jetBlue: Relationships + Leadership + Innovation²

Author and journalist Marc Gunther offers up some wonderful insights concerning the nature of jetBlue’s success, in a CNN article published last Thursday that was accompanied a day later by a post in Gunther’s own blog.

Gunther accompanied jetBlue CEO Dave Barger on a flight to jetBlue University in Orlando, the airline’s employee training facility, and his writing seems to confirm that jetBlue is the “new Southwest.”

jetBlue, like Southwest, does not follow the business model of the legacy airlines. Being business-lean is a requirement, but success doesn’t stop there: Constructive relationships and dialogue between leadership, employees and customers are cultivated hands-on and face-to-face, starting with the CEO:

Finally, Barger’s desire to lead these pep rallies for newcomers — he has been to about 250 in the past decade — indicates that the culture matters at JetBlue. While the airline is known for the amenities in its cabin and a brand-new $875 million terminal at New York’s J.F.K. airport, this approachable CEO says the airline’s friendly relationship with its crew members is what sets it apart. “The hard product — airplanes, leather seats, satellite TVs, bricks and mortar — as long as you have a checkbook, they can be replicated,” Barger tells the new hires. “It’s the culture that can’t be replicated. It’s how we treat each other. Do we trust each other? Can we push back on each other? The human side of the equation is the most important part of what we’re doing.”

Read the rest of the CNN article »

In his accompanying blog post, Gunther makes the point that airlines are essentially a commodity business, selling seats, miles, destinations. The airline commodity, however, is both people-centric and execution-dependent. The sustainable success of an airline like jetBlue is almost entirely dependent on the company’s culture; i.e. people, attitudes, training, skills, relationships, and leadership:

“I hate to generalize but as a frequent traveler it’s easy to tell the well-run airlines from the rest. A JetBlue or Southwest flight feels different from a trip on Delta, United or U.S. Air. The people are more energetic. They seem like they want to be there. They actually smile. Amazing what a different a smile can make when you are on your own on the road. This is part of the Marriott secret sauce, too. Treat your people well and they will treat your customers well.”

Read the rest of Marc Gunther’s blog post »

jetBlue CEO Dave Barger is quite an interesting player — having come from the legacy side of the business (Continental), he now seems to revel in being the chief exec of the industry’s scrappiest startup. (See also ‘5Q With JetBlue’s Dave Barger‘ at Management.travel.)