Twenty-five years ago, Herb Kelleher reinvented air travel when he founded Southwest Airlines, where the planes are painted like killer whales, a typical company maxim is -Hire people with a sense of humor, - and in-flight meals are never served--just sixty million bags of peanuts a year. By sidestepping -reengineering, - -total quality management, - and other management philosophies and employing its own brand of business success, Kelleher's airline has turned a profit for twenty-four consecutive years and seen its stock soar 300 percent since 1990.
Today, Southwest is the safest airline...