David Neeleman discusses his brief executive tenure at Southwest Airlines and his relationship with CEO Herb Kelleher.
Insight
Neeleman views employee unionization as a fundamental failure of corporate leadership
“You know, I always thought if our people need someone else to come tell us how to treat them, then that would be pretty tragic. If I thought I didn't treat our people well enough that they needed somebody else, then, you know, that's not the company I wanted t…”
Assertion Supported
Southwest claims Smithsonian credit for e-tickets, but Morris Air invented them
“They were, and have credit today in the Smithsonian as being the first Ticketless airline, but it was really our system that did it.”
Opinion
Neeleman asserts JetBlue's board was completely wrong to remove him as CEO
“It was not only devastating, but it was just absolutely the wrong decision.”
Assertion Supported
Neeleman: 10,000 of Azul's 13,000 employees volunteered for unpaid leave
“You know, we have about 13,000 people that work for Azul, and, So we went out to the group and said, Hey, you know, everybody we're going to need your help here. Who would like to take a few months off without pay? And remarkably enough we had almost 10,000 of…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Southwest CEO Herb Kelleher vowed to fiercely enforce Neeleman's non-compete agreement
“About halfway through the non-compete, I called, or a couple, maybe a year and a half into it, I called Herb, and I said, hey, Herb, you know, I've consulted, you know, legal counsel. This thing is not really enforceable. I mean, I didn't get any consideration…”
Insight
Neeleman: Resolving service mistakes properly should increase customer loyalty beyond baseline
“If you have a, make a mistake, or you treat someone poorly, or whatever, you need to make them more loyal having had an issue with your company than if they had not had an issue in the first place.”