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Do you think fast and make high quality decisions when you don’t have much time to get it right?

Do your employees follow your lead?

A serial sniper makes individuals afraid to pump gas, go shopping or appear in public.  An event like 9/11 can shut down one industry and power up another one. The airlines shut down; the recreational vehicle industry not only powered up, but also changed its customer demographics from 60 years of age to 40.

It’s obviously more fun to work with a growth trend than a total interruption of sales—both cause difficulties and challenges for leadership and management.

It’s instructive to look at how Southwest Airlines responded to 9/11 versus its competitors. Southwest found ways to focus its attention on getting customers back in planes and coping with new security requirements. The other airlines focused on getting bailouts from Washington.

Who made money? Southwest. Why? Southwest accepted change and responded by focusing on:

·        How to get fearful customers back in the air.

·        How to serve them better.

·        How to get employees what they needed to do the job under changed circumstances.

How to get fearful customers back in the air  . . .

   While Southwest’s competitors were raising prices, Southwest cut them with sales that brought families back in the air plus added new passengers. On a Friday in October shortly after 9/11, I had never seen so many baby strollers at the airport. Add passengers who had never flown on Southwest—the price difference of an $800 ticket compared with a $275 ticket price, brought Southwest first-time passengers. Southwest seized an opportunity.

Do you ride the wave of change by seizing opportunity, acting decisively and obtaining outstanding results?

How to serve customers better . . .

With increased baggage security and new rules, the lines at airports were staggering. On the Friday mentioned before, just the baggage check line was more than 100 people and that was before the security and gate lines—I was unsure whether two hours would be enough time. Southwest had it covered. They immediately dispatched employees to run up and down lines to help passengers get in the right line, have the right credentials and be prepared to speed up progress. Within one hour I was sitting at the boarding gate. Southwest acted decisively. Many organizations would be satisfied here.

How to get employees what they need to do the job  . . .

Southwest didn’t rest on their laurels or anything else! Two weeks later on a 6 AM flight out of Houston, COO and President of Southwest Colleen Barrett was at Hobby Airport listening to and working with employees to figure out how to get it faster and better. This was a COO who could get the right resources in the right place making sure she understood the situation. I saw even more changes in the next several flights. Southwest attained outstanding results and continued to profit when not one other competitor did because they led and listened to employees—and got their customers back in the air.

Southwest didn’t have much time to get it right—yet they seized opportunity, acted decisively and attained outstanding results despite enormous difficulties. Moreover these difficulties impacted their fast turnaround strategy more than many other competitors.

By not becoming chained to a past event and focusing on the future, Southwest got their business back on track.****

The events in your business may not be this dramatic, but they can change this quickly. Ensure you focus on your customers, your service and your operations equally. In the worst situation opportunities exist, new customer needs occur and winners put them together with their operation to attain outstanding results.

Janice Scanlan helps organizations seize opportunity, act decisively and achieve outstanding results when they don’t have much time to get it right.

Contact her (janicescanlan@earthlink.net or 281 261-2320) if you aren’t achieving success as fast as you need to!

****Organizations can "focus on the future" more reactively than proactively. For example, Continental acted decisively by going to Washington for a bail out, laying off employees and raising prices after 9/11. It's easy to get trapped with When We Disease by focusing on the wrong things-- when we have the new so and so or this and such happens. For Ten Ways to Avoid When We Disease press here.