Everyone tries to figure out what they are doing that makes them so special, but every business wizard glosses over the first part, People. In Fed Ex's case it is PSP. People-Service-Profit. In SWA's case it is very similar, People.

Invest in that asset, and guess what, your business gets you a return that cannot be measured on a balance sheet, a 10K report, or a on-time metric. It may show up here and there, but where it really shows up is customer satisfaction. In simple interaction of people to people is what sets the tone for your business.

Just like in the restaurant industry, Customers will forgive you for a bad meal, but they will not forgive you for bad service. That translates in to everything we do here. All of that starts with putting value in people. The first step in that is, recognizing a need to pay them correctly, respect their families needs, and understand that one may love their job but they work to live, not the other way around.

When I turned down SWA, I told them my reason, which was a few things, but family was at the top, and their response was, "Family comes first, and if you ever decided to work here, just give us a call and we will gladly take you." That right there says many things. It shows that the corporation gives the latitude to the employee to make a great decision, and it shows the cultural mindset that they put forth. That all comes from clearly showing though money and other means that you matter to your company. It really is not any simpler than that.