Keep it simple like Southwest Airlines for your business success

It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, or how fierce your competition or turbulent the environment, your business can still survive, succeed, beat the competition and even grow and become dominant.

This can all be achieved when you have one goal and you make it your primary focus – focusing all of your energy, the energy of your team and the energy of your business on achieving it.

From little acorns grow the mighty oak – this might sound cheesy, but Southwest Airlines are a great example of where this actually happened!

Southwest Airlines’ slogan is ‘low fares, nothing to hide’.

They are the only airline to have consistently grown year-on-year for the past 30 years.

Their one main thing is simple – ‘profitable, low-cost, no-frills air-travel’.

Howard Putnam, CEO of Southwest Airlines, keeps it simple:

‘2-hour segments, 737 aircrafts, 10-minute turnarounds, no air freight, no cargo, no food service, no seat selection – just low fares.’

He is specific, methodical and consistent about his one main thing – profitable, low-cost air travel.

Their one main thing has been instrumental in delivering 30 years of profitable trading.

“Southwest Airlines, for example, demanded of itself a profit every year, even when the entire industry lost money.”

Jim Collins, in his book Great by Choice

Southwest made profits even during the chaos of the OPEC oil crisis in the 1970s and the turmoil that followed the 9/11 tragedies in 2001. They made money whilst other airlines collapsed, lost money or had to let staff go.

Their focus on a set of durable operating practices created a replicable and consistent success formula which brilliantly demonstrates fanatical discipline.