These two leadership styles actually have a lot in common. Both of them rely on influence and friendship. The leaders in both of these styles have a penchant for involving individuals in the organization for the purpose of achieving organizational goals. Both of these styles of leadership have the aim of achieving the vision and goals of the organization.

The charismatic leader tends to rely on his popularity. One of the usual manifestations of this is in the political realm. Do you ever remember Arnold Schwarzenegger? He is an amazing bodybuilder from Austria who became a popular action movie star. He made a lot of popular films including The Terminator trilogy and Total Recall among others. He became extremely popular. That is why when he ran as Governor of the state of California, he won by an overwhelming majority.

But then, charismatic leadership is not enough. The leader should display the characteristics of a good leader. This includes connecting with the followers and learning about their needs and their concerns. When the leader learns about these needs and concerns, he has to do something to tend to them.

Charismatic leadership, to a certain degree, relies on an extrovert leader. He or she can easily relate to people and even connect with them at a deeper level. Introverts, though, can also become charismatic leaders, especially, if they are beloved by their followers. They often keep with them a set of trusted followers who act as liaisons. This way, they also build their reputation.

But this kind of leadership can be easily abused. What if somebody popular comes along and takes the organization away from its vision and mission?

The result would be confusion and conflict in the organization. While conflict may sometimes be good in the organization, divisive conflicts may be the most painful ones to go through because the end result is not creativity but division.

This is where transformational leadership comes in. In this case, a person using this style has to influence his followers and subordinates to make important changes in their practices and in their lives. The end result is better life for the followers and better health for the organization.

We shouldn’t be putting charismatic leadership vs transformational leadership because these two styles actually complement each other. The leader has to choose how to balance these two styles of leadership in the workplace.

Free California marriage records can be viewed at county offices across the state and online at various responsible government websites. This information can be very useful for general research purposes. Sometimes, however, a more official or formal set of marriage records is necessary. In California, the Office of Vital Records can release public marriage records and Certificates of Record for divorces. Certified copies can be ordered only from the county and that would require a fee.

Not unlike all other states, California marriage records can be retrieved directly by DIY (do-it-yourself) or through third-party companies. Each serves its purpose and the choice is a matter of individual preference and fit. By and large, the former method saves on financial cost and may even be free-of-charge whereas the latter is employed when it is for a relatively more serious or legal purpose.

In California, all public records can be viewed at Public Health county offices. They can also be requested via email. The California Department of Public Health Office of Vital Records lists all of the pamphlets, forms and fees necessary to obtain official copies of marriage and divorce records. Unfortunately, obtaining marriage records on your own can sometimes be a lengthy and onerous process. The California Office of Vital Statistics estimates a backlog of six months when processing requests for public marriage records of California and recommends that people go directly to county offices to view records and request copies of them. Respective counties have different forms, fees and processes to retrieve this information.

Several companies can help you expedite the process of accessing and viewing state public records. They can surely help you order and receive certified copies of marriage records in a much more expeditious manner than people generally can on their own. With information that you supply, these companies can directly fill out forms and make requests for you straight from different counties as their network and infrastructure are in place for it.

Commercial public record brokers are presumptively experienced and professional when it comes to public records. They are well-versed in forms, fees and state laws and generally charge reasonable rates to help you get your desired information smoothly and quickly. They also develop and maintain live databases so people can view instant marriage records for free, in some cases.

There are now an estimated 36 million people in California and records have been kept since 1850. As a result, there are quite a few million California marriage records in existence. Locating the one that you seek precisely can therefore be quite a challenge. It’s probably best to engage professional service if time and integrity of information is of the essence.

That applies to any kind of plan, whether we’re talking business or personal finances, university degrees or NGO programs, website promotion or weight loss.

Setting objectives and milestones is of crucial importance for any planning activity and is the core of its success, or failure.

Knowing how to set objectives is not exactly rocket science in terms of complexity, but any strategist should know the basic rules of how to formulate and propose objectives. We will see in this article why objectives play such a major role within a company’s planning and strategic activities, how they influence all business processes, and we will review some guidelines of setting objectives.

The Importance of Setting Objectives

One might wonder why we need to establish objectives in the first place, why not let the company or a specific activity just run smoothly into the future and see where it gets. That would be the case only if we really do not care whether the activity in discussion will be successful or not: but then, to use a popular saying, “if something deserves to be performed, then it deserves to be performed well”. In other words, if we don’t care for the results, we should not proceed with the action at all.

Setting objectives before taking any action is the only right thing to do, for several reasons:

- it gives a target to aim to, therefore all actions and efforts will be focused on attaining the objective instead of being inefficiently used;

- gives participants a sense of direction, a glimpse of where they’re going to;

- motivates the leaders and their teams, since it is quite the custom of establishing some sort of reward once the team successfully completed a project;

- offers the support in evaluating the success of an action or project.

The 5 Rules of Setting Objectives: Be SMART!

I am sure most managers and leaders know what SMART stands for, well, at least when it comes of establishing objectives. However, I have seen some of them who cannot fully explain the five characteristics of a good-established objective – things are somehow blurry and confused in their minds. Since they can’t explain in details what SMART objectives really are, it is highly doubtful that they will always be able to formulate such objectives.

It is still unclear from where the confusion comes: perhaps there are too many sources of information, each of them with a slightly different approach upon what a SMART objective really is; or perhaps most people only briefly “heard” about it and they never get to reach the substance behind the packaging.

Either way, let us try to uncover the meaning of the SMART acronym and see how we can formulate efficient objectives.

SMART illustrates the 5 characteristics of an efficient objective; it stands for Specific – Measurable – Attainable – Relevant – Timely.

1. Be SPECIFIC!

When it comes of business planning, “specific” illustrates a situation that is easily identified and understood. It is usually linked to some mathematical determinant that imprints a specific character to a given action: most common determinants are numbers, ratios and fractions, percentages, frequencies. In this case, being “specific” means being “precise”.

Example: when you tell your team “I need this report in several copies”, you did not provide the team with a specific instruction. It is unclear what the determinant “several” means: for some it can be three, for some can be a hundred. A much better instruction would sound like “I need this report in 5 copies” – your team will know exactly what you expect and will have less chances to fail in delivering the desired result.

2. Be MEASURABLE!

When we say that an objective, a goal, must be measurable, we mean there is a stringent need to have the possibility to measure, to track the action(s) associated with the given objective.

We must set up a distinct system or establish clear procedures of how the actions will be monitored, measured and recorded. If an objective and the actions pertaining to it cannot be quantified, it is most likely that the objective is wrongly formulated and we should reconsider it.

Example: “our business must grow” is an obscure, non-measurable objective. What exactly should we measure in order to find out if the objective was met? But if we change it to “our business must grow in sales volume with 20%”, we’ve got one measurable objective: the measure being the percentage sales rise from present moment to the given moment in the future. We can calculate this very easy, based on the recorded sales figures.

3. Be ATTAINABLE!

Some use the term “achievable” instead of “attainable”, which you will see it is merely a synonym and we should not get stuck in analyzing which one is correct. Both are.

It is understood that each leader will want his company / unit to give outstanding performances; this is the spirit of competition and such thinking is much needed. However, when setting objectives, one should deeply analyze first the factors determining the success or failure of these objectives. Think of your team, of your capacities, of motivation: are they sufficient in order for the objectives to be met? Do you have the means and capabilities to achieve them?

Think it through and be honest and realistic to yourself: are you really capable of attaining the goals you’ve set or are you most likely headed to disappointment? Always set objectives that have a fair chance to be met: of course, they don’t need to be “easily” attained, you’re entitled to set difficult ones as long as they’re realistic and not futile.

Example: you own a newborn movers company and you set the objective of “becoming no. 1 movers within the state”. The problem is you only have 3 trucks available, while all your competitors have 10 and up. Your goal is not attainable; try instead a more realistic one, such as “reaching the Top 5 fastest growing movers company in the state”.

4. Be RELEVANT!

This notion is a little more difficult to be perceived in its full meaning; therefore we will start explaining it by using an example in the first place.

Imagine yourself going to the IT department and telling them they need to increase the profit to revenue ratio by 5%. They will probably look at you in astonishment and mumble something undistinguished about managers and the way they mess up with people’s minds.

Can you tell what is wrong with the objective above? Of course! The IT department has no idea what you were talking about and there’s nothing they can do about it – their job is to develop and maintain your computerized infrastructure, not to understand your economic speech. What you can do it setting an objective that the IT department can have an impact upon, and which will eventually lead to the increase you wanted in the first place. What about asking them to reduce expenditures for hardware and software by 10% monthly and be more cautious with the consumables within their department by not exceeding the allocated budget? They will surely understand what they need to do because the objective is relevant for their group.

Therefore, the quality of an objective to be “relevant” refers to setting appropriate objectives for a given individual or team: you need to think if they can truly do something about it or is it irrelevant for the job they perform.

5. Be TIMELY!

No much to discuss about this aspect, since it is probably the easiest to be understood and applied.

Any usable and performable objective must have a clear timeframe of when it should start and/or when it should end. Without having a timeframe specified, it is practically impossible to say if the objective is met or not.

For example, if you just say “we need to raise profit by 500000 units”, you will never be able to tell if the objective was achieved or not, one can always say “well, we’ll do it next year”. Instead, if you say “we need to raise profit by 500000 units within 6 months from now”, anyone can see in 6 months if the goal was attained or not. Without a clear, distinct timeframe, no objective is any good.

Pre-planning preparation is the key difference between just another fundraiser bike event and an unforgettable experience, which will be remembered all year until next year’s annual Bike-a-Thon Fundraiser. Let’s face it raising money for your non-profit group is not easy and planning a successful fundraiser is a lot of work with no guarantees. Our mission of course, is to take as much of the guessing out of the equation as possible, giving you useful information, tips and experience learned from actual trial and error.

If this article can save you from the mistakes we have made along the way, then you are that much further ahead. Although a Bike-a-Thon is one of the easiest fundraisers, probably about as much work as putting together a car wash fundraiser or silent auction, it still has its idiosyncrasies and important details to consider.

One issue you will most likely have to deal with is getting a city permit to host your fundraiser event. Generally, these permits are not that difficult to get, but do not be surprised to find yourself battling a little bureaucracy along the way. You may be required to have “event insurance” which you can obtain from a local insurance broker or if you are part of a larger Non-profit Group, that might be a place to start looking for insurance resources. How much are event permits at the municipal level?

Well, your city may have waivers for non-profit groups, so be sure to ask, some cities do. Most do not, so you can expect your permit to be anywhere from a nominal filing fee of $30-60 or somewhere between $100 to several hundred dollars depending on which city departments have to sign off on it.

If your event will have over 100 riders or up into the thousands of riders, you may be required to close off roads, pay for off-duty traffic police, a cone-service and all sorts of other anticipated costs, which may be prohibitive or you may decide it’s worth it, but this also adds to the size and complexity of your fundraiser planning. If things get too out of control, you may want to put yourself on the City Council Calendar to request a waiver of fees or funds from the city to pay the fees.

This is one reason you need to schedule your Bike-a-Thon fundraiser a couple of months ahead of time from your actual first meeting planning date; rushing your fundraiser together can create problems down the road for your participants or riders. For instance, what if your route crosses state owned highways or uses a portion of them, well, then you may be required to get a state Department of Transportation permit too. Also realize that some roads are county maintained and you know how the government works, one more level of paperwork to forge through for you.

Next, you will need permission from the property owner or major tenant to meet in their shopping center or industrial area that is along your route for the starting point. They may require certificates of insurance or additional insured certificates to protect themselves from injury lawsuits if someone falls off their bike or gets run over in the parking lot. Getting such permission might be easy, but could also take a week or two, depending on holidays and weekends.

People like to customize many different items in their lives. We decal cars, get special covers for mp3 players, and personalize everything from sporting equipment to book covers. It should come as no surprise then that many bikers choose to add graphics to their motorcycles. The graphics allow individuals to make their bikes look better, add personality, or increase safety with reflective graphics.

With a motorcycle graphic, you can affordably add customization and personality to your bike. In fact, some people like to buy several different graphics that they can change depending on their mood or the event they are heading to. Many companies make graphic decals that are easy to install on your bike and made so that you can reuse them many times whenever you want.

If you are thinking of buying a motorcycle decal, try searching online for ideas and examples of the graphics offered. Some companies will do custom orders, but not all do. You can find everything from butterflies to eagles to skulls. Hundreds, if not thousands, of different graphics are available so you’ll have many different designs to choose from.

When considering a motorcycle graphic, you should first measure the area on your bike where you want to put it. This will help ensure that the graphic fits your bike. Next, you should watch or read any installation material available from the manufacturer to make sure that you feel comfortable with installing the decal.

You’ll also want to make sure that the graphic is of a high quality. You don’t want something that looks like junk bringing the look of your bike down. You want a decal that doesn’t have a background to it or it will be obvious that it’s not painted on. If you find several you like, you may want to purchase one to begin with, just to make sure that it fits and looks good before spending the money on the rest.

Motorcycle graphics create a customized look for your bike, with the flexibility to switch decals out when you get tired of one or want a different look. Rather than getting stuck with one look, you can have multiple graphics for your bike or go without from time to time.

All employees want to be valuable and remain competitive in the labour market at all times. This can only be achieved through employee training and development. Employees will always want to develop career-enhancing skills, which will always lead to employee motivation and retention. There is no doubt that a well trained and developed staff will be a valuable asset to the company and thereby increasing the chances of his efficiency in discharging his or her duties.

Trainings in an organization can be mainly of two types; Internal and External training sessions. Internal training involves when training is organized in-house by the Human resources department or training department using either a senior staff or any talented staff in the particular department as a resource person.

On the other hand External training is normally arranged outside the firm and is mostly organized by training institutes or consultants. Whichever training, it is very essential for all staff and helps in building career positioning and preparing staff for greater challenges.

Employers of labour should enable employees to pursue training and development in a direction that they choose and are interested in, not just in company-assigned directions. Companies should support learning, in general, and not just in support of knowledge needed for the employee’s current or next anticipated job. It should be noted that the key factor is keeping the employee interested, attending, engaged, motivated and retained.

For every employee to perform well especially Supervisors and Managers, there is need for constant training and development. The right employee training, development and education provides big payoffs for the employer in increased productivity, knowledge, loyalty, and contribution to general growth of the firm. In most cases external trainings for instance provide participants with the avenue to meet new set of people in the same field and network. The meeting will give them the chance to compare issues and find out what is obtainable in each other’s environment. This for sure will introduce positive changes where necessary.

REASONS FOR EMPLOYEE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT:

The reasons behind employee training and development cannot be overemphasized. From our discussions so far, one can easily deduce some reasons behind firms engaging in training and developing their staff. We will summarize some of the reasons thus;

When needs arise as a result of findings from the outcome of performance appraisal.

As part of professional development plan.

As part of succession planning to help an employee be eligible for a planned change in role in the organization.

To imbibe and inculcate a new technology in the system.

Because of the dynamic nature of the business world and changing technologies.

SOME TOPICS TREATED IN EMPLOYEE TRAININGS:

Communications: The increasing diversity of today’s workforce brings a wide variety of languages and customs, thus staff should be able to be very good in both written and verbal communication.

Computer skills: Computer skills are becoming a necessity for conducting administrative and office tasks. In this era of technological advancement, computer skills are very necessary for almost of departments in an organization.

Customer service: Increased competition in today’s global marketplace makes it critical that employees understand and meet the needs of customers. The firm that stands out from the crowd is that firm that puts its customers first before every other goal. Then the need to always train staff on customer service.

Diversity: This includes explanation about people and their different perspectives and views, and how this can be handled.

Ethics: There are divergent ethics in different firms. Some firms attach more importance to certain issues like moral, work period, lateness etc than other issues. Today’s society has increasing expectations about corporate social responsibility. Also, today’s diverse workforce brings a wide variety of values and morals to the workplace. This calls for the need for staff to be reminded of these always through training and development.

Human relations: The increased stresses of today’s workplace can include misunderstandings and conflict. Training can help people to get along in the workplace with good understanding of each other and the office inter personal relationship to reduce official conflict.

Quality Management: Initiatives such as Total Quality Management, Quality Circles, benchmarking, etc., require basic training about quality concepts, guidelines and standards for quality, etc.

Safety: Safety training is critical where working with heavy equipment, hazardous chemicals, repetitive activities etc. Staff should be made to understand that despite the fact that they have a safety department, the safety of each staff is in his /her own hands.

BENEFITS OF EMPLOYEE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT:

Increased job satisfaction and morale among employees.

Better inter personal relationship and customer satisfaction.

Increased employee motivation.

Increased efficiencies in processes, resulting in improved financial gain.

Increased capacity to adopt new technologies and methods.

Increased innovation in strategies and products.

Reduced employee turnover.

Enhanced company image.

Better Risk management and staff safety consciousness.

Increase in productivity.

Over the years — through research, working with others, and our own life experiences — we have learned some techniques that can help you move from reacting to change to proactively rising to its challenge:

#1: Recognize that change involves loss.

Even positive change, by the way. For example, a job loss (whether through layoff or career advancement) means losing coworkers, familiar routines and surroundings, and a reassuring feeling of competence.

Get in touch with that loss. Experience it and put it in context with potential gains entailed in the change.

#2: Accept or reject the change.

If the potential gains do not outweigh the losses, you may choose to reject the change. For example, all things considered, a particular promotion may not be appropriate for you at this time in your life.

If the change is initiated by outside factors, e.g., layoff or death of a loved one, the option to reject the change may not be apparent. And that option may, indeed, not be the preferred choice, but it should be considered. This may lead to a discovery of creative alternatives that would not otherwise be contemplated. For example, if you and many of your coworkers have just been laid off, a healthy and productive way to reject the change (i.e., re-channel the resentment and financial worries) might be for several of you to form your own company.

Often, however, the preferred option is acceptance. This does not happen overnight. [See Step 3.] You may have heard of the Serenity Prayer (which can be viewed as a religious prayer or a secular self-dedication):

…grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change

Courage to change the things I can

and the Wisdom to know the difference.

#3: Approach change as a process.

Don’t expect instantaneous comfort with the change. It’s like a new pair of sneakers. That old pair is well worn in and comfortable. But it’s ratty looking and starting to fall apart. A new pair just doesn’t feel right, yet. But we know it will, after a few days. So we bear with the temporary discomfort.

Some changes may be welcomed, e.g., a new job, house or child. Some may not, e.g., going on without a loved one. Either way, change can be disorienting and uncomfortable or even painful, initially. But, this too shall pass.

And, typically, there are stages we move through. The following SARAH model, outlining classic stages of grief, applies to all types of change:

Shock — numbness, confusion, disorientation

|

Anger … or (directed inward) — depression, sadness, fear

|

Rejection … including denial of emotional impact

|

Acceptance … or (negatively) — resignation, i.e., hopeless “acceptance”

|

Hope — positive focus on the future

Although the manifestations, timing and sequence vary from person to person and circumstance to circumstance, we must accept and move through whatever stage we are in, in order to reach full acceptance and hope. Otherwise, we can get stuck in one or more stages, e.g., bitter resignation or vacillating between anger and rejection.

#4: Develop a positive outlook.

Negativity is a killer (sometimes literally)! Stress, brought on by negative thoughts and actions, can lead to a reduced immune system and a greater possibility of illness.

In this context of rising to the challenge of change, negative thoughts are paralyzers – telling ourselves (incorrectly) that we can’t do what we need to do.

Turn those killer thoughts into more positive (and more realistic) internal dialogue. Practice the following process [presented in our article on Self-Talk]:

Recognize: realize that you’re thinking negatively

STOP: visualize a STOP sign and tell yourself to Stop It!

Restate: reframe into a positive statement

Reward: even if it’s just giving yourself a pat on the back

For example:

Oh, this is impossible. I’ll never be able to do this!
Stop That! That’s not true.
This is hard; and I’m not sure yet how or when I’ll succeed, but I will!
Hey! I just changed a negative into a positive. Well done!

Initially, you’ll probably miss more negative thoughts than you catch, but you’ll get better and better; and the process will start to become automatic.

Have you heard that joke about the tourist in New York City, trying to find Carnegie Hall? He approaches a street musician and asks: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? The answer: Practice, practice, practice!

#5: Make a plan.

Translate your positive attitude into a positive plan of action. As with any good plan, include short-term goals and timetables. What will you do and when will you do it? Review the plan regularly and revise as appropriate. [See Step 6 below.] Get started and take one step at a time.

Perhaps most important, develop a support system. Surround yourself with positive people, who care about you. And let them in. Share the challenge you’re facing, your stumbles and your triumphs.

One of the best-known support systems is Alcoholics Anonymous — a wonderful model for coping with change. [We've already quoted from the Serenity Prayer used by that group.] Find a sponsor — your own personal cheerleader and coach — someone to turn to when the going gets tough and with whom to share successes along the way.

Better yet, a team of sponsors — working in coordination or separately. [A few years ago, we saw a TV news story about an entire town banding together to solve their joint unemployment problems in a very creative way.]

Perhaps that team is a religious or secular organization or consists of some combination of: a family member, a friend, a coworker, a spiritual mentor, a mental health practitioner, a professional life-skills coach, and/or training seminars.

#6: Allow yourself to be flexible.

Accept that life is a series of detours. The best laid plans…

Many times, when we least expect it, life throws us a curve. It’s not the nature of the curve so much as our ability and skill to handle the detour that affects the outcome.

Expect such detours. For example, you may want to develop strategies for coping with your worst-case scenario.

Don’t let the detours throw you. Simply revisit your plan and revise accordingly. Remember, you can handle this!

Southwest Airlines is the largest airline measured by number of passengers carried each year within the United States. It is also known as a ‘discount airline’ compared with its large rivals in the industry. Rollin King and Herb Kelleher founded Southwest Airlines on June 18, 1971. Its first flights were from Love Field in Dallas to Houston and San Antonio, short hops with no-frills service and a simple fare structure. The airline began with one simple strategy: “If you get your passengers to their destinations when they want to get there, on time, at the lowest possible fares, and make darn sure they have a good time doing it, people will fly your airline.” This approach has been the key to Southwest’s success. Currently, Southwest serves about 60 cities (in 31 states) with 71 million total passengers carried (in 2004) and with a total operating revenue of $6.5 billion. Southwest is traded publicly under the symbol “LUV” on NYSE.

Facts:

* The first major airline to fly a single type of aircraft (Boeing 737s)

* The first major airline to offer ticketless travel system wide including a frequent flier program based on number of trips and not number of miles flown.

* The first airline to offer a profit-sharing program to its Employees (instituted in 1973).

* The first major airline to develop a Web site and offer online booking. In 2001, about 40 percent ($2.1 billion) of its passenger revenue was generated through online bookings at [http://www.southwest.com]. Southwest’s cost per booking via the Internet is about $1, compared to a cost per booking through travel agents of $6 to $8.

Key competitive advantages:

* Low Operational costs / High Operational Efficiency

* Award winning customer service

* Human Resource practices / Work culture

Operations Analysis – Competitive Dimensions:

Southwest clearly has a distinct advantage compared to other airlines in the industry by executing an effective and efficient operations strategy that forms an important pillar of its overall corporate strategy. Given below are some competitive dimensions that will be studied in this paper.

1. Operational Costs and Efficiency

2. Customer Service

3. Employee/Labor Relations

4. Technology

1. Operational Costs and Efficiency

After all, the airline industry overall is in shambles. But, how does Southwest Airlines stay profitable? Southwest Airlines has the lowest costs and strongest balance sheet in its industry, according to its chairman Kelleher. The two biggest operating costs for any airline are – labor costs (approx 40%) followed by fuel costs (approx 18%). Some other ways that Southwest is able to keep their operational costs low is – flying point-to-point routes, choosing secondary (smaller) airports, carrying consistent aircraft, maintaining high aircraft utilization, encouraging e-ticketing etc.

Labor Costs

The labor costs for Southwest typically accounts for about 37% of its operating costs. Perhaps the most critical element of the successful low-fare airline business model is achieving significantly higher labor productivity. According to a recent HBS Case Study, southwest airlines is the “most heavily unionized” US airline (about 81% of its employees belong to an union) and its salary rates are considered to be at or above average compared to the US airline industry. The low-fare carrier labor advantage is in much more flexible work rules that allow cross-utilization of virtually all employees (except where disallowed by licensing and safety standards). Such cross-utilization and a long-standing culture of cooperation among labor groups translate into lower unit labor costs. At Southwest in 4th quarter 2000, total labor expense per available seat mile (ASM) was more than 25% below that of United and American, and 58% less than US Airways.

Carriers like Southwest have a tremendous cost advantage over network airlines simply because their workforce generates more output per employee. In a study in 2001, the productivity of Southwest employees was over 45% higher than at American and United, despite the substantially longer flight lengths and larger average aircraft size of these network carriers. Therefore by its relentless pursuit for lowest labor costs, Southwest is able to positively impact its bottom line revenues.

Fuel Costs

Fuel costs is the second-largest expense for airlines after labor and accounts for about 18 percent of the carrier’s operating costs. Airlines that want to prevent huge swings in operating expenses and bottom line profitability choose to hedge fuel prices. If airlines can control the cost of fuel, they can more accurately estimate budgets and forecast earnings. With growing competition and air travel becoming a commodity business, being competitive on price was key to any airline’s survival and success. It became hard to pass higher fuel costs on to passengers by raising ticket prices due to the highly competitive nature of the industry.

Southwest has been able to successfully implement its fuel hedging strategy to save on fuel expenses in a big way and has the largest hedging position among other carriers. In the second quarter of 2005, Southwest’s unit costs fell by 3.5% despite a 25% increase in jet fuel costs. During Fiscal year 2003, Southwest had much lower fuel expense (0.012 per ASM) compared to the other airlines with the exception of JetBlue as illustrated in exhibit 1 below. In 2005, 85 per cent of the airline’s fuel needs has been hedged at $26 per barrel. World oil prices in August 2005 reached $68 per barrel. In the second quarter of 2005 alone, Southwest achieved fuel savings of $196 million. The state of the industry also suggests that airlines that are hedged have a competitive advantage over the non-hedging airlines. Southwest announced in 2003 that it would add performance-enhancing Blended Winglets to its current and future fleet of Boeing 737-700’s. The visually distinctive Winglets will improve performance by extending the airplane’s range, saving fuel, lowering engine maintenance costs, and reducing takeoff noise.

Point-to-Point Service

Southwest operates its flight point-to-point service to maximize its operational efficiency and stay cost-effective. Most of its flights are short hauls averaging about 590 miles. It uses the strategy to keep its flights in the air more often and therefore achieve better capacity utilization.

Secondary Airports

Southwest flies to secondary/smaller airports in an effort to reduce travel delays and therefore provide excellent service to its customers. It has led the industry in on-time performance. Southwest has also been able to trim down its airport operations costs relatively better than its rival airlines.

Consistent aircraft

At the heart of Southwest’s success is its single aircraft strategy: Its fleet consists exclusively of Boeing 737 jets. Having common fleet significantly simplifies scheduling, operations and flight maintenance. The training costs for pilots, ground crew and mechanics are lower, because there’s only a single aircraft to learn. Purchasing, provisioning, and other operations are also vastly simplified, thereby lowering costs. Consistent aircraft also enables Southwest to utilize its pilot crew more efficiently.

E-Ticketing

The idea of ticketless travel was a major advantage to Southwest because it could lower its distribution costs. Southwest became electronic or ticketless back in the mid-1990s, and today they are about 90-95% ticketless. Customers who use credit cards are eligible for online transactions, and today Southwest.com bookings account for about 65% of total revenue. The CEO Gary Kelly thinks that this idea would grow further and that he wouldn’t be surprised if e-ticketing accounted for 75% of Southwest’s revenues by end of 2005. In the past, when there was a 10% travel agency commission paid, it used to cost about $8 a booking. But currently, Southwest is paying between 50 cents and $1 per booking for electronic transactions that translate to huge cost savings.

2. Employee and Labor Relations

Southwest has been highly regarded for its innovative management style. It maintains a relentless focus on high-performance relationships and its people-management practices have been the key to its unparalleled success in the airline industry.

Mission Statement

To Our Employees

“We are committed to provide our Employees a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth. Creativity and innovation are encouraged for improving the effectiveness of Southwest Airlines. Above all, Employees will be provided the same concern, respect, and caring attitude within the organization that they are expected to share externally with every Southwest Customer.”

The Southwest mission statement shows that the company has a strong commitment to its employees. The company affords the same respect to its employees that is provided to its customers. The Southwest mission statement is unique in that it recognizes the importance of its employees within the broader business strategy, which emphasizes superb customer service and operational efficiency. The employees reciprocate the respect, loyalty and trust that Southwest demonstrates. Southwest employees are known for their loyalty, dedication, attitude and innovation. The employees are the distinguishing factor between Southwest and the rest of the airline industry.

Hiring

Southwest hiring policy is unique not only within the airline industry, but also more broadly, and revolves around finding people with the right attitude that will thrive in the Southwest culture. Extensive procedures are employed to hire for positive attitude and dedication. Those who do not posses those qualities are weeded out. Colleen Barrett, a non-operational officer at Southwest, states that

“Hiring is critical, because you cannot institutionalize behavior. Instead, you must identify those people who already practice the behaviors you are looking for. Then you can allow Employees to be themselves and make decisions about Customer service based on common sense and their natural inclinations.” 1

Recruiting and interviewing at Southwest is a two-step process. The first step is a group interview, conducted by employees, where communication skills of potential candidates are evaluated. The next steps in this process are one on one interview, where the candidates’ attitudes and orientation toward serving others are evaluated. These hiring criteria apply to all job functions since all Employees at Southwest play a customer service role. A critical part of Southwest operational strategy is that every job at Southwest is a customer service position, whether it directly applies to the customer or whether it is internal.

The table below shows that even though Southwest is the most heavily unionized airline, at approximately 80%, that contract negotiations between the unions and Southwest are much shorter in duration than of the other major carriers. This shows the quality of relationship that Southwest has with its employees and with the unions that represent them.

Culture

Southwest was created as a different kind of company and from its beginnings a unique culture was nurtured. In 1990 Colleen Barrett formed the Southwest Culture Committee. This is unique within the industry and among all large companies. The committee also has a mission statement:

“This group’s goal is to help create the Southwest spirit and culture where needed; to enrich it and make it better where it already exists; and to liven it up in places where it might be “floundering”. In short, this group’s goal is to do “whatever it takes” to create, enhance, and enrich the special Southwest spirit and culture that has made this such a wonderful Company/Family.”

It is this unique approach to company values that has created a culture that differentiates itself from others. Southwest’s culture is the reason why it is successful.

3. Customer Service

The Mission of Southwest Airlines

The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit.

Approach

Herb Kelleher, founder of Southwest, has been quoted as saying that “We’re in the Customer service business; we just happen to provide airline transportation”.2 Award winning customer service is a distinguishing characteristic of Southwest and it is referred to internally as “Positively Outrageous Service”. It means that from the top to bottom everyone does whatever he or she can to satisfy the customer. This includes Herb Kelleher, who has been known for helping out baggage handlers on Thanksgiving. It is through emphasizing the customer and employee that Southwest is able to differentiate itself from others in the airline industry. On a more technical level, each employee or group within Southwest has his or her own customer. This means that every employee ‘serves’ in one way or another despite not being directly involved with the passenger. The mechanic’s customer is the pilot and the caterer’s is the flight attendant.

Results

It can be said that the “Positively Outrageous Service” that is unique to Southwest “is not the result of a department, or a program, or a mandate from management. It is not secondary to the product; it is the product.” This approach creates the conditions where Employees are more likely to treat customers in ways that distinguish the company from others. There are numerous accounts of passengers who have received exceptional treatment from Southwest employees.

The question that needs to be answered is how Southwest’s customer service is different and why? Is it common for customers of other airlines to rave about their special service? The answer is that it is not. While Southwest does not have a monopoly on people who are kind and who are willing to go above and beyond to satisfy a customer, such behavior is nurtured at Southwest to a much greater extent.

It can then be concluded that the customer service that is inherent to Southwest is a part of its culture. This culture is supported through employee encouragement to do the extra to satisfy the customer. This approach inspires people who would ordinarily only on occasion go out of their way to help someone, to become consistent performers that offer exceptional service all the time. Southwest employees are what differentiate its customer service from the other airlines.

4. Technology

Southwest utilizes technology in many ways to fulfill its business objectives and maintain its efficient operations. According to its CEO, technology equals productivity. Launched in 1996, ticketless travel was first introduced by Southwest. On May 1st 2000, Southwest Airlines introduces “SWABIZ,” a portal that assists company travel managers in booking and tracking trips made through its web site [http://www.southwest.com]. There are many new technology initiatives being undertaken currently and some are in the pipeline.

Bar codes in Boarding Passes

Southwest Airlines has invested $12 million during the past three years to standardize corporate and terminal operations on about 10,000 Dell OptiPlex desktop and Latitude notebook computers according to its company executives. Southwest wanted to replace its well known, brightly colored plastic boarding passes with an electronic system with bar-code paper boarding passes. So it installed about 350 touch screen ticket readers powered by Dell OptiPlex desktops. The bar code gives Southwest more information to automatically reconcile the number of boarding passes with the number of passengers that actually board the plane.

Although the technology will help Southwest Airlines remain efficient by consolidating passenger information for the company’s 3,000 daily flights, there were concerns it could lengthen the time to get travelers on board. However it was found that scanning each bar code on the boarding passes didn’t increase or shorten boarding schedules, but it did take minutes from administrative processes, such as looking up customer records. The new paper bar code system is giving Southwest ticket agents the ability to match a customer record within having to scroll through and log into multiple software screens. The process is much more automated. Once the bar code on the boarding pass is scanned at the terminal gate it checks off the person from the passenger list in real time.

The old process was manual that involved finding the information, scrolling through several software screens from reservations to check-in to boarding. The bar code hardware to scan the boarding passes has been deployed. The company is in the process of replacing customer service back-office equipment at airports including at its headquarters in Dallas.

Software Upgrades

Software applications, such as those used by clerks to check in passengers, are being replaced. Southwest Airlines’ internally written “Airport Application Suite” is expected to rollout next year as the company transitions from green screens to Window-based user interface. Similar to Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Southwest Airlines believes in developing in-house the software that runs its operations. The company uses very little off-the-shelf software. There are between 75 and 100 projects in the works each year supported by approximately 900 IT employees.

RFID

Radio frequency identification technology, a favorable alternative to bar-coding for luggage identification, is also on Southwest’s radar. It plans to test RFID technology sometime in 2006. Even though, Southwest is playing a little catch-up with other airlines such as Air Tran, Alaska and Champion Airlines, in many cases they are able leapfrog to more sophisticated applications easily having waited longer.

Challenges:

Southwest has emerged very successful, despite the most troubled times in the airline market. However, it faces new challenges in the face of increasing competition from other low fare airlines such as JetBlue, ATA airlines, America West.

Reserved Seating

Due to increasing security guidelines since September 2001, Southwest would need to prepare for assigned (reserved) seating to track its in-flight passengers. This change will involve large technology investments and may impact its gate operations negatively since the current way of unassigned seating has helped in quick gate turnarounds.

Passenger Demand

The keep-it-simple philosophy has served Southwest well. But as its own business grows and grows more complex, with plans to purchase dozens of new aircraft and an expected upsurge in passenger traffic to about 80 million boarding’s a year, the simplicity strategy that has been reflected in the airline’s IT philosophy is evolving. The CIO Tom Nealon says that “It’s time to adapt our business processes for efficiency. As our airline scales for us to provide the same kind of high-touch customer service, we have to automate a lot of things we’ve been able to do without technology previously. The challenge is doing that without conceding the customer touch.” Southwest is also aggressively pursuing customer relationship management (CRM) techniques and has applications to get insight into customer’s wants and dislikes. According to an interview with its CEO Gary Keller, Southwest has its focus on improving in two areas – customer’s airport experience and in-flight experience.

In-Flight Entertainment

In an overall effort to improve customer’s in-flight experience, in-flight entertainment is something that Southwest is currently evaluating and which JetBlue has been very successful at already because of its introduction in its long-haul flights. In comparison, Southwest has 415 airplanes to consider and that represents an investment decision at a whole new dimension. Additionally, Southwest has to consider how things may fit into their environment. At this point, 60% of its service is still very short haul. Southwest needs to be mindful of the fact that a certain approach that has been successful for its competitor may not be necessarily work to its advantage.

Summary:

Southwest has long been regarded as a benchmark in its industry for operational excellence. Southwest Airlines is a fine example of a company that is committed to its core competencies – efficient operations to drive its low cost structure, outstanding delivery of customer service and innovative HR management practices. We hope this paper provided a good insight into Southwest operations, as part of its overall strategy, to achieve success and gain competitive advantage.

References:

1. [http://www.southwest.com] (Southwest airlines official web site)

2. “Southwest keeps it simple” – Air Transport World, April 2005, Pg 36

3. “Around the World on $48 (or So): How High Can Discount Airlines Fly?“ Strategy Management – Knowledge@ Wharton Newsletter Oct 5, 2005

4. TechWeb – [http://www.techweb.com/wire/ebiz/173601227]

5. “Southwest’s Strategy for Success: Consolidate!” – Oracle Magazine (Sept/Oct 2004 edition) http://www.oracle.com/technology/oramag/oracle/04-sep/o54swest.html

6. “Southwest Airlines: High Tech, Low Costs” – Eweek.com, April 2005

7. “Jet Fuel Hedging Strategies: Options Available for Airlines and a Survey of Industry Practices” – Kellogg School of Management Research Paper, Spring 2004

8. Winning Behavior: What the Smartest, Most Successful Companies Do Differently, Terry R. Bacon and David G. Pugh, 2003

9. Time Magazine, Oct 28th 2002 issue, Vol. 160 Issue 18, p. 45

10. “Wings Of Change”,Information Week, March 28, 2005,

11. Labor Contract Negotiations in the Airline Industry, Monthly Labor Review, July 2003, page 24

Most of the training institutes and companies make sure that the training department is efficient enough to give simultaneous online or virtual class training to agents in various locations. Many Insurance companies sponsor the training charges to those already employed in the respective sectors. In addition to that many prominent companies and individual candidates prefer to have courses online. Some universities offer both in house classrooms training as well as online training.

Features

Insurance Training instills professionalism and builds self confidence among the employees to tackle the pressure that goes with the industry.
It introduces candidates to various soft skills and behavioral techniques motivating good competition and better understanding of the market and business culture.
Insurance Training also provides the candidates an exposure of International insurance market scene to help them cope with day to day industry changes.
The training also gives enough sessions on other business oriented issues like human resource, investments and security concerns.

Benefits

 The training ensures good customer service and also enables to understand new products and     regulations introduced in the market.
 It also helps the agents to grasp various industry concepts, thereby encouraging focused analysis with regards to product and technical knowledge.
 The training also provides a good background on effective data maintenance and content management.
The training encourages good competency within the industry and also among the agents.

Insurance training help the agents provide professional service to the public. It on the whole gives a wide picture and helps an agent address specific issues of a customer. The training also helps in building ethical values along with professional approach to the industry.

Instant Research – the name and address of the person will be instantly found once the mobile phone number of the person will be entered in search. Incorrect records may be obtained using this method.
Instant Reverse Search – this will not only easily find the name and address with mobile phone number but will also reveal some public information about the person such as marriage, divorce, birth and property records. Other sensitive information such as criminal history can also be accessed.
Forward and Reverse Lookup – this is simple finding the mobile phone number of the person using his/her name or the other way around of finding the name and address of the person using the mobile phone number.
Private Reverse Record Directories – most of these websites are available only for private viewing to law enforcement officers and to licensed investigators but some have become accessible to the public as well.
Slow and Outdated Reverse Directories – these are site in which the mobile numbers are outdated for more than a year. It may take as much as 3 days to find the name and address of the person you are searching and the information is sent through your email.
Spam Websites – A lot of these sites exist and these will only lure you to click on the advertisements on their sites and spam you with the information you want.

There are a few, good reliable websites that gives accurate and reverse search in finding the name and address with mobile number of a person that is readily accessible to the public. The best reverse phone lookups not only let you lookup billing name and address with any phone numbers but also access public records such as criminal history, police records, and other court records.