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How could SouthWest Airlines spend A Billion Dollars for IT Modernisation

Rmukesh Gupta

One of the biggest news story this last Christmas season was the cascading effect of flights being cancelled by Southwest Airlines. According to their SEC filing, they had to cancel more than 16700 flights over the holiday period in December, costing them an estimated $725million-$825 million.

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When Software Can’t Change the Laws of Physics (or Leadership)

Mills-Scofield

And certainly, proactively notifying airlines and pilots that new training was required should have been a no-brainer. Today’s systems are complicated and complex* requiring different leadership capabilities throughout the organization. Apparently, the software could have been better designed both in functionality and UI/UX.

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Get Someone Else to Do the Work

Destination Innovation

It also saved the airline the task of checking them in. The airline had transferred part of the job to the customer. Get the passenger to enter all their details on their home computer, choose their seat and print a boarding pass on their home printer. This saved time for passengers without luggage to check.

Report 330
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When Software Can’t Change the Laws of Physics (or Leadership)

Mills-Scofield

And certainly, proactively notifying airlines and pilots that new training was required should have been a no-brainer. Today’s systems are complicated and complex* requiring different leadership capabilities throughout the organization. Apparently, the software could have been better designed both in functionality and UI/UX.

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Future-Centered Design: How to Turn Great Ideas into Action Plans

Daniel Burrus

Southwest Airlines has a notable history with both intrapreneurship and solving both internal and external company pain points creatively. But at Southwest Airlines, an internal employee named Marty Cobbs decided to take passengers by surprise by livening up the safety instructions with humor.

How To 89
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Innovating for a Worse Customer Experience (Insights from United Airlines)

Innovation Excellence

This week’s debacle at United Airlines highlighted a darker side of Innovation. While this was an extreme example of terrible customer service, I think it is merely the tip of the commercial innovation ‘iceberg’ that has been pervasive in the airline industry for many years.

Tips 42
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Herb Kelleher's Legacy at Southwest Airlines: 5 Important Lessons

Michael Roberto

Source: Southwest Airlines Yesterday, Southwest Airlines co-founder and long-time CEO Herb Kelleher died at age 87. What can we learn from Kelleher’s leadership at Southwest? Here are five simple, yet powerful, lessons that come to mind as I reflect on the Kelleher era at the airline: Make tradeoffs. Think systemically.