Crisis Management Lessons From Southwest Airlines’ Meltdown
By Edward Segal for Forbes
As Southwest Airlines struggles to recover from its weather-related meltdown, crisis management and crisis communication lessons have already emerged that business leaders should keep in mind before they have to confront their own crisis.
The Importance Of Modernization
“The biggest lesson other business leaders can take from the Southwest implosion is the importance of modernization,” Wendy L. Patrick, a lecturer at San Diego State University’s Fowler College of Business, said via email.
A System Prone To Trouble
“Southwest’s failures admittedly arose from its outdated business practices. This includes the use of decades-old scheduling software, which failed to adjust to weather disruptions, to an old point-to-point baggage model that ships luggage from one city to another, instead of the modern hub-and-spoke model where routes are connected to a major hub,” Patrick explained.
Southwest Airlines uses a point-to-point system that allows it “to pick up different crews daily. When travel conditions are normal, this allows it to fly more routes in a 24-hour span than other airlines,” according to the Dallas Morning News.
“But when there’s a delay or a busy period, this can prove to be troublesome. And having crews scattered all over the country compounded the airline’s problems over the last week when it needed to reschedule lots of flights,” the newspaper noted.
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