Do the Right Thing: How Dedicated Employees Create Loyal Customers and Large Profits
Training & Development, Apr 2008 by Nancherla, Aparna
Do the Right Thing: How Dedicated Employees Create Loyal Customers and Large Profits By James F. Parker (Wharton School Publishing, 288 pp., $22.991
James F. Parker served as CEO and chairman of Southwest Airlines from June 2001 through July 2004-one of the most tumultuous periods for the airline industry. During Parker's tenure, one of Southwest's greatest accomplishments was being the only major airline to protect the jobs of all its employees while still remaining profitable after 9 /11. In so doing, Southwest became a model American success story.
In Do the Right Thing, Parker outlines how superior customer service and profits can be achieved by sticking to employees-first values. The book discusses the corporate culture of Southwest, which is built on a sturdy foundation of frontline employees with initiative. Using examples from World War II as well as sports, Parker explains the inherent benefits of a nonhierarchical structure.
Sprinkled throughout the book are a bevy of personal stories involving handing out peanuts to passengers on flights; how Southwest listened to a single employee's idea for ticketless travel in 1993; how a job candidate's neglected breast pump attracted a bomb squad, but also got her hired; and how a free bottle of whiskey helped win a price war with a competitor. Parker's story indicates that great leaders don't just oversee companies, they also constitute them.
Aparna Nancherla
Most Recent Business Articles
- Multiple criteria evaluation and optimization of transportation systems
- Multi-criteria analysis procedure for sustainable mobility evaluation in urban areas
- A two-leveled multi-objective symbiotic evolutionary algorithm for the hub and spoke location problem
- Multi-criteria analysis for evaluating the impacts of intelligent speed adaptation
- The development of Taiwan arterial traffic-adaptive signal control system and its field test: a Taiwan experience
Most Recent Business Publications
Most Popular Business Articles
- 7 tips for effective listening: productive listening does not occur naturally. It requires hard work and practice - Back To Basics - effective listening is a crucial skill for internal auditors
- FAS 109: a primer for non-accountants - Financial Accounting Standards Board's "Statement 109: Accounting for Income Taxes"
- Design a commission plan that drives sales - Sales Commissions
- Too Young to Rent a Car? - 25-years-old the minimum age for car renting - Brief Article
- Getting the global view: Nestle, led by Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, climbs to the #1 spot in this year's Best Companies for Leaders


