Howard Putnam

Howard Putnam has experienced turbulence many times in his distinguished business career and not only survived... but thrived by taking advantage of the opportunities for change and transformation that turbulent times offer. Putnam’s ultimate objective is “bottom line improvement.” He believes that cultures that place “people” as their #1 priority have the greatest long-term impact and success.

Putnam is the former CEO of the highly successful Southwest Airlines whose foundation and culture places people first. He led the fledgling carrier through airline deregulation and the development and implementation of the "vision" that has guided Southwest to revered heights over the past twenty years. Southwest tripled in size and tripled in profitability during his tenure, and today is still a corporate model for organizations that put their people first in their culture.

Putnam was later recruited to be the CEO of the failing Braniff International, and he became the first CEO to successfully restructure a major airline and take it through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It was at Braniff that he learned crisis management while rallying 10,000 employees to new heights as they fought to save their company. Prior to working with Southwest and Braniff, Putnam had spent over twenty years with United Airlines, his final position being Group VP of Marketing.

Additionally, Putnam has been an entrepreneur and has served as a director of several start-up technology companies. He is an author, speaker and advisor on business issues, change, leadership and ethics. HarperCollins published his book, The Winds of Turbulence, and Harvard University wrote a case study on his Braniff experiences, “The Ethics of Bankruptcy.” He has an MBA in Marketing from the Univ. of Chicago and attended Harvard’s Advanced Management Program.

• 5. The Ultimate Challenge in Ethics; Are You Really the Person Your Dog Thinks You Are?

  Organizations cannot ignore the need for proactive efforts to ingrain honesty, integrity and trust at every level. Today's environment requires ethical leaders, if they want their businesses to survive and grow. Howard Putnam learned the values of trust and honesty as he grew up on an Iowa farm. He has embodied those principles in his successful business career. He took on the challenge of saving Braniff International only to find the "books had been cooked" prior to his arrival. He will share this character building experience of taking a major airline through Chapter 11 successfully and offer a flight plan for you to implement in your organization.

• 4. Hiring Attitudes & Developing Their Skills

  Successful organizations that are in business for the long term, place their people first if they want sustained bottom line improvement. Howard Putnam led the visioning process at Southwest Airlines in which a key element was the culture, putting their people first and matching attitudes with the culture. Happy employees and superior customer service resulted from this concept. He will share behind the scenes looks on how this was accomplished with great stories, humor and concrete ideas and suggestions.

• 3. Transforming Organizations Successfully & Profitably

  Many organizations are out of alignment in the current turbulent environment. Their design is outdated with bureaucracy and a hierarchy that is expensive and inefficient. Howard Putnam will show you how to transform your business into a "flow state" organization that is focused, nimble, flexible, cost effective and able to utilize the "stages of turbulence" which he will identify for you to take advantage of being in a change state.

• 2. Creating a Culture and Process for Ideas to Emerge

  Innovation occurs in organizations that embrace a culture for risk taking and idea implementation. Howard Putnam proved this philosophy works when he was CEO of Southwest Airlines. He positioned and organized Southwest for growth and profitability utilizing a very flat management structure with decision-making and idea development imbedded in everyone's job scope and responsibility. Individuals and teams were rewarded for risk taking and for designing out of the box processes and improvements in productivity, customer service, cost containment, safety and profitability. Brands develop when people thrive in the vision and experience.

• 1. Successful Strategies Through Turbulent Times

  Leaders must have a clear and concise vision if they want their organizations to survive and thrive through turbulence. A clear understanding of what business you are really in is critical. Cultures can then be developed to support the vision and business. Bottom line improvement comes through your people. Howard shares his principles of leadership and outlines key strategies to navigate turbulence successfully.

• Howard Putnam took the time to understand our industry well in advance of his presentation and was able to effectively relate his experience at Southwest Airlines to the real life challenges we face in the vacation ownership business. In short, his speech was outstanding and well received by the audience.

  Interval Internationa

• It was our pleasure having you speak - we received A LOT of feedback on how much everyone enjoyed your presentation and how relevant the information you shared was to our current goal of putting our customers first in planning. You truly contributed to the success of our event and helped make it both enjoyable and memorable. We look forward to receiving your weekly e-mails and hope to have the opportunity to work with you again in the future.

  Discover Financial Services

• I’ve heard nothing but rave reviews since you left the stage. Your presentation really supported the CHS message and resonated with our audience. In my 15 years of hiring the annual meeting keynote, you are clearly the easiest individual with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working. Your communication skills are terrific and your commitment to learning about the organization was evident in your presentation. It’s no surprise the end result was so outstanding!

  CHS, Inc.

• Thank you for speaking at our Senior Leaders Conference last week. You did an outstanding job and I continue to get rave reviews.

  BellSouth

• Howard Putnam is a powerful speaker who can relate to his audience through his perspective into the culture of an organization and humorous introspect.

  NASA

• I want to personally thank you for your appearance at the Bank's Annual Planning Conference. The reviews are in and your presentation was rated as outstanding by the participants. The subject matter and your delivery really hit home with our leadership.

  Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

• First, thanks for the great job you did on our behalf. You are a true professional and I cannot begin to tell you how many great things I've heard regarding your keynote. The way you incorporated Bob and Cos throughout the speech made it seem as though you are old friends. I wish all speakers took their responsibilities with as much dedication as you do…. Again, thanks for all you did on our behalf. Our CEO mentioned it was the best Kick-off in company history. You are a major reason why.

   

  BMC Software

• Fantastic presentation-- informative, humorous, and personal which made it educational and entertaining. Howard’s story is extremely enlightening and motivational-- He kept the audience engaged during the entire session. His experience and ethics speaks volumes. Thank you, Howard for sharing the skills you have learned over the years.

  International Quality & Productivity Center

• Based on Howard’s advance tape, I had very high expectations. Even so, Howard was able to exceed them. The audience really connected with his message. I was approached multiple times by attendees who thanked us for finding Howard as they felt he was the best keynote speaker we have ever had.

  Caterpillar

• Thank you for a great presentation! It's presentations like yours that help to make the conference a success. Also, I wanted to thank you for customizing it for IREM, it really made a difference. We were truly impressed!

  Institute of Real Estate Management

• Your story, your background and demeanor, and the time you took to weave your message into our theme produced an excellent experience.

  Bostik Findley, Inc.

• The pleasure was ours. The folks in attendance were still talking about you at the dinner Tuesday night. To say you were a hit would be an understatement.

  Lubrizol

• Howard - It was great having you as part of the seminar. You made a big hit with everyone there and for all the right reasons- an excellent presentation with content that was dead on target! We should always be so fortunate.

  Defense Contract Management Agency

• Thanks for coming to the meeting and thanks for the great presentation. You made a big impact on the group, the feedback from the audience was uniformly positive. And yes, the team left on a ‘high’.

  Pfizer

• Thank you for speaking to us last week. The feedback on you was delightfully positive. Your remarks and sense of humor were well received and I think our people came away with some new insights and feeling more positive about Union Bank’s future.

  Union Bank of California

• Your words were inspiring and your down-to-earth advice for navigating the sometimes rough skies of ethical decision making were right on-target. We could not have asked for a more appropriate---or a more entertaining---keynote speaker for this year’s event.

  Goodwill Industries

• We want thank you so much for speaking with us last Monday morning. I’ve already started to get feedback from the week and many associates have commented on how inspiring and down-to-earth you were. I have to echo these sentiments and say you were the perfect fit!

  Masterfoods USA

• Thank you for your keynote presentation. You were so easy to work with and you took the time to familiarize yourself with our industry by talking to our leaders. It was great to see you attend our trade shows! Thank you once again for participating in such a large way at this important meeting.

  Assisted Living Federation of America