Southwest lost its Virginity a while ago. What's next? Mid-life Crisis?
A great article outlining Southwest's evolution as a business, how it is perceived… "Competitors see Southwest as cold-blooded and ruthless. "Their approach is to search out weak companies and contest them out of business," says Bryan Bedford, the chairman and chief executive of Republic Airways, which bought Frontier out of bankruptcy last year. "It's no different than Wal-Mart plunking a big-box store near a local family-owned grocery store; you either respond to the competition, or you get out." Robert Jordan, Southwest's vice president for strategy and network planning, sees things differently. "We never like to say we kicked somebody out of the market," he says. "Everybody makes their own choices. But we can go into a new market, charge attractive prices and, given that people love our products, gain new customers." …and where it is going. A profitable company in a really tough business. A case study that rei