get

them in a factual and implement
their idea in the aircraft first and

then go to the airlines without
knowing the specifics of

of what this capability is it's
a little hard to answer that

if it is equally towards
passenger experience and

technology for
aircraft like efficiency and.

So if it is equally in the US I would
want to be biased in my answer but

I would I would go to the airline
the airline is going to want to own

the customer experience in flight and
they're there most

likely to be the ones who can place
business value on the capability I

think of it's an efficiency around
just the operation of the aircraft.

You know in our case that that's
why Boeing is our partner we

would expect them to do that and I would
encourage someone to go to Boeing for

that.

You mentioned a number of times about your
servant leadership style I'm sorry sorry

you mentioned a number of times about
your servant leadership style if you mind

giving a couple examples of how you apply
that leadership style as the C.E.O. and

how that style is changed going
from Pepsi Co to Southwest.

The.

I would like to think.

That is a mean it's true but.

I would like to think that a part of my
character is to be a servant leader but

I would tell you the environment
that you operate in Will.

Will move you in one direction or
the other.

I would tell you I am absolutely
a better servant leader.

Now that I'm at Southwest than
I was in my prior career.

A lot of that has to do with it is
fundamental to the core culture.

At Southwest Airlines and quite frankly.

A huge amount of it has to do with it is
a primary objective as a senior leader

at Southwest Airlines for me so I am held
accountable to being a servant leader and

I think that's important because what
gets measured gets done now I happen

to have my own personal bias to want
to be a servant leader anyway but

I would tell you I'm I believe my servant
leadership capabilities have exponentially

grown at Southwest The other reason I
think of exponentially grown is I am

surrounded by unbelievable
servant leaders in my peers

in Gary herb and Colleen.

Our employees the way they serve each
other it's just it's really amazing.

Servant Leadership comes in many
different forms and fashions.

I personally believe the thing
that I'm most responsible for

as a servant leader for the employees
within Southwest Airlines and

the employees of technology specifically
is to give them a career with a cause.

So how do I help make sure that
they are set up for success.

Both personally in their career but
also for

Southwest Airlines in the work that
they do for Southwest Airlines.

And.

That that takes many shapes and sizes.

And it can also be very simple things.

But my chief technology officer he
has this habit so every Wednesday

the directors and
above we have lunch together and

we talk about the things that
are important and issues that we have and

how we're going to go solve them and
I love this about Craig and

he picks up everybody's plate
when we're done eating.

What a great example of
servant leadership is that.

And so it can be very small things and
it can be very large things.

You know I think for me personally.

I tried to be the best
listener that I can.

As a servant leader I try to put
people in a position to be successful.

By the way sometimes being a servant
leader doesn't mean that it feels

very good right so that being a servant
leader some of the hardest servant

leader moments are when you need
to sit down with an employee and

say you're not meeting the expectations
of the job that you're in and

how do we solve that type I firmly
believe people want feedback and

if you give them feedback they will change
in they will do better and so I think one

of the the things I like to pride myself
on as a servant leader is I give a lot of

feedback whether that's constructive
feedback or whether that's praise.

In you know there's there's a lot of
things that go into that it's kind of hard

to answer that with a singular thing.

But it's important it's
a passion point for me.

You're the closer you're the closer.

OK.

Well.

I might have done a little research for
you gotts you got in a little inside.

My right.

Eye I can tell you what I've dressed
up as the past three years but

I cannot divulge the secret of what I will
be dressed up as three weeks from now

that's a tightly held
secret that OK You're OK so

in my first year at Southwest Airlines.

I did I dressed up as.

Uncle size from Duck Dynasty.

And by the way I looked remarkably
like him which was a little scary but

I was Uncle side.

The second year we did a children's

Carnival the technology team
did a children's Carnival and

they asked me to be the ringleader so
I was in.

These pictures I was in white tights
with the red thing in the top Patton and

we made like two thousand hot
dogs that day for children.

While we were doing that.

And then last year last year was
a big year for Southwest Airlines for

those of you who don't know much about the
Dallas area Southwest Airlines flies out

of Love Field and Love Field when D.F.W.
was built forty some odd years ago

they put this restriction in place called
the Wright amendment which basically said

anybody flying out of Love Field
could not fly to a state that was not

attached to Texas without landing before
they went on to that destination.

And so the Wright amendment was repealed.

Last year actually almost
exactly a year ago and so.

We did a skit so by the way at Southwest
during Halloween there are multiple skits

that are performed everybody
dresses up Gary Kelly dresses up.

And I was asked to be Jim Wright in
the skit so I dressed up as Jim Wright so

I don't of you know what Jim Wright
look like but he was known for

some really big bushy eyebrows and I might
have exaggerated those a little bit and

I carried around a big binder that was
called that had them and went on and

I thumped it all day long and yelled
at people and people booed at me and

it was quite an experience to
be to be honest with you but

this year is a little you know
we hold that under wraps and

we roll it out on that morning so
if you want to know.

Come come to Southwest Airlines
on howling that's a big deal

of the thank you of the.