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Herb Kelleher at Southwest Airlines

In: Entrepreneurs, Managers, and Leaders

Author

Listed:
  • Anthony J. Mayo
  • Nitin Nohria
  • Mark Rennella

Abstract

Wearing satin shorts and a bathrobe, Herb Kelleher prepared to enter Dallas’s seedy Sportatorium during a winter morning in 1992. Kelleher’s “athletic” look, topped off with a sweatband pushing back his hair, was deliberately undercut by a cigarette dangling defiantly from his lips. Surrounded by an entourage rented from the world of professional wrestling, the 63-year-old CEO of Southwest Airlines had come to arm wrestle his company’s latest nemesis: Kurt Herwald, the 38-year-old weightlifting CEO of Stevens Aviation, an aircraft maintenance company based in South Carolina. Herwald had recently taken offense when he learned of Southwest’s use of the slogan “Plane Smart.” It seems that Stevens Aviation had already been using “Just Plane Smart” as their slogan for the past couple of years. But instead of calling on his lawyers to get things straightened out, Herwald phoned Kelleher directly and challenged him to fight for the rights to the slogan, mano a mano. Seizing this as a chance for great publicity, Kelleher hyped the event as “Mallice in Dallas,” gave 700 Southwest employees the morning off and brought them to the event to cheer him on. The arena soon echoed with the chant of “Herb! Herb! Herb! Herb!”

Suggested Citation

  • Anthony J. Mayo & Nitin Nohria & Mark Rennella, 2009. "Herb Kelleher at Southwest Airlines," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Entrepreneurs, Managers, and Leaders, chapter 0, pages 155-172, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-10095-4_8
    DOI: 10.1057/9780230100954_8
    as

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