Nuts!: Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success

by Kevin Freiberg

Twenty-five years ago, Herb Kelleher reinvented air travel when he founded Southwest Airlines, where the planes are painted like killer whales, a typical company maxim is "Hire people with a sense of humor," and in-flight meals are never served--just sixty million bags of peanuts a year. By sidestepping "reengineering," "total quality management," and other management philosophies and employing its own brand of business success, Kelleher's airline has turned a profit for twenty-four consecutive years and seen its stock soar 300 percent since 1990.Today, Southwest is the safest airline in the world and ranks number one in the industry for service, on-time performance, and lowest employee turnover rate; and Fortune magazine has twice ranked Southwest one of the ten best companies to work for in America. How do they do it?With unlimited access to the people and inside documents of Southwest Airlines, authors Kevin and Jackie Freiberg share the secrets behind the greatest success story in commercial aviation. Read it and discover how to transfer the Southwest inspiration to your own business and personal life.

376 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 16, 2022

About the author

Jackie and Kevin Freiberg are bestselling authors and founders of the San Diego Consulting Group Inc. The Freibergs are dedicated to helping leaders create Best Places where the Best People can do their Best Work to make the world Better. Both have Ph.D.'s and teach part-time at the University of San Diego, School of Leadership and Education Sciences.

Their most recent book, "CAUSE! A Business Strategy for Standing Out in A Sea of Sameness" highlights companies that define themselves as cause oriented, they stand out, have better employee engagement, customer loyalty, stronger profitability and growth. If your company is not cause oriented, "CAUSE!" will show you how.

In their international bestseller "NUTS! Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success", Kevin and Jackie uncovered the strategies that created the greatest success story in the history of commercial aviation. "NUTS!" was followed by:

"GUTS! Companies that Blow the Doors Off Business-as-usual";
"BOOM! 7 Companies for Blowing the Doors Off Business-as-usual";

"NANOVATION: How a Little Car Can Teach the World to Think Big"; the inside story of one of the greatest innovations in the auto industry since the Model-T. It's also a roadmap for expanding your capacity to innovate and making innovation part of your cultural DNA; and

"DO SOMETHING NOW", three simple words that will change your organization—change your life. The scarcest resource in organizations right now is not money, talent, ideas or power; it's people who DO, people who add value and get things done. DSN inspires Dreamers to become Doers. Everyone wants to add value and this book shows you how.

"BE A PERSON OF IMPACT: 12 Strategies to be the CEO of Your Future". This book is an unapologetic kick in the butt to proactively manage your brand and reputation. POI will challenge you to reimagine, rethink, refresh, and even completely reengineer your brand. Why? Because your brand is in your control. If you want to be indispensable, stand-out as the best in your business and lead others to do the same this book will show you how.

The Freibergs speak on leadership, innovation and change all over the world. They have a global practice including firms in Europe, Japan, South Africa, India, Central and South America, as well as companies throughout the United States and Canada.

Reviews

[Sarah Siggelakis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly not sure what I think about this book. It's not written by Herb, the founder of Southwest. This is about Herb and about the beginnings of Southwest through the late 90's. I read this not long after the holiday meltdown Southwest experienced. It was interesting to think about the cultural context of Southwest advertising and uniforms. I love the customer focus, I love the ruthless questioning of how an airline or a business ought to run. And I love the customer commitment. Some of the stories of employee care did make me wince. While I loved hearing about kind gesturers from leadership and team members we have a long way to go in ensuring we don't corporate culture to be a social safety net