Herbert David “Herb” Kelleher (1931–2019) was an American lawyer, entrepreneur, and businessperson. He was the colorful and famous co-founder and the former Chairman and CEO of Southwest Airlines, the U.S. airline that’s the great success story of the airline business. Southwest is the only company that has been reliably profitable through the airline industry’s tumultuous times when many competitors have gone out of business or sought bankruptcy protection.
Born in Camden, New Jersey, Herb attended Wesleyan University and New York University and moved to Texas intent on starting a law firm or a business. One evening in 1967, a discussion over drinks with a client of Kelleher’s law firm led to the founding of Southwest Airlines.
The carrier began operations in 1971, flying to three Texas cities with three planes. Kelleher served as its legal counsel and director 1966–82, and as chairman since 1978. He took a back seat as emeritus chairman in 2001, two years after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. He remained on the payroll till death and went to the office regularly.
From 1982–2001, as its president, CEO, and chairperson, Kelleher led Southwest Airlines to over 30 consecutive years of profitability. He was well-known for molding a corporate culture based on the values of respect and caring for employees and customers. His leadership motto was to “treat employees like customers” because “when you treat them right, they will treat outside customers right.”
Kelleher’s unpretentious, “everyman” persona endeared him to the airline’s employees and helped create one of the friendliest management-labor relationships in the airline industry. When Kelleher retired as chairman after 37 years, Southwest’s pilots took out a full-page ad in USA Today thanking him for all he had done.
Kevin and Jackie Freiberg’s Nuts!: Southwest Airlines’s Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success provides an insight into the unique culture and legacy that Kelleher shaped at Southwest.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Herb Kelleher
Years ago, the business schools used to pose it as a conundrum. They would say, `Well, who comes first? Your employees, your shareholders, or your customers?’ But it’s not a conundrum. Your employees come first. And if you treat your employees right, guess what? Your customers come back, and that makes your shareholders happy. Start with employees and the rest follows from that.
—Herb Kelleher
Power should be reserved for weightlifting and boats, and leadership really involves responsibility.
—Herb Kelleher
The business of business is not business. The business of business is people.
—Herb Kelleher
It is my practice to try to understand how valuable something is by trying to imagine myself without it.
—Herb Kelleher
We have a ‘strategic’ plan. It’s called doing things.
—Herb Kelleher
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