Ginger Hardage, Former Senior Vice President of Culture and Communications at Southwest Airlines (Part 2)

Ginger Hardage is the just-retired Senior Vice President of Culture and Communications from an iconic American company with one of the most celebrated cultures of all time, Southwest Airlines. With her background in marketing, Ginger started her career in the oil industry, then moved to the insurance industry before serving for 25 years at Southwest. Her latest venture is Unstoppable Cultures, an organization dedicated to helping build and sustain brands that are truly unstoppable.

 

In this episode of The Culture Gap, Ginger shares more about her time at Southwest Airlines and the mission, vision, values, and purpose of the organization. As a company well-known for their culture and ethos, she shares more about how Southwest formulated their vision statement and an interesting personal anecdote illustrating the core values of the organization. She also dives into her thoughts on navigating the post Me Too movement landscape, and her newest venture, Unstoppable Cultures. Welcome to Culture Gap.

 

Key Takeaways:

[:44] Daniel introduces his guest for this episode — Ginger Hardage.

[1:25] Daniel and Ginger discuss the mission, vision, values, and purpose of Southwest Airlines. What is the distinction between mission and purpose?

[5:46] Vision is critical to a company. Why does it matter, and why is it so difficult for companies to formulate their vision statements?

[8:18] Ginger relates the experience of formulating the company’s vision statement.

[10:15] Ginger shares an unexpected example of the core values of Southwest Airlines.

[13:23] How did Ginger measure the culture of Southwest Airlines?

[15:50] As a leader and an expert in culture, what is Ginger’s approach to navigating the post Me Too movement landscape?

[20:27] Ginger’s new venture is Unstoppable Cultures. She explains more about the mission of the organization.

[23:03] What advice would Ginger give her younger self, with all the wisdom that she has now?

 

Brought to You By:

The Culture Gap Podcast

THRUUE

Podfly Productions

 

Learn more about:

Ginger Hardage on LinkedIn

Southwest Airlines

Gary Kelly