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Summary: You mean a corporation doesn't HAVE to dehumanize you?
Review: If more CEOs read this book, fewer employees would be miserable.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent content, unattractive writing style
Review: If more employers would behave the way this book reports Southwest does, productivity would increase manyfold simply because employees will be happy in their work. Professionals in the quality field (of which I am one) will be aghast at some of the traits of Southwest Airlines -- procedures and rules are almost non-existent. In spite of that, the airline continues to get rave reviews from its customers. My only complaint is that you can tell the book was written by psychologists, even without reading about the authors beforehand. The "feel good" style gets old long before the subject does. Nevertheless, the book is a good one. Might be a candidate for (presumably anonymous) gifts to any number of managers in this country!
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Summary: Why don't we all go nuts!
Review: If you have not heard the story behind the success of Southwest Airlines, and it did not just happen over night, then this is the book for you. The theme of the free nuts and low price service is driven home with example after example of the "radical" approach that is part of their "standard operating procedures". The folks at Southwest Airlines are real. There is no reason to expect that they will not continue to succeed. The passion for life and service is what drives their success. It is significant that their stock ticker symbol is LUV. The only fault I find with the book is that it is overlong. The stories are seemingly never ending. Reading the first several chapters is enough to get the point. If you want, you can take these steps to your own life and business. There is nothing magical about nuts that confines it to Southwest Airlines. That more people and companies do not adapt this approach is what is nutty!
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Summary: An excellent read about an excellent company
Review: If you've wondered how this small Texas airline outsmarted the larger giant airlines, read it all here. After reading this book, I was left with many ideas about how to incorporate more fun into my own work life, while increasing productivity. The corporate culture of Southwest is so ingrained into the employees! Fly with them, and notice how different their people are, and how they each seem to enjoy their job! I can't recommend this book highly enough.
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Summary: You'd Have To Be Nuts Not To Read It
Review: In Nuts! the Freibergs (husband and wife, co-authors) detail and explain the success of Southwest Airlines. They go far beyond simply analyzing the company and its key "LUV" ingredient for success.Through consulting and their later work in preparation for this book, the Freibergs have intimate knowledge of Southwest's operations, and put it to good use in presenting the company to readers. Moreover, they overtly show their enthusiasm for Southwest: the book is packed with words of praise from the Fribergs, Southwest employees, customers, and outsiders including GE's Jack Welch. All of these testimonials help to make the case that employees really do love what they do. The book is separated into four sections: the first details the history of Southwest. The second focuses on how Southwest does business; the third deals with the building blocks of the company's success. Finally, the book concludes -- and culminates -- with a section on how readers can incorporate Southwest techniques within their own business or work environment. These "secrets" to success are simple: trust your people, treat them as people (not "resources" or "employees"), celebrate the good, and make information easily available to everyone. As simple as they may be, the authors argue that many companies overlook them in deference to policy and procedure. Nuts! advocates that the People come first, the customers second, and everything else starts at third. Even the best books have their problems, and Nuts! is hurt by the excessive presentation of anecdotes and letters from customers in boxes, which you must stop to read. While they defiantly add something to the book, readability would have been improved by including them in-line with the text. Overall, this book is clearly a must-read for managers and employees alike. It is an enjoyable fast read and most everyone will take something valuable away from it!
Rating:
Summary: You'd Have To Be Nuts Not To Read It
Review: In Nuts! the Freibergs (husband and wife, co-authors) detail and explain the success of Southwest Airlines. They go far beyond simply analyzing the company and its key "LUV" ingredient for success. Through consulting and their later work in preparation for this book, the Freibergs have intimate knowledge of Southwest's operations, and put it to good use in presenting the company to readers. Moreover, they overtly show their enthusiasm for Southwest: the book is packed with words of praise from the Fribergs, Southwest employees, customers, and outsiders including GE's Jack Welch. All of these testimonials help to make the case that employees really do love what they do. The book is separated into four sections: the first details the history of Southwest. The second focuses on how Southwest does business; the third deals with the building blocks of the company's success. Finally, the book concludes -- and culminates -- with a section on how readers can incorporate Southwest techniques within their own business or work environment. These "secrets" to success are simple: trust your people, treat them as people (not "resources" or "employees"), celebrate the good, and make information easily available to everyone. As simple as they may be, the authors argue that many companies overlook them in deference to policy and procedure. Nuts! advocates that the People come first, the customers second, and everything else starts at third. Even the best books have their problems, and Nuts! is hurt by the excessive presentation of anecdotes and letters from customers in boxes, which you must stop to read. While they defiantly add something to the book, readability would have been improved by including them in-line with the text. Overall, this book is clearly a must-read for managers and employees alike. It is an enjoyable fast read and most everyone will take something valuable away from it!
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Summary: weLEAD Book Review from leadingtoday.org
Review: In the forward of this book Tom Peters says, "If you take time to read only one business book this year, I strongly encourage you to read NUTS!" We wholeheartedly agree! Between the covers of this entertaining book Kevin and Jackie Freiberg have captured the essence of the "Southwest Spirit" that has made Southwest Airlines one of the top companies in America. Although Southwest served over 90 million bags of peanuts in 1999, there is nothing "nuts" about the way they run their company. Southwest topped the list of Fortune magazine's Best Companies To Work For in 1998, and since then has been in one of the top four slots every year. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to see how the concepts of servant leadership are actually put into practice in a real company of over 30,000 employees. You will learn about a company that practices the golden rule as corporate policy-and has paid quarterly dividends for 97 consecutive quarters doing it! The "Southwest culture" described at length in the book gives this company its strategic advantage. This culture genuinely cares about the welfare of the Southwest employees-which are approximately 82% unionized. Southwest Airlines has turned a profit every year since 1973, yet it maintains the lowest fares in a highly competitive industry. It is one of the most admired airlines in the world, regularly ranks best in customer service, and has a consistently high safety record. Southwest was the first airline to establish a home page on the Internet, and was named by BusinessWeek as a "Web Smart 50" company. Some of the book's statistics about the airline are now out of date due to incredible growth. More recent statistics are readily available at Southwest's web site . However, the principles discussed in this book that are used to guide this most admired airline are timeless. Review by Dr. J. Howard Baker
Rating: 
Summary: A horrible book on a wonderful company
Review: In the view of many businessmen and consumers, Southwest airlines is as good as it gets. The book, on the other hand, is about 200 pages too long. Too much touchy-feely stuff. Non-stop praise gets on your nerves after sometime. Skim it in the library or bookstore. If you are serious about learning about the airline business, check out Thomas Petzinger's book "Hard Landing". It has a single chapter on Southwest, and that's all is needed.
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Summary: Important reading if you want to fly without getting hosed.
Review: Is there anything more irritating than calling a major airline to get a fare? You: How much is it to fly from Point A to Baltimore? Them: Thank you for calling Airways. How many persons in your party? You: I don't have a party. I just want to know what you charge to Burbank. Them: I can help you with that, Sirma'am. What days will you be travelling? You: I don't know if I'll be travelling at all. You see, I only have $89 in my pocket and I don't know how much it costs to get to Burbank. Them: Thank you for calling Airways. Would you like to hold this reservation with a major credit card? You: I have a library card, but it's not good at the Point A Public Library. I have to go to Burbank. Them: I can help you with that, Sirma'am. What will be your date of return? You: Who said anything about return? I just want to go to Burbank. Them: Thank you for calling Airways. We are not configured to provide one way travel. Please call again when you have more conventional travel plans. Have a nice day. Nuts (the book) is about who you call when the above routine is no longer pleasurable. Southwest Air flies to various cities around the country, and they can actually tell you how much it costs. Not only that, but half the time it's really cheap. The other half of the time it's really reasonable. They are to the travel industry what Wal Mart is to retail and what Honda used to be in cars until they got grand ideas about luxury. This book is about how a little upstart with 3 planes kicked the butts of Braniff and Texas International. It's about how they thrived charging 2-digit fares while carriers with 9-digit revenue streams went belly up. It's about how common sense beats megalomania every time. The airline is a business classic. The book could be, too, if it were not marred by an effusive tone and worshipful style. Has Southwest ever done anything wrong? You won't read about it in Nuts. Are the authors on the Southwest payroll? Probably not, but how then to explain a sentence like "Southwest hasn't made it into Milwaukee, but you can be assured that the company considers each request carefully."? It's okay for an infomercial or annual report, but when authors tell the reader "you can be assured", it's gone from observation to sales pitch. If the Freibergs take Southwest's lessons to heart and listen to their customers on this website, future editions of Nuts will be about 100 pages smaller, and will maintain at least a pretense of impartiality. I hope they do, because the story of Southwest is that of an ongoing struggle with implications for everyone who travels. In it, for example, you can find the reason why it costs more to fly from Denver to the other side of Colorado than to London, although Nuts hardly mentions Colorado. The reason is that the carriers that serve Colorado have to pay for their zillion dollar computer reservation systems, which Southwest elected not to buy. Another reason is that flying to London is glamorous, while flying to Aspen is not. Most airline executives are interested in joining the international jet set. Southwest executives are interested in making a buck. Most airlines want to compete with British Air and Air France, because they think that makes them "world class". Southwest wants to compete with the bus companies, because that's how they've become successful, and their self-esteem is not based on exotic destinations. It's based on their balance sheet, which for almost three decades has been in the black. While scores of major airlines go bankrupt, (some, like Continental, do it routinely) Southwest plugs along hauling people to unfashionable places like Harlingen and Amarillo, and their stock moves steadily upward. The Southwest website is only mentioned in passing in Nuts, but it illustrates very well the whole phenomenon that is this company. If you go from Amazon to www.iflyswa.com you'll be able, immediately, to click on a Point A city, Albuquerque, let's say. Then, in an act of the greatest simplicity, you click on one of the destination cities displayed right next to the Point A cities, let's say Burbank. One more click on a button titled "Display Fares", and you've got what you need. A dozen fares are instantly provided to choose from. It sound so simple, but the amazing thing is: None of the other airlines have mastered this! If you go to the website of a "major" airline and try to get a fare, you can click all day long and get nothing but insipid graphics and dead end links. You couldn't get a fare out of them if your life depended on it. In short, Nuts is a history that everyone who travels or is in business should read, the most important story to come out of Texas since the Alamo.
Rating: 
Summary: waste of time and money
Review: It starts off well but then goes downhill very quickly. It is just constant praise from the authors (whom I think probably got a lifetime of free tickets for sucking up so much). It gets way too boring and repetitive to make for interesting reading. If you are interested in looking at a 330 page written informercial, then this is it. Although I love the airline, I couldn't recommend this book to anyone
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