Subscribe
Details
Don Bell is one of founders of WestJet Airlines. He is widely respected as the owner of culture at WestJet, which still remains one of the company’s key strategic advantages in the space.
In this episode, Bell discusses the founding of WestJet, and the importance of culture in the workplace.
The Ivey Entrepreneur Podcast is sponsored by Connie Clerici, QS ’08, and Closing the Gap Healthcare Group, Inc.
Transcript
You're listening to the Ivey entrepreneur podcast from the Pierre L. Morrissette Institute for Entrepreneurship at the Ivey Business School. My name is Eric Morse and I will be your host for this episode. Don Bell is one of the founders of westjet Airlines. He is widely respected as the owner of culture at westjet, which still remains one of the company's key strategic advantages in this space. In this episode, Don discusses the founding of westjet and the importance of culture in the workplace. Donna was just hoping that thanks so much for being here. First off, and I was hoping you could just tell us a little bit about your startup story. When did you decide that you were going to start your own airline? And and what were maybe some of the things going on at that time that that led you to that decision?
Don Bell
Well, I think the the basis for it would come from my love for aviation, I learned to fly when I was about 1617 years old, got my license really early on and had my own airplane where I borrowed the money from my dad when I was like 20 or 21 years old. And it was a tail dragger called us a tabria, which is aerobatic spelled backwards. And I just, I couldn't get enough time in this guy. And I love flying. And I went on to start a computer business in my early 20s. And we grew that business throughout Western Canada. And I had a couple airplanes that I used to fly around to my customers with. And so I got to mix my love with aviation into my business and, and use it as a as a business tool, which was really kind of cool. And I was in the computer business, when computers didn't work very well. So customer service was extremely important to building relationships with customers. And so I think those things kind of collided with a couple of my buddies, initially Mark Hill and Tim Morgan and I, Tim had a piling background and Mark had a actually a real estate background, but he was quite a intensive person when it came to data and, and he kind of fell in love with the low cost airline model. And, and we started exploring the idea of starting an airline that was that was really the, the Genesis. I like to say that I got to merge what I knew with what I loved and yeah, and get involved with the startup of a business that that allowed me to collide those two things.
Eric Morse
Yeah, interesting. And so some, some different people with different skill sets. And, you know, just kind of finding a way to pull those interests into starting a new business.
Don Bell
Exactly.
Eric Morse
And when you when you started to take these steps towards starting an airline because it's not something that happens every day. You think of startups, it's it's it's a tough one. Where do you think the confidence came from to start an airline? And you know, what were the first couple steps you took?
Don Bell
Well, we studied some other airlines out there was obviously Southwest Airlines, which became probably our biggest go to airline in terms of one that we wanted to emulate. But there was a lot of people that were call them derivatives of Southwest the copycats that were around at that time. I think there's one called Mark air and then there is value jet and there was Morris air and there's a bunch of people that were taking this Southwest model and this is before Ryanair, as we know it today and EasyJet, they hadn't even been started in so there's a bunch of people, a bunch of companies that were taking the Southwest model and modifying it as a low cost carrier and, and that's kind of what we tapped into. Yeah, so once we studied that model, and became really familiar with it, we knew that there was a huge hole in the Canadian market for we had the two incumbents at the time Air Canada and Canadian and they were very large and very lethargic and very unionized and multiple aircraft types and lots of employees and not much productivity. So there was definitely a very huge hole in the market that we knew we could fill and it wasn't so much stealing from them it was more stealing from the car and the bus and the train and stimulate or what we like to call the Walmart position of the business right so that was where we the ideas I guess originally came from Southwest with their single airplane, no meals no interline single single class of seeds very simple business model that point to point flights only very simple business model. It was easy to emulate. So we understood the model and we understood how it made sense and right we were completely captivated by it and became consumed by it and and we were also extremely naive, so we didn't know any better.
Eric Morse
Well, one of the other things I think and I don't know if this was you know, purposeful or not was around the corner sight, it was fun. I mean, getting on a westjet flight, like getting on a Southwest flight was very different than anybody else in the industry at the time. I mean, you guys had fun. The pilots, the the flight attendants, you know, anybody you encountered seemed like they were having fun was that it had to be purposeful.
Don Bell
It was very purposeful. Again, that was a lot of that came from Southwest Southwest was a very fun airline. And when you look at people that are in, rather mundane jobs or repetitive jobs, whether you're a call center agent, or CSA customer service agent in an airport, or a flight attendant, or even a mechanic, if you can inject some some personality in the organization, and that manifests itself through fun, it certainly adds a levity that builds an esprit de corps that is, that is it's palpable. It's just it what ended up happening was we created this environment, we hired the right people, the environment self perpetuated because people were attracted to that environment. And by the time I retired, we were getting around 3500, or 4000 unsolicited resumes every month. Wow. And probably most of them were people that liked the culture. So we had this huge base of people that would apply to work there because of the culture. So it ended up self perpetuating, and all we had to do was feel it and keep it going. So that was the fun part was, was a huge part of its success.
Eric Morse
You make that sound easy to Donna, I know there's a lot more to it that your chief operating officer and some people would say, you know, maybe that and the fun culture,
Don Bell
Couple examples that we learned that if you have fun during a safety announcement, their retention goes up like 80%. Yeah, well, so if it's just the boring stuff, number one, and most importantly, it's no fun for the flight attendant, to deliver a, you know, a boring message, you know, 1000 times, right? That never, it's completely uninspiring and no fun. So the flight attendants that would that could inject humor, would actually have contests with each other to see who could be the funniest. And that's fun. That is so it added a component to their job that took it from the ultra Uber mundane to, to something that they could really play with and have fun. Yeah, we also changed a lot of the labels that I think a lot of the labels was one of the things that I did, right away was we called our passengers, packs or packs was the three letter acronym for passenger. And they were they became these inanimate objects, how many racks are just right? How many packs are connecting for that flight in the packs, and 11? A wants a glass of water. And so we change it to guests, and it was a bit of a it was a bit of an eye opener for the people that we hired from the industry. And and because it's much easier to take care of a guest than it is a Pax. And it had that had a fundamental shift in the way that we thought about or our customers. And yeah, and that also helped to perpetuate the
Eric Morse
amazing how much language matters.
Don Bell
It really is.
Eric Morse
Yeah. Well, I I've had the privilege of working with you on some other boards and some other things. And I know that culture is not something you take lightly that you you, you preach it in the other work that you do. And you've seen benefit, and I think several different companies over the years. Are there a couple of things that you would, you know, say these were kind of key to us, or some hints you might give in to some of the listeners in terms of building their own culture? What were some of the things that you looked for that you've, you know, really touchstones for you?
Don Bell
I think the biggest one would be hiring the right people. We used to have a mantra hire for attitude and train for skills. Yeah, except for the pilots. But if you have someone that gets out of bed in the morning with a with a good attitude, it's much more fun to work with somebody that absolutely has a bad attitude. So that was really important to us. And then we and I think this is what a lot of people don't get we we built the organization around the people. And we let the people decide what kind of an organization they wanted to build, because we were growing too fast to to dictate it. Right. So he said, well, you know, the people told us we want they wanted fun. And the people told us they wanted agility. And the people told us that they wanted a levity in the work environment that they hadn't had before. And if it were to say to someone, what type of environment do you want to build, it's going to make it fun to come to work and your your tendency to build that environment would be much better and much easier. It would be you're going to do it. Yeah. So wouldn't it be more fun as a flight attendant, for example, to have fun doing a safety announcement as opposed to not have any fun? Or we we encourage everybody to cross seatbelts and pick up The garbage out of the seatbacks whether you were working on the flight or you were, you're an employee that was traveling on a pass. And we save some money doing that. But it also built that esprit de corps and the lottery. And people liked it. Yeah, you know, it's better than the captain's in the front, and the flight attendant would actually go to a different hotel, and there's just no, no camaraderie built. So in terms of building a culture, it's really paying attention to the little things and understanding what gets people out of bed in the morning. And at the end of the day, you want people to go home and put their head on the pillow and say, I had a great day. I was given the tools to do my job properly, I was empowered to do the things I needed to do to, to get things done, I was given the environment to be successful. And you just have to pay a lot of attention to, to that part of the business. And I know you're in an environment that people are gonna like,
Eric Morse
Yeah, and I know you're a big believer in celebrating the wins. And, you know, making sure people understand and are able to celebrate when when things go well. And when the job was done was really important. Yeah, fantastic. I know. Before I go on kind of one last question. It's amazing to travel with you. Because how long have you been away from Russia now?
Don Bell
Well, 11 years, 11 years,
Eric Morse
Everybody still knows you walk into an airport? Don, you know, it's, it's amazing. Like, I think it's pretty special. I think it's really neat.
Don Bell
But I like that because when my kids fly with me, you know, they're given flight attendants, or give me high fives and hugs, that's amazing. My kids get to see that that's pretty special.
Eric Morse
I think it's a real testament to, to what you meant to the, to the growth of that company. Around the growth, it was picked up on something you said around the culture. And, you know, it was the the pilots and crew, and if there was somebody just jumping, they were all cleaning the plane. Because when you grow that fast, it's not just the culture, it's also process the systems that you have to put in place along the way. But you know, they were all culture tied into the culture Really? Well, it was it was part of an overall system. You know, can you tell me anything more about that? Or was that again? Well, it
Don Bell
goes back to creating the environment that we wanted. And one of the things that we we did was align the interests of the people with the interest of the company. So one way to put that as the more successful the company, the more successful the people, so we're all owners that was a bit hard to hear. They were all owners. And although money wasn't a big part of their motivation, it was just being able to come to work with a, if you ask people at westjet what what's the most, what's the most important aspect of working here, they'd say, fun, it's just it's fun to work their way down on the list would be money. And, you know, being a shareholder was important, because if they were able to impact profitability in any way, they could see it through a profit share, check. And, we spent a lot of time trying to educate them on how the business worked and, and what it meant to save money. And, grooming the aircraft was a great example, we literally spent or saved millions of dollars every year by by doing the grooming. So yeah, there was a lot of things like that we that we tried to focus on, there was a big focus on theme days in the call center, because call centers are pretty worrying. We didn't call it a call center. It was a sales super center.And it had super agents are no separate. It was kind of funny when people would call in, they'd be put on hold, and the cold message would say one of our super agents will be right with you. And when they got connected, sometimes the guest would say, Are you a super agent? It's hard. It's hard to be lousy. Super easy.
Eric Morse
Sure. Sure. All right. Last question. if you think back, somebody who's growing a business, you know, what would be a hint that you'd give them or something that they need to really think about as they look to grow their business?
Don Bell
You got to love people. I'd say that's probably the biggest thing.
Eric Morse
Yeah, find the right ones, and really care for them.
Don Bell
And you really got to care for people.
Eric Morse
Yeah. Fantastic. Well, Don, thanks so much. It's really great. It really appreciate you being with us today. And look forward to seeing you in future.
Don Bell
Yeah, my pleasure.
Eric Morse
And that was dawn Bell, one of the founders of westjet. Airlines, I wanted to briefly revisit a couple of points from that interview, mostly around the idea of culture. Culture is one of the toughest things to get right when you're starting an organization. And one of the hardest things to maintain as you grow. Remember, you get kind of one chance to do this. It's really hard to change culture later on. So let's get it right at the beginning. The first point that Don made was hire right, very, very critical attitude is so important. People are going to bring that attitude to work every day. You need to think through how is that going to engage with customers, or disengaged with customers. To keep those great people that you bring on board it you need to think through a people first organization, how do I make sure that my people are engaged, that they're excited to get up in the morning and come to work and that when they go home, they feel like you know what I accomplished? Something today. To do that you have to pay attention to the little things. And I think Don covered that really well. Lastly, you want to cement that culture and that means celebrating the wins, giving credit to those who deserve it and making sure you distribute that around the organization. And Don's last point was, let's make sure that our people's interests are aligned with the company's interests. You know, believing in a purpose, believing in what we're trying to do and then rewarding people as they achieve it are are great ways to maintain that. Great lessons from Don. I really thank him for his interview.
Conclusion
You've been listening to the Ivey entrepreneur podcast. To ensure that you never miss an episode, subscribe to the show in your favorite podcast player or visit ivey.ca forward slash entrepreneurship. Thank you so much for listening. Until next time!