紀念赫布·凱萊赫：商業航空界中舉世無雙的創新者
Shawn Tully
2019-01-20
2001年的凱萊赫。圖片來源：Michael O’Neill—Corbis/Getty Images
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在美國西南航空公司的達拉斯總部，走廊上的員工時常在一處類似于博物館的地方駐足歡笑，這里總是充滿了歡樂，展示了西南航空傳奇的聯合創始人赫布·凱萊赫如何與人熱情擁抱，做著滑稽的鬼臉。西南航空的員工喜歡凱萊赫穿著亮片裝模仿貓王的人形牌，他們時常按下播放鍵，聽這位偶像三個不同版本一波高過一波的大笑聲。“在大廳里經常未見其人，先聞其聲，等真的看到他時，他總是用一個熊抱來打招呼。”西南航空的一位經理2014年告訴筆者。 凱萊赫于今年1月3日去世，享年87歲，在他去世后，各種各樣的報道都用大標題描述著他聞名的浮夸風格。訃文中寫道，競爭對手曾經聲稱，搭乘擺渡車用牛拉、沒有固定座位、更沒有頭等艙的航空公司的旅客實在是太高看自己了；于是凱萊赫演了個廣告，頂了個袋子在頭上，并開玩笑地向西南航空的旅客提供袋子，讓他們可以把“羞恥心”藏起來。事實上，凱萊赫油嘴滑舌、抽煙酗酒的形象卻傳達出了這樣一個信息：一群逍遙快活的怪人構成的員工團隊卻贏得了最忠誠的客戶。 但是凱萊赫的滑稽表象有時卻掩蓋了成就：他為西南航空打造了至今仍然屹立不倒的三大支柱。第一，他算得上是廉價航空這種革命性商業模式的發明者——而且還取得了運營上的成功，這在創始人界實屬罕見。第二，他審慎的財務管理方式確保了西南航空公司能平穩度過市場動蕩。第三，在全美勞資關系倒數第一的行業里，凱萊赫成功培養了全美最忠誠的員工隊伍。 |
At Southwest Airlines’ headquarters in Dallas, employees strolling the corridors stop to chuckle at a kind of mirth-filled museum depicting its legendary co-founder hugging and mugging. Southwest folks love to gawk at a life-sized cutout of a sequined Herb Kelleher impersonating Elvis, or push a button that plays recordings of the icon’s laugh in three ascendingly boisterous versions. “In the halls, you’d always hear him before you saw him, and when you saw him, his greeting was a bear hug,” a Southwest manager told this reporter in 2014. Kelleher’s passing on January 3 at age 87 evoked sundry stories headlining his fabled flamboyance. The obituaries noted that when rivals claimed travelers thought too much of themselves to fly an airline with cattle-car boarding and no assigned seats, let alone sans first class, Kelleher posed in an ad with a bag over his head, and jokingly offered the bags to Southwest customers so they could hide their “shame.” Indeed, Kelleher’s wisecracking, chain-smoking, hard-drinking image sent the message that a workforce of happy-go-lucky oddballs won the most loyal customers. But Kelleher’s zaniness at times obscured his achievement in building the three sturdy pillars Southwest stands on to this day. First, he virtually invented—and then successfully operated, a rare accomplishment for a founder—a revolutionary business model, the low-cost carrier. Second, he deployed prudent financial management to keep Southwest’s wings level in turbulent times. Third, in an industry plagued by America’s worst labor relations, Kelleher managed to nurture what’s arguably corporate America’s most loyal workforce. |
凱萊赫的滑稽表演，1990年。圖片來源：Pam Francis—Liaison/Getty Images
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因為上述架構，凱萊赫成為商業航空史上最成功的領導者。凱萊赫于1981年至2001年擔任西南航空的首席執行官，他掌舵導航，使西南航空從一家在得州老家經營6架飛機的小公司蛻變為今天全美最受歡迎的國內航空公司，每年運輸旅客量達1.2億人次。一路走來，西南航空實現45年連續盈利，大大造福了公司股東。 凱萊赫在2017年的一次采訪中承認，他在一定程度上復制了太平洋西南航空（PSA）的低成本模式，PSA一開始在加州提供最基礎的航空服務，因此不受美國民用航空局（Civil Aeronautics Board，CAB）的定價限制。（后來轉型為普通航空公司的PSA曾歷經掙扎，并被全美航空收購。）凱萊赫意識到，低成本的關鍵在于保證航空公司最大的投資——飛機或稱為機翼上的資本——每天的航行時間超過競爭對手。為了實現這一目標，他拋棄了要求大多數航班在上午10點左右和傍晚兩個高峰時段大批量起飛的輪輻網絡，選擇在城市間開設沒有中間站的“點對點”航線。為了降低運維成本，西南航空公司只經營波音737這一種型號的飛機。他還發現，不到三小時的“短程”航線雖然票價不高，利潤卻比洲際航班豐厚得多，因為平均每英里的票價更高，而且可以大大提高返航效率。 當西南航空進軍價格高昂的準壟斷市場時，會打破市場價格。西南航空于1993年開啟巴爾的摩華盛頓機場至克利夫蘭的航線，將往返票價從340美元降至19美元，并在一年內將航線流量提高了15倍，這是“西南航空效應”把民航業推向大眾市場的典型案例。凱萊赫治下的西南航空公司成為捷藍航空（JetBlue）、精神航空（Spirit）和瑞安航空（Ryanair）等航司的模版，這些能長久經營的廉價航空不斷提升著航空旅行的大眾化程度。 凱萊赫是個天生的創新者，但令人驚訝的是，他還是個保守的經營者，在處理西南航空的財務時尤為如此。“市場景氣時好好經營，就能安然度過低迷。”他會這樣告訴手下。當競爭對手迷失自我、購買酒店和租車公司時，凱萊赫認為西南航空公司只有一件事做得好——以最低的成本為客戶提供最優質的航運服務。西南航空的資產負債表往往在業內業績最優、杠桿率最低。有趣的是，凱萊赫認為西南航空從不裁員或解雇員工的做法不僅構建了良好的勞資關系，還減少了多余開支。他常說，這條準則使西南航空不得不維持較低的員工人數運營，這樣才能保證市場不景氣時不會人手冗余，也因而避免了經濟低迷期解雇大批員工的行業規律。西南航空的員工隊伍也因此實現了生產力最大化——飛機抵達時清理客艙的是空乘而不是維護人員。 凱萊赫創建的航空公司文化實屬罕見，公司員工用笑臉和笑話歡迎客戶，而不是把對管理層的怨恨發泄在工作中。老板也不享受帝王待遇。凱萊赫分給自己的辦公室在里面，沒有窗戶，他把最美的景致留給了員工餐廳，那里可以俯瞰達拉斯愛田機場（Love Field）的13F跑道。他的招聘流程非常嚴格，求職者要在同一房間內與其他求職者一起進行多次面試，目的是考察他們在其他人說話時是留心傾聽、表現尊重還是只關注自己。他要招的是玩世不恭的樂天派，是像他一樣外向愛逗別人的人。為了保證新招錄員工適合公司，西南航空至今仍然要求六個月的試用期，便于管理層觀察新來的登機口服務員和空乘如何引起客戶共鳴。對凱萊赫而言，唱著說唱樂的空乘、說著爛俗笑話的飛行員、公司歌舞隊里跳著高踢腿舞的員工們共同組建了一支最好的隊伍。“文化是無形的，是精神上的，買不到。”凱萊赫在2017年的問答環節中說道。 很顯然，嚴格遵循凱萊赫人文精神的航空公司領導者是最大的成功者。本文作者最近跟隨達美航空（Delta）的首席執行官埃德·巴斯蒂安前往鹽湖城召開員工大會。巴斯蒂安的座右銘是“如果你照顧好你的員工，他們就會照顧好你的客戶。”這句名言可能出自凱萊赫之口，幫助達美航空成為全美最成功的全球航線運營商。（西南航空主營國內航線。）總之，要想分析企業的人文關懷能不能制造利潤，可以想想凱萊赫擔任西南航空公司首席執行官的20年里，年均股東回報率為20.0％，在標普所有公司中居首位。在凱萊赫多年門徒、現任首席執行官蓋瑞·凱利的領導下，西南航空公司遵循凱萊赫模式，繼續取得輝煌業績。大多數公司里，乏味的上級領導著乏味的員工。“有趣”很少被視為企業的資產。赫布·凱萊赫是個鐵骨錚錚的小丑，他證明了傳播樂趣可能是最重要的資產。（財富中文網） 本文另一版本登載于《財富》雜志2019年2月刊，題目是《紀念赫布》。 譯者：Agatha |
By creating that architecture, Kelleher stands as the most successful leader in the history of commercial aviation. As CEO from 1981 to 2001, Kelleher piloted Southwest from a tiny carrier that operated half-a-dozen planes in its native Texas towards what it is today, the nation’s most popular domestic airline, flying 120 million passengers annually. Along the way, Southwest has made money for 45 straight years, and greatly enriched shareholders. In a 2017 interview, Kelleher acknowledged that he’d partially copied the low-cost model from PSA, an airline that initially offered bare-bones service inside California, and hence wasn’t subject to prices dictated by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB). (PSA later struggled as a full-fare carrier and was bought by U.S. Airways.) Kelleher saw that the key to low costs was keeping a carrier’s biggest investments, aircraft or capital on wings, in the air more hours a day than its competitors’. To get there, he eschewed hub-and-spoke networks that required that most planes leave in two big batches at peak times, mid-morning and late afternoon, and instead flew between cities “point-to-point” with no intermediate stops. To lower maintenance costs, Southwest operated only one aircraft model, the Boeing 737. Kelleher also found that “short-haul” routes of less than three hours, even at low prices, were a lot more profitable than, say, transcontinental flights, because the fares charged per mile were higher, and Southwest could turn the planes far faster. When it invaded expensive, quasi-monopoly markets, Southwest crushed prices. Its entry into the Baltimore-Washington to Cleveland route in 1993 lowered round-trip fares from $340 to $19, and boosted traffic 15 fold in a year, a prime example of how the “Southwest effect” brought air travel to the masses. Under Kelleher, Southwest became the template for durable budget carriers that continue to democratize air travel, including JetBlue, Spirit, and Ryanair. For a born innovator, Kelleher was a surprisingly conservative operator, especially in handling Southwest finances. “We manage in good times so we’ll do well in bad times,” he’d tell his lieutenants. While competitors went astray buying hotels and rental car companies, Kelleher believed that Southwest could do only one thing well, transport customers at the lowest cost with the best service. Southwest’s balance sheet was typically the strongest, and least-leveraged in the business. Interestingly, Kelleher reckoned that Southwest’s practice of never laying off or furloughing employees not only fostered excellent labor relations, but discouraged excessive spending. He often stated that the rule forced Southwest to operate with a lean workforce so that it wouldn’t be excessively over-staffed in down markets, and could buck the industry pattern of firing big swaths of workers in a downturn. That discipline drove Southwest to get maximum productivity from its workforce––the flight attendants, rather than maintenance crews, cleaned the cabins on arrival. Kelleher created the rare airline culture where employees greet customers with grins and jokes instead of venting their resentment towards management on the job. No imperial perks for the boss. Kelleher gave himself an interior office with no windows and left the best views for the employee cafeteria overlooking runway 13F at Love Field. His hiring progress was rigorous, requiring candidates to sit multiple interviews in the same room with other candidates to see if candidates were listening and respectable when others were talking or just focused on themselves. He was looking for cockeyed optimists, extroverts like himself who loved to entertain. To make sure the employee fit, Southwest to this day offers jobs on a six month probationary period so managers can view how the new gate agents and flight attendants click with customers. For Kelleher, an assortment of rap-singing flight attendants, pilots uncorking corny jokes, and folks who loved to high-kick in the company chorus lines made the best army. “Culture is intangible, it’s spiritual, you can’t buy it,” Kelleher said in the 2017 Q&A. It’s clear that the airline leaders who most closely follow Kelleher’s humanist vision are the most successful. This writer recently followed Delta CEO Ed Bastian as he rallied employees in Salt Lake City. Bastian’s motto is that “if you take care of your employees, your employees will take care of your customers.” That dictum could have come from Kelleher, and it’s helped make Delta America’s most successful global carrier. (Southwest is mainly domestic.) In conclusion, to judge how nurturing the human nature of an enterprise can produce profits, consider that in Kelleher’s 20 years as CEO, Southwest posted total returns to shareholders averaging 20.0% a year, the best performance of any company in the S&P. And by following Kelleher’s template, Southwest has continued to drive strong returns under his long-term protégé and current CEO Gary Kelly. In most companies, the bland lead the bland. Corporate “fun” is seldom viewed as an asset. Herb Kelleher was the clown with a spine of steel, who proved that spreading fun could be the greatest asset of all. A version of this article appears in the February 2019 issue of Fortune with the headline “Remembering Herb.” |
