Welcome to The Fordyce Letter:
“Eliminating One of the Most Damaging Business Practices of Our Industry”
On April 20, 1999, Cassie Bernall, a 17-year-old student at Columbine High School, faced a life and death choice — tell the boy with the gun what he wanted to hear or tell him the truth. Being strong in her convictions, she chose the truth and he choose to end her life. This tragedy is one of the saddest moments of that decade and it holds for us a powerful truth about control over others: we have none. Each and every person we work with has the power of choice and nothing we say, nor how we say it, gives us any dominance over the decisions and actions that individual will make.
The major airlines and many recruiting firms have a problem in common — both want to be more competitive yet perpetuate the very business practices that keep them stuck in coach class. Southwest Airlines is the perfect case study of the positive impact of new and improved best practices, including no change fees, rapid turnover of flights, reasonably priced business class tickets, and entertaining service from professional flight attendants that have led to Southwest’s rapid ascent as a dominant carrier in the marketplace. It’s no coincidence that recruiters who have also evolved their best practices are reaping higher profits than those who perpetuate “most practices.”
