I have been flying on Southwest for over 25 years, and have been fascinated by the company's business model for the entire time. So I have made it a point to fly the airline and to learn as much as possible about the people over the years. I have also had the benefit of having had a professional relationship with the firm in the past.
I was immediately impressed when the first 50 pages contained a large number of stories that long-time Southwest employees had told me over the years.
My good impression grew as important new details were added to my knowledge. Perhaps most important was the description of how the authors got access to Herb Kelleher and the company in order to be able to write the book. I, too, have tried for that access and have not yet been as successful. Maybe after I complete my 10,000th roundtrip!
Seriously, I am currently working on a new book about an improved business model that all companies should follow. Southwest Airlines will be the central example in the first chapter in that book. I plan to use Nuts! as a source in that writing.
If authenticity is the book's main strength, then it's main weakness is repetition. The Freibergs have sliced and diced the lessons a bit too finely for my taste. Rather than portraying the key elements of the Southwest story and exemplifying these points with lots of examples, Nuts! takes the same examples and reuses them over ... and ... over ... and ... over to make different points.
A way to have improved this book would have been to have compared Southwest to other outstanding companies. The authors tended to limit their comparisons to other airlines (a group of usually not-very-well-run companies). That would have made the unique elements of Southwest clearer.
If you have ever flown Southwest, you know that the company's culture is pretty unusual. The cultural story comes across loud and clear. One of the strengths of the book is that the reasons for starting and maintaining the culture are well explained. Most cultures are pretty hard to understand from the outside. This one can be appreciated from that perspective.
Finally, I really liked the way the book explained how scenario thinking (around 'what if?' questions) has helped Southwest. This is a solid addition to the business literature.
The book is conveniently divided into several different parts that emphasize various perspectives. The beginning tells the history of how the culture was born (in adversity, as most strong cultures are). The second part describes some key principles of the company's vision and culture. The third part describes how the culture is maintained and encouraged (particularly as the company grows). The final section takes a more leadership oriented perspective. You can focus your attention on any of these points of view, and learn something valuable.
Unless you don't like people, you'll like Nuts! You'd be nuts not to. Have a great time learning more about the masters of overcoming stalled thinking in an industry where stalls are dangerous!
This book is a must read for anyone who wants to see how the concepts of servant leadership are actually put into practice in a real company of over 30,000 employees. You will learn about a company that practices the golden rule as corporate policy-and has paid quarterly dividends for 97 consecutive quarters doing it! The "Southwest culture" described at length in the book gives this company its strategic advantage. This culture genuinely cares about the welfare of the Southwest employees-which are approximately 82% unionized. Southwest Airlines has turned a profit every year since 1973, yet it maintains the lowest fares in a highly competitive industry. It is one of the most admired airlines in the world, regularly ranks best in customer service, and has a consistently high safety record. Southwest was the first airline to establish a home page on the Internet, and was named by BusinessWeek as a "Web Smart 50" company.
Some of the book's statistics about the airline are now out of date due to incredible growth. More recent statistics are readily available at Southwest's web site . However, the principles discussed in this book that are used to guide this most admired airline are timeless.
Review by Dr. J. Howard Baker
Drink, swish, and swallow the power of SWA and the SWA story in. Then, if you are open and ready, let the creativity flow in you of how what they have done, do every day, and the fun and fulfillment they experience and bring to others open you, your team, your company, your agency, your life up to new wonders and successes that are waiting there, have been waiting, and will always be waiting just around the corner, for you to discover them.
Thank you SWA. Thank you Kevin and Jackie.