[ethbr0]

Not sure it's as cut and dry as "CFO becomes CEO and overly focuses on financials" in Southwest's case.

In 2021, Gary Kelly (former CFO/CEO) announced his retirement and picked Bob Jordan (CS trained, having previously worked on the AirTran integration) to take over as CEO, which seems a realization that Southwest has some serious technical debt to address.

All businesses have highest priorities at a given point in time.

In Southwest's early years, they were legal and operational, hence Herb Kelleher.

2000-2020, I can't say financials weren't top of the list, as Southwest migrated off its older plane models.

2020+, maybe they're technical.

A good company picks the CEO it needs for the moment, not always one particular type.

[cowmoo728]

But the Southwest pilot's union is accusing the former CEO, Gary Kelly, of running the company at full speed into operational suicide. I don't see that as picking the right CEO for the moment, even if the stock price did well.

[ethbr0]

The pilot's union doesn't have a monopoly on truth. They would always like to be paid more and work less, as would I!

Are they accurate or inaccurate? I can't say.

Were they unionized, I'm sure the Twitter employee's union would be crying bloody murder right now. But it's fair to say that organizationally Twitter had a lot of headcount for their product. And when you tighten a financial belt, employees are going to be unhappy.

[kevin_thibedeau]

Classic Jack Welch move. Get out before the shit you created hits the fan and leave the next guy to deal with it.