Opening General Session featuring Ginger Hardage
Unstoppable Cultures: Creating and Sustaining Organizations of Enduring Greatness
Every company has a culture. For some, it's a culture of innovation - new, never been done before ideas. For others, it's fun (birthday cakes and costumes are often involved). For some, it’s toxicity and gossip. There are cultures that celebrate loyalty, hard work, or profit above all else. There are cultures that are both intentional and accidental. There are cultures that draw people in and ones that drive people away. There are cultures that detract from the mission of the organization, cultures that must be overcome or compensated for, cultures that derail or dead end. Surely, you can resonate with at least one of those descriptions.
Ginger Hardage
Ginger Hardage recently retired as Senior Vice President of Culture and Communications at Southwest Airlines after an illustrious 25 years, where she served as a member of the CEO's executive leadership team. At Southwest (the nation’s largest airline), Ginger led a team of 150 people responsible for building and sustaining the organization's legendary culture and communications enterprise.
Recognized by many as a foremost global authority on building and sustaining organizational culture, Ginger was responsible for the activities that nourished the culture and the internal and external communications function. At Southwest, Ginger was a tireless ambassador of the world-famous Southwest Culture, leading to honors like 22 consecutive years on FORTUNE’s “Top 10 Most Admired Companies in the World” list. Most importantly, Ginger helped champion the values that have made Southwest a culture of enduring greatness – we put people first, we treat customers like family, we nurture our culture, and we try to change ahead of the times.