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 "Malice 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!"
After staging an entrance that Gorgeous George would have been proud of, Kelleher got to business. Although he strained with all his might against his adversary's obvious physical advantages, Kelleher lost the match. "If it hadn't been for my hairline wrist fracture, my cold and my athlete's feet, I would have won," Kelleher protested. Gracious in victory, Herwald allowed Kelleher to keep using the slogan anyway. More important than winning the rights to the slogan, both men succeeded in obtaining great publicity for their companies. In the case of Southwest, Kelleher showed the public yet again that the nation's seventh largest airline had a lovable, zany sense of crowd-pleasing humor that came straight from the top.
Harvard Business Review's Working Knowledge has more information on and from the book "Come Fly with Me: A History of Airline Leadership." Click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment