Accountability Done Right

With its corporate culture focused on customer service and employee accountability, WestJet is en route to success.

As you have likely heard, WestJet will be changing CEOs in April. This comes as a bit of a surprise, since Sean Durfy has done a great job growing the market share of the airline and creating a business model where customer service is the main focus.

So why the sudden change? Well, the obvious answer is that profits are down compared to the rest of the industry and there was a major issue with the rollout of their new reservation system. These issues caused people to take off the rose-coloured glasses and realize that WestJet is just another far-from-perfect company.

But I see the underlying story here as being about accountability. There is no doubt that Clive Beddoe still has his fingers all over the airline that he created 14 years ago and that he and his board of directors have brought in a level of accountability rarely seen in today's corporations. Beddoe successfully ran WestJet for 11 years before passing the torch to Durfy to take WestJet to the next level. Durfy was successful in growing the company over the past three years, and was given an opportunity to continue that success. However, the recent issues have put into question his ability to move the company forward.

It is a breath of fresh air to see a company hold its leader accountable for the results they achieve. Whether it was Durfy's choice to leave or he was asked to, by changing their CEO, WestJet is demonstrating such accountability – if you do not perform, then move over for someone who can.

Leadership is an interesting concept these days. We see so many executives getting paid exorbitant amounts of money to run under-performing companies. The justification given is that the company would be in worse shape without them. Obviously WestJet does not operate that way.

The airline industry is a very competitive one and WestJet was poised to really challenge Air Canada for supremacy in the Canadian market. The last few months have been a setback, but with a corporate culture focused around customer service and employee accountability, WestJet is destined for even greater success.

Let's just hope that, unlike other companies we are currently reading about, WestJet does not sacrifice the quality of its service for the speed of its growth.