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Barrett discusses life after Kelleher
By STEVE HUETTEL
© St. Petersburg Times, When Southwest Airlines named a leadership team in the spring to replace Herbert Kelleher as the day-to-day boss, few were surprised that veteran Colleen Barrett would be the new president. The reaction of one pilot: We thought she already was. Her office was next to Kelleher's. She ran his hectic schedule, protected Southwest's employee-centered culture and oversaw the airline's customer service, marketing and communications. With chief executive Jim Parker and Kelleher, still Southwest's chairman, Barrett is trying to steer the company out of a crisis that has gripped the airline industry since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. The Times interviewed Barrett, 57, at Southwest's Dallas headquarters in July. She talked about why Southwest is such a different place to work, how the airline struggled with late flights and what it's like to be the only female president of a major U.S. airline. Question: What has life been like with Herb gone as chief executive? Barrett: I'd say my life hasn't changed that much. To the employees in general, there's not any change. The only change is that he's not in a lot of meetings he would have been in. Q. Has Southwest outgrown the need to have Herb and his antics in the public eye to get publicity? Barrett: I've never thought we needed that. It built up a lot of expectations that were twice as hard to meet. You get some 19-year-old who's read Nuts (a company biography) or seen Herb on 60 Minutes and he thinks Southwest is just a big bowl of cherries, that all we do is blow up balloons and that nobody works. We play hard, but we work damn hard. We get new hires, and they think he's everywhere. And they're disappointed if they don't get to personally shake his hand. He hasn't been able to do that for years. Q. How would you define Southwest's culture? Barrett: Our culture is a buy-in from every person on the payroll to be proactive in customer service and to practice the Golden Rule. At Southwest Airlines, the first customer is a Southwest employee. The second customer is the passenger at Southwest Airlines, and the third customer is the stockholder. One thing I'm a zealot about is you've got to monitor people during the probationary period. You've got to watch that attitude, and if it isn't what we want, we have to get rid of people. If it's not real, you can't fake it for 60 days. Some people don't have a good sense of humor. And if you can't laugh at yourself, you might as well get right out the door. If you take yourself too seriously or you're not touchy-feely -- kind of arrogant -- it just doesn't fit. Q. As you know, Southwest's on-time performance and bag handling slipped badly starting last year, and Department of Transportation statistics haven't improved much since. Has the airline lost its focus on efficient service? Barrett: We have not lost any focus as far as the importance of customer service. The numbers have already drastically improved. But because of delays in (DOT) reporting, the public won't see them for two months. They've improved because we've been, like, concentrating on it. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Getting out of San Francisco International made a humongous difference. Much of the on-time deterioration was stuff we didn't really have any control over - congestion on the ground and in the air. But even with the on-time deterioration and bags really deteriorating, we didn't drop a bit in customer satisfaction (fewest complaints to the DOT). That's an incredible tribute to our employees. When we mess up, our people absolutely stand on their heads to make it better, to take ownership. (Southwest was No. 1 in on-time rankings for June but still lagged at No. 8 in bag handlings.) Q. How big a deal is it that, in a business where the executives suites remain pretty much a men's club, you've become the first woman to serve as president of a major U.S. airline? Barrett: To me, it's not. At Southwest, there's no glass ceiling. We have as many female as male directing officers. But I'm surprised how many total strangers I've heard from. In this business, you know, there aren't many (women executives). It is kind of humbling. Kind of exciting. Q. So, you'll be joining Conquistadores del Cielo? (An all-male club of airline bigwigs who go to a Wyoming ranch and, as Continental CEO Gordon Bethune says, "fly-fish, play tennis . . . do rodeos, ride horses, drink too much, drink too much, ride horses, drink too much.") Barrett: I was asked by a female reporter if I'd crash the Conquistadores. It might be fun and would make a lot of headlines. But I can't think of anything more boring. I die laughing every year when Herb goes. You have to be invited, and it's definitely all male. It won't happen, that I can promise you. The bylaws say "no women," I think. But I wouldn't want anyone to think I'm waiting for an invitation.
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From the Times Business report
From the AP
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