Gatti & Associates and Northeastern University joined forces for their annual Executive Breakfast Forum titled “Best Companies – Best Practices – Keeping the Competitive Edge.”  This year’s featured speakers represented Comcast and jetBlue Airways.  The event was held at Northeastern University with over 250 human resource and line executives signed up, representing close to 70% of the top 100 companies in the area.  Presenters are invited to the forum to discuss strategies and tactics that enable their companies to be leaders in their industries and stand apart as world-class organizations.

Kerri St. Jean, Vice President of Organizational Effectiveness, and Kevin Casey, Senior Vice President for New England, addressed the audience first.  The ‘new’ Comcast story is two years old and their vision and goals are to build the brand, create innovation, deliver a superior customer service experience, and provide financial success for their shareholders.  They call their strategy “The Three Pillars” – Customer First, A Great Place to Work and Financial Performance.  Their bonus program is linked to the success of The Three Pillars and is measured on 11 key metrics.  Due to several previous mergers and acquisitions, Comcast realized it had to change the culture of this new organization in order to succeed and get the 68,000 employees to embrace this change, especially when employees are situated in 100 locations in three states.  A communications team was created to launch The Three Pillars and lay out the message that leadership was behind the new organization and its mission.  Comcast University was developed and now has eight campuses.  The company is very selective in hiring and invests in employee development to encourage and promote retention. As a result of these actions new revenue and product growth are up over 100% in two years; customer satisfaction is at 90% and employee satisfaction has more than doubled which translates into significantly reduced turnover.  Employees are given clear goals, which definitely engages the workforce.  There is a leadership commitment set forth in their credo clearly stating their core values: ethics, quality, flexibility, diversity, employee focus and enthusiasm.

Vincent Stabile, Vice President of People, and David Barger, President and Chief Operating Officer, with much energy and enthusiasm, told the jetBlue Story.  jetBlue wants to be the airline that transforms the industry and sets a new standard for travel.  The organization believes that people are the ultimate competitive advantage and the five values they promote – safety, caring, integrity, fun and passion – underscores that belief.  The company, with 7,500 crewmembers, was born five years ago and today operates 68 aircraft out of their hub in New York serving 30 cities in the US and the Caribbean.  jetBlue was an exceptionally well-funded start-up and is now the 10^th largest airline in the country.  Stabile and Barger stressed that decisions are made based on the previously mentioned values.  The organization measures success by People, Performance and Prosperity and know that people and performance will drive success.  jetBlue also looks at its constituencies differently, as demonstrated by the following: Passengers are Customers, Employees are Crewmembers and Vendors are Business Partners.  Like Comcast, jetBlue has their own university where crewmembers are educated in regulatory and non-regulatory subject matter.  Leadership at the airline is very visible and manages by the following guidelines – treat people right, do the right thing, inspire greatness in others, communicate with the team and encourage initiative and innovation.

The morning concluded with a very lively question and answer period.  This event is an annual forum moderated by Len Glick and co-hosted by Fred Hoskins, Marian Stanley and Tom Moore from Northeastern University as well as Bob Gatti and Rita Allen from Gatti & Associates.