GoFaxer Blog

I think it’s safe to bet that email faxing is pretty much a given in most big businesses. But what’s new? What’s ground breaking? What’s the future that small businesses can look to as an example?

Well, perhaps what’s new is actually old, according to former Southwest Airlines CEO James Parker. He built a successful airline during a huge downturn in the industry from 2001 to 2004. He did so by building a company culture of customer service that generated high profits.

He says in an article at BusinessWeek.com that CEOs spend a lot of time building up their high potential executives but not nearly enough energy building their front line managers. He also emphasizes the importance of putting strong people into good environments. He says that if you put good people into a bad place, they can become bad employees.

He says that leadership is training, and that the majority of that training needs to go into the front line management. It usually goes into the top-level leadership, and then you fail to execute where you need it the most.

I’m a big fan of Southwest. They’re the cheapest to fly, but they’re also one of the best in terms of quality. I’ve never had them lose a bag. Their customer service has always been top notch. After a disastrous trip back from Europe several years ago on a failing airline, I concluded to always travel Southwest whenever I could.