Corporate culture matters

In June I flew from Detroit to Chicago on Southwest Airlines. The plane was just like any other plane from any other airline, but there was one thing that made it a great flight: the crew and the pilot. If you've ever flown on Southwest, you'll know that humor is part of Southwest's corporate culture. When you fly with these guys it´s likely you will hear the pilot or the flight attendant tell a joke or just having fun over the public address system. At Southwest they are being true to their culture of having fun, and that's what makes it such a great experience to fly with these guys.

For example, after taking off from Detroit one of the flight attendants said something like: "Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to smoke, the smoking section on this airplane is on the wing and if You can light 'em, you can smoke'em." After landing in Chicago, when everyone was gathering all of their belongings before leaving the plane the flight attendant said "Last one off the plane must clean it". Everyone laughed. Everyone was smiling and seemed happy. It was the end of a fun experience. Southwest Airlines truly sees the value of creating an experience and adopting 'humor to enhance the time we spend on the plane.

Last week I flew from Lisbon to London on TAP Portugal and it was the total opposite. The flight was delayed, for unexplainable reasons the crew had less flight attendants than regulations require and therefore, no meal or even drinks were served. Bottom line: the crew did the minimum that was required to be considered service. Ok, they didn't have enough flight attendants but the ones who were there did not make any effort to create a different experience to enhance the 2 hours we were going to spend on the plane. Anyway, this wasn´t a surprise at all to me as it´s not part of TAP's corporate culture to provide a different brand experience to their customers. TAP thinks that to be successful they just need to provide the same kind of service British Airways, Iberia or most of the other boring Airlines out there provide.

The point is: corporate culture matters, and it matters a lot. You need to know why you are different, and why your customers are loyal to you. If you make no effort on this, over the long-term you won't have loyal customers, and you will have to spend more on your marketing budget to try to attract more and more customers.

Southwest Airlines has always been profitable, and their corporate culture is definitely one of the main reasons of their success. When Rollin King and Herb Kelleher decided more than 38 years ago to start Southwest, they decided to start a different kind of airline. They began with a simple notion: if you get your passengers to their destinations when they want to get there, on time, at the lowest possible fares, and make sure they have a good time doing it, people will fly your airline. You know what? They were absolutely right!