SMaC Down: Southwest Airlines Changes the Recipe of their Success
A big part of Southwest Airlines’ success has been based on their obsession with their Wheels Up strategy to get their ‘planes to spend maximum time in the air. That included a fundamental item on their SMaC list: no assigned seating which slows down the time it takes to get people on the plane and delays how long it takes to get the plane back in the air.
A Winning Formula
If you’re not familiar, the SMaC recipe concept, developed by Jim Collins’ in his book Great by Choice, is a set of durable operating practices that creates a replicable, consistent success formula.
Specific
Methodical
and
Consistent.
In his research, Jim Collins found that all great, enduring companies turn strategic concepts into reality using this operating code.
These are the core principles that a CEO and their team align around – the guard rails for decision-making, over decades or generations of leadership.
In many ways, it’s a legacy: the handing down of a list of the major things that you will always or never do in your business – usually because they reflect core aspects of your strategy or the result of expensive lessons along the way.
Changing the Recipe
For over 50 years, Southwest has been very diligent at sticking to their SMAC list, including it’s open seat policy.
But, according to this story in the Wall Street Journal, that’s over. They now want to boost revenues – and respond to a changing market – by offering assigned and premium seating for passengers who want more legroom and are willing to pay for it.
A Rigourous Debate
It would be fascinating to have discussions when Southwest decided to one change of their corporate principles.
This would be the equivalent, in seriousness, of Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper or Bundaberg Ginger Beer – one of the great Australian companies that we have the pleasure of working with – changing the recipe of their greatly loved beverages.
Or Colonel Sanders’ KFC, changing their 11 herbs and spices recipe
According to Collins, making this change isn’t unusual. In fact, great companies and social enterprises do change their SMaC recipe but no more than about 20% per decade.
The key here is that not that items on the list never change. It’s that change to a core tenet of a business is never done lightly and only after rigorous debate.
The Challenge
-
- Have you defined your SMAC list, yet?
- Or, how can you better leverage your existing SMaC list: bring it more to the forefront and operate more consistently with it – or update it?
Other Blogs
- Have Your Figured Out Your SMaC Recipe for Success?
- Leveraging the Flywheel
- The Art of Decision Making
Older Podcasts
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