Stanford Entrepreneurship Videos

Neeleman believes the success of JetBlue to this point is the company's price points. I pray for the day our competitors can match our fares, he says. Currently, competitors are desperate to gain back market share and have been undercutting prices. The success of JetBlue is because of loyal customers. We have somehow been able to levitate above a commodity business, as Dell or WalMart have done well during bad industries, he adds.

Neeleman believes execution of the strategy is key. You must, as a leader, be able to expose yourself to your employees and ask for feedback, he says. You must be able to answer when you are wrong, or don't know the answer, he adds. These are very simple concepts, but are very difficult to execute on a daily basis.

Neeleman talks about how Herb Kelleher of Southwest had a strange saying: "I don't care about my shareholders, I only worry about my employees." In 32 years, Southwest has never laid off an employee. Neither has JetBlue, which has only been around for several years, but has experienced September 11th and a war. We have learned that it is all about taking care of our people, he says.

How does IT differentiate Jet Blue? Neeleman on things they are doing well: We decided to roll out a frequent flyer program, but held on long enough to make sure it was completely implemented and managed online--we don't send anything out via mail. JetBlue has 10 or 15 people available via telephone to deal with problems, and 700,000 members online. Neeleman on things JetBlue should improve: checking people in using technology, increasing functionality on the web.

Neeleman shares an experience he received by asking for feedback about of the airlines business from a class of business students. He emphasizes the importance of a customer's experience.

We spent 4.5 years defining the customer experience, and we tried to put our money into things that mattered to people. Food is one example: I have never heard a single soul say that they haven't had a good meal, and so they'll book an airline ticket. This year, we'll serve 10 million customers. If we'd spent $5 on a meal for each customer, we'd have spent $50 million of food that wasn't appreciated. So we use humor to inform people that there won't be full meals, and we provide snacks at 17 cents apiece. We knew that televisions would be memorable. I remember one of the happiest days when we were starting JetBlue was when we found the companie who installs direct TVs in planes. I wanted to give people control on an airplane. The cost of implementing the televisions was a fraction of the cost of serving full meals. Cleaning the airline was another example. And helping customers put bags away, to improve the gateway time.

What does JetBlue think about organizational structure? We thought about how we would hire, train, set expectations and monitor to make sure this was actually happening, says Neeleman. We train employees well, and empower them and compensate them well, he adds.

Neeleman points out that JetBlue pays employees more than standard wages at United Airlines. They use technology to be more efficient, to spend less money in other areas. Much of the pay that employees receive is incentives. For example, pilots and flight attendants who fly over 70 hours each month receive time and 1/2. About 20% of compensation last year was based on the success of the company. In the 2nd full year of operation, over $17 M was given back to employees, which is 15 1/2%. We have an ability to give people an upside in the company based on their performance, he says.

Ramdas's father was in the military, and her mother was a social activist. The family was a middle-class Indian family, yet privileged to be in such a position. As a result of her upbringing, Ramdas has a combination of seeking structure/order and an urge to constantly question authority. The family moved often, and she developed a strong sense of what it meant to be a global citizen.

Kavita Ramdas, President and CEO of The Global Fund for Women (GFW) understands the importance of sustainability for its grantees because it must also be a sustainable organization. GFW helps grantees by discussing up front ways for strengthening and expanding funding in local communities. She stresses that sustainability is not to be confused with creating a profit-making venture. GFW also perceives that funding should continue over longer periods of time and groups should be encouraged to diversify funding base, build more capacity, engage with others in the community.

Kavita Ramdas, President and CEO of the Global Fund for Women, defines entrepreneurship by looking to the roots of the French language. She found two words: "entre" and "prendre" that suggest the act of immersion into something that also takes hold of you.

The Global Fund for Women believes there is room for a different kind of philanthropy to exist in other parts of the world. In most parts, there is a huge division between those who have and those who do not have. Those with wealth do not tend to see investment in development as part of their responsibility. Ramdas notes that this is thinking that must change.

Kavita Ramdas, President and CEO of the Global Fund for Women talks about the organization as a classic Silicon Valley story taking birth in a kitchen in 1987. The organization provides seed and strengthening capital for social entrepreneurs who are working for change.

Global Fund for Women CEO Kavita Ramdas talks about financial contributions for the greater good both locally and internationally - and that here in the US we give a very small percentage of our income to remedy the world's concerns. Ramdas cites the gap that exists between how much people think our government should be giving to global relief - 15-20 percent of our national income - but that less than 1% actually makes its way outside the United States.

Early investors in Global Fund for Women were Bill Hewlett, David Packard, Esther and Walter Hewlett, says Ramdas. These were people who understood that you could take a risk on a small organization getting started in a kitchen, the Global Fund for Women, she explains.