当代最伟大的12位企业家

9. 赫伯•凯利赫

公司名称：西南航空

销售额：156亿美元

市值：64亿美元

员工人数：45,392

建议：顾客第一

    赫伯•凯利赫在卫斯连大学（Wesleyan University）学习英语专业时进行了能力倾向测试，结果被告知他最适合做三类职业：记者、编辑或律师。凯利赫选择了律师，这个选择不错。后来西南航空（Southwest Airlines）经过五年的漫长诉讼才摆脱了竞争对手的缠斗，并于1971年6月正式起飞。

    2011年，西南航空在这个亏损累累的行业中连续第39年实现盈利，在美国航空业内无人能及。而且，81岁的凯利赫证明低票价仍能取得可观的利润。西南航空不仅是美国最大的国内航空公司，而且据一位经济学家称，它在美国低成本航空市场的份额高达90%。

    凯利赫是怎么做到这一点的？他把成本压得格外低，但仍然保证高品质的客户服务，而做到这两点都有赖于他打造了一种尊重员工的企业文化。他和沃尔玛的山姆•沃尔顿一样，深知一线员工可以载舟，也可以覆舟。凯利赫通过利润分享计划和股票期权让员工们有了当家作主的感觉，愿意全心全意地付出。正是这一点让西南航空在业内卓尔不群。

    有一次他告诉一位采访者：“多年以前，商学院还称之为难题。他们会问：‘员工、股东和顾客？哪个最重要？’这根本不是什么难题。顾客当然排在第一位。如果善待员工，猜猜会有什么结果？顾客会变成老主顾，股东们自然开心。从员工开始，其他一切都会水到渠成。”

9. Herb Kelleher

Company: Southwest Airlines

Sales: $15.6 billion

Market Value: $6.4 billion

Employees: 45,392

Advice: Make your customers No. 1.

    When Herb Kelleher took an aptitude test at Wesleyan University, where he majored in English, he was told that there were three things he was best suited for: working as a journalist, an editor, or a lawyer. Kelleher chose law, and it was a good thing. It would take five long years of often tortuous litigation by competitors to get Southwest Airlines out of court and into the air in June 1971.

    In an industry plagued by vast amounts of red ink, Southwest marked its 39th consecutive year of profitability in 2011, a feat unmatched in U.S. aviation history. What's more, Kelleher, 81, proved that you could still charge low fares and be nicely profitable. Southwest is not only the largest U.S. domestic airline but also responsible, as one economist noted, for 90% of the low-fare airline business that exists in America.

    How did Kelleher do it? He kept costs extraordinarily low and customer service high -- and he did both by creating a culture that respected the people he carefully hired. Like Sam Walton, he understood that front-line personnel can either make you or break you. And Kelleher got his people to sign on to the program through profit-sharing plans and stock options that made employees feel and act like owners. It separated Southwest from the pack.

    "Years ago," he once told an interviewer, "the business schools used to pose it as a conundrum. They would say, `Well, who comes first? Your employees, your shareholders, or your customers?' But it's not a conundrum. Your customers come first. And if you treat your employees right, guess what? Your customers come back, and that makes your shareholders happy. Start with employees and the rest follows from that."