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[MUSIC] Thank you so much for joining us as our first View From The Top speaker of the year.
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As you can see by all this interior, we are very excited to have you.
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So Dean Levin mentioned the fact that you were born in Mexico, and you grew up as the eldest of nine siblings in a working class family in Southern California.
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How has that experience shaped you?
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>> [LAUGH] Yeah, well I was one of the original Dreamers, right?
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Before they had cool names for it.
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>> [LAUGH] >> But let's be clear, they did have names for it, they weren't very, [LAUGH] they weren't very nice. I think environment.
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I think how you grow up, who you grow up with has a meaningful impact on who you are as a person.
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There's a lot of you in this room, you've all had very different upbringings.
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And I know from my heritage, in particular, I think the Latino population is one that's very family oriented, humble, in general.
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And again, more importantly, just loyal, sometimes to a fault.
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And that has all shaped me, and then the hard work aspect of that.
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And so those are my foundations, I didn't know to do anything else.
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The concept of entitlement when you're an original Dreamer, not particularly strong in your world.
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So it did shape me into who I am, and it does affect how I make decisions to this very day.
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I think I make a lot of decisions, and we as a corporation make a lot of decisions that are founded on some of that upbringing that I have.
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>> And like some of the students in the audience today, you were also the first in your family to go to college.
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And you were deciding between some great universities, the Stanford of the East, as Dean Levin adequately put it, and USC.
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You chose USC, were the Boston winters too cold?
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>> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] >> Well, on the West Coast, there was a better football program, at the time, [LAUGH] clearly not the case now.
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>> [LAUGH] >> No, you know what, the story behind that is, again, being in a first-generation, which I hear some of you in the room are first-generation undergrads, raise your hand.
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Huge respect, guys, it's a big responsibility for you and your families.
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But not knowing, I mean, literally, the way I decided that I had to go to college, I was walking down the hallway late to a class, and Mrs.
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Duckworth, one of my high school counselors, stopped me and said, are you Oscar?
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And it's like, crap, I'm in trouble.
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[LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] >> because why else do high school counselors stop you, right?
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>> [LAUGH] >> We had just taken those PSATs, or whatever, and she goes, where are you thinking of going to college?
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And my answer was, honest to goodness, what's a college?
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My upbringing, my neighborhood, it wasn't just the Latino thing, it was just where we lived.
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It just wasn't something you did.
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You went high school, you got married, you had kids, and you lived happily ever after, and that was great, but this offered me insight and a view.
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And to this day, I hold her in high degree of respect for taking me down that path.
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She helped me with applications and all sorts of things to get there, and that's how I decided to go to college.
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Now the choice of where and where, that was just my story of when I went to the other school, was just hilarious joke.
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I mean, talk about two country rubes.
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I grew up in Huntington Beach, I was a surfer kid, right?
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I mean, imagine Harvard Yard and somebody in shorts, flip-flops, a T-shirt, and hair down to here [LAUGH] with a blue collar dad.
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>> [LAUGH] >> Even then, at a young age, I knew that you have to find your way, find your spot, and go there, and that just didn't feel like the way.
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And no regrets, that was it, SC was great.
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>> Yeah, and you had a heart attack 38 days after taking over as the CEO of United.
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>> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] I love this.
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>> Gotta cover the personal.
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Gotta cover the personal.
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>> Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that was interesting.
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[LAUGH] >> And you then had a heart [INAUDIBLE] right?
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>> As a career thing, I don't recommend that.
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>> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] >> Yeah, and then you would have a heart transplant on your birthday in early 2016.
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>> Yeah, so this Saturday night, a couple of Mondays ago, the 15th of October, marked my third anniversary with having the actual heart attack.
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We don't celebrate it as much, but it gets raised.
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It's an emotional day because you realize what you have versus what could've been, like not be here.
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This coming Saturday night, my transplant doctor, my cardiologist, and some of my very close friends, and of course, my family, were celebrating.
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Elton John is going on his last tour, and so we're celebrating something on that regard.
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But yeah, that was crazy.
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Life is, and all of our plans, and all the things that you're doing are wonderful.
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I'm telling you, I know you hear all these axioms, and all these superlatives and broad about live life to its fullest, and BOLO, YOLO, and all that.
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>> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] You know what, there's a degree of truth to those things.
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You never going to know what's going to happen, and that was my situation.
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But yeah, 37 days, and then the transplant on my birthday.
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There's a degree of fortunate, of blessings, of being lucky that are important in life, and I am all of those and damned glad to be here, as they say.
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>> Yeah, so how have your perspectives and behaviors changed day-to-day? >> They really haven't.
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I think I do appreciate life, in general, more.
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And there's moments of sort of personal emotion and drama when I celebrate anniversaries like that, or when I have to tell a story or I have to visit someone in the hospital that's going through something like that.
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It's not only a physical issue with you personally, it also is emotional, and then it impacts all your loved ones.
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And it's important, I think, to keep a very positive attitude.
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So all of that, I do a lot more.
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I go to hospitals, literally, all over the world, and I'll see folks and talk to them.
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Just by the nature of what I do in my usual energetic rambling self, people look, it's like hey, he looks normal.
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And when they know what I've been through, it's a bit of a motivator for people to get out of their funk because, I'm telling you, doctors are very conservative, and they'll tell you all of these things you shouldn't do, like I shouldn't be in any enclosed spaces with a lot of people, airplanes.
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>> [LAUGH] >> I shouldn't be hanging around with a bunch of [INAUDIBLE] It's like everything I'm not supposed to do, I couldn't possibly live without doing.
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And that's my choice, and my doctors generally keep up with me.
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But it is an important part of, again, back to the question you raised earlier with regards to who you are as a person.
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Things like that should shape you and change you, but who I am, how I approach things, that had nothing to do with that.
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And they asked, all my loved ones, have I changed?
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And they're like no, you're still the same nut crazy person that I've always been.
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>> Yeah, so I want to talk about sort of how your personality, and that thinking, and that process led you to take the role at United.
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So when you took over as CEO, you inherited a company that was still struggling to overcome some of the challenges from the merger with Continental.
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And it's not common for airline CEOs to come from outside of the industry.
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Why did you believe it was the right job for you?
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>> I think it's back to my fundamental foundation of who I am and what I think I can do, and advice I give to all of you.
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You really have to know who you are, it's the old know thyself thing.
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And I always did, know thyself, comma, and then I would write a really big really with an exclamation point.
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Not the self that you think and you want to project to others that you are, the real self.
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The real self in the middle of the night and your mind's going, we are all Petty and jealous and greedy and angry, all of those things.
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Those are pure, wonderful human qualities.
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The more you understand yourself, the more you know your predilection in those areas, I'm telling you, it's the best of yourselves when you know that.
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I think part of maturity, I think part of growing up, I think part of having success, you're able to have these conversations and I'm telling you, know yourself. Really!
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And when you do, and so back to the application of me.
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I know what I love, I know what I like.
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I love the work that we're doing with the railroad. But it was a railroad.
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It was a B2B, it was freight.
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It was very industrial, very labor oriented.
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We'd take it, we had great runs as the dean mentioned with regards to what we had done financially.
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But there was always something missing for me.
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And I miss the things from my Coca-Cola and Pepsi cola days, branding mechanism, marketing, connecting with other humans.
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I thought that was really important.
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And, more importantly, being on the board, I saw some of the frustration in our employee base.
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I saw some of the frustration with our customers.
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And I certainly saw where, again, back to knowing myself.
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What do I get the most energy from?
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Well, it is capturing the hearts and minds of many, many folks in a large organization, and I'm thinking, I can do that.
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And then I had a couple board members who were really instrumental in another sort of initiative, objective of mine in my life, is how do you make a difference in this world?
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And from what platform can you make it, and we all have different platforms, and we can all do different goods in different areas.
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But taking a big brand like United, driving the turn around, having success, gives you a platform to really advocate.
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To really do good things for the community, do good things for the environment, for you name it.
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I now have a voice on a platform that I wouldn't have without that.
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And one of our board members, a guy named Walter Isaacson, you guys may have heard of him, arguably the best living American writer today.
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He called me and for two hours, he just berated about taking this role because I was literally going to be the CEO of this next company, like in days.
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And he's like, you have the opportunity, Oscar, to change the face of American capitalism.
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And that's only something like an author of his renown would say, and I'm like, well dang, that's okay.
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I was just hoping to get free flights or something.
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>> [LAUGH] >> But when he said that, and it's actually sparked a lot of conversations that I've had, not only with my employees, but in general.
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I like to say things like, we're building a company that's not only profitable, but principled.
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And that you can be both.
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And more importantly, that by being principled, you can actually be even more profitable.
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And as you guys get into your career, as you're starting mid or beginning to reemerge from school back into the work.
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It is becoming an ever-increasing level of attention from the new generation that you bring, right?
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It's not just the product, it's not the what you do, like we do in but it's also the how you do it.
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And I think I can do both.
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And so that was an opportunity that I think I had at United that I may or may not have had, really, at CSX.
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because you probably wouldn't have me here if I was at CSX, just saying, I think. >> [LAUGH] >> Well, Dr.
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Parker knows me, so maybe I would be.
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[LAUGH] >> I want to come back to the platform discussion in a little bit, but the phrase that you used, the road to changing the face of American capitalism.
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That road hasn't been the smoothest road, aside from the personal challenges.
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>> Turbulence, we call it.
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>> [LAUGH] >> Turbulence, yes, exactly.
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There were a series of incidents last year, including the forced removal of a passenger on a United flight, and separately, the death of animals on United flights.
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And I guess what I'm curious about is, what lessons, you've publicly acknowledged and apologized for this on many occasion.
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But for the students, what lessons have you learned through that experience?
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>> First and foremost, and when we talked before hand with Liz and Patrick, I said, there's nothing off the table.
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Ask me whatever the heck you want, period.
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That's like, there is nothing that I'm, anything of value, because everything we do is learning.
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There is turbulence in everything that we do.
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That situation has sparked what I believe will be the major cog in United's turn around over time is that it got our collective stuff together.
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We are such a big company with big operational requirements, where safety and security have to be our topmost objectives, right? Has to be.
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Policies and procedures are rigorous, they're demanding, and more importantly, they're constrictive and they don't give you a lot of room for what we're trying to build now, which is a caring culture.
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And so in that particular instance, the learning was, we let our policies and procedures get in the way of doing the damn right thing, right?
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Who in their right mind would bring the police, and we all saw the video, right?
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I mean, 500 million views in China, I was out visiting and I'm like, that doesn't teach you something, it does.
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But it was a catalyst to what we've established from that point forward.
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We've established so many more customer oriented.
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Our philosophy and our next journey after we've done what we've done so far is, I want to make you, we want to make you feel better about flying us. What does that mean?
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Put that in your spreadsheet.
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You can't, but you can because if you think how we built this company to today the first thing I did is I regained the trust of my employees.
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That was the first big saying to Wall Street.
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And Wall Street went just apoplectic, like, what the hell was that?
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He was from outside industry, doesn't know what he is doing and the first thing he says, he's going to be nice to people?
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And so, what's the return on that?
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Well, you fast forward a year later, our operations are, we settled our union contracts.
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Our operations are doing best.
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We've led the last two years in an on time originations.
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We're getting our planes out on time.
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And we haven't invested a huge amount of money.
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We've invested in human capital, right? And getting those trust.
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So build the trust of employees, get that right, build your operations.
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Then build a strategy, a business strategy.
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Which all of you love, right? That's the sexy part.
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That sexy part, it don't work without the human capital underneath it.
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And that's another thing that we always forget, is that, trust me, in that large of an organization that's so spread all over God's green earth, literally, because we're a global company.
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You have to get that right and then build from that.
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That's the foundation for the things that we've been doing and this next journey is about the customer and making you feel better.
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That will probably be the most arduous and difficult thing, because it's hard to measure. You tell me everyday.
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And you can tell me, I mean MPS is such a hard thing because if your coffee wasn't the right temperature, if somebody sitting next to you had a dog that was the size of Bosnia, I'm in again trouble for saying, nothing against Bosnia.
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>> [LAUGH] >> But there's saving, all of you are frequent fliers, you all have your views about what's right, we're chatting in the back about, if I ever write a book, I'm going to title it, there is no good deed that goes unpunished in this business.
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because if I do something for customers, Wall Street gets upset.
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If I do something for Wall Street, employees and customers get upset.
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So it's always this constant thing and you're a demanding, wonderful crowd.
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And so my thing I would tell you is that people like to catch you in these kind of conversations, especially on national TV.
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They will ask you don't you think the customer is always right?
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And I said, you know what, unfortunately in this day and age, safety and security are paramount.
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And to the extent that we can, after taking care of those two, we want to put you at the center of everything we do.
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And that's a difficult task, but you have to understand, safety and security are key.
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I'd love to have you just show up at the airport and get on any damn plane you want.
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Yeah, come on in, get on.
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Southwest does that, I think but. >> [LAUGH] >> Sorry.
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He's going to come after me.
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[LAUGH] So, gosh, we've got so much to do still.
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>> Yeah, and how do you balance That what you just discussed.
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So investing in a better customer experience while maintaining the cost discipline required for profitability in the short term.
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Expectations from Wall Street in a highly competitive industry, how do you balance that?
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>> See, this is where these are the things that we need to learn more of even at this relatively young age.
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So I call that debate NPS net promoter versus EPS, because in our world that's the tradeoff.
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I mean sometimes you just have this decision where do I put more seats in the airplane?
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Well you don't like that, but density, and overhead absorption, and all the things that we know makes sense for us.
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So how do we balance those two things, well they're trade offs.
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And more importantly for us at United, what we're doing is we're listening to you our customers, like what's important to you?
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Does this matter to you, does it really, how do we do this?
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And then when we roll things out, we test it with a lot of different folks.
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We just introduced something called better boarding.
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And you're like, how boring is that, right? Boarding, really?
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Well it's one of the highest stress points. How do I know that? I asked you.
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And it's going like gangbusters.
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Well you went from five to two and everybody's gone from two to three and a half.
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Everybody's done this all the time.
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But they haven't done the secret sauce.
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And why ours is working is I spent, my team spent eight months working with customers and with gate agents who do what?
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They do this for a living every single day.
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They know how things board and what works and what doesn't so our really smart people with the flows and the regressions and the statistical analysis that says this or that.
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The first sign of a plan first falls apart at the sign of the enemy and the enemy is our own people, it's like this is stupid.
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This doesn't work, why don't we try this one or we try that.
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And so the concept of involving folks is it requires patience.
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It requires you putting your ego and your intelligence off to the side.
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You're all going to come out of here with a Stanford degree got, you guys have had a massive leg up.
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But if you go back into your workplaces, what I call, all asses and elbows, right?
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Elbowing people out of the way because you're so damn smart.
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I'm telling you, one of the things that we learn as we gain more experience.
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One of the saddest things that you have is middle to senior middle managers who lament the fact that their careers have not gone like they planned.
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And they look around at everybody else.
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I'm so smart, I'm so capable. No one recognizes that.
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Ladies and gentlemen, I'm telling you it is a meritocratic world out there. People notice quality.
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People notice leadership.
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People reward it to this very day.
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There's pockets with bias, and racial things, and then sex, all of that stuff, no question.
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But in general, as a whole, people can get ahead because you made an effort to get ahead.
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All of those axioms about treating others, and not having an agenda and working, all that sort of thing.
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But it's the saddest thing when people are at that age and then they just haven't figured out the EQ side of the thing.
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You have to make yourself the kind of person that people are willing to come up to and provide advice.
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I run a really big company, and you'd be appalled at some of the conversations that people have with me when someone's upset.
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They will yell at me, they'll stand there, and they'll do this, and I am loving every minute of it.
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Because at the end of the day, sharing is caring, right?
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>> [LAUGH] >> And if you're yelling at me I still have a shot at you, it's like, and that has made the biggest difference in our company because they know they can have that output.
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And then once you do it you begin to capture hearts and minds.
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And then when they ask them to do it, we ask ourselves to do things it's a lot easier way of doing it so it's a long question to one I don't even remember what you asked.
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>> [LAUGH] That's okay, so I do have to admit to the audience that I am a United loyalist and status holder.
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>> [LAUGH] >> I know, I know.
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I know, firsthand, how a motive- >> He's from Boston.
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The first thing why do you have a hyphenated last name.
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>> [LAUGH] >> That was actually his first question to me.
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>> [LAUGH] >> Another trick to interviews, always turn the tables. [LAUGH] >> Yes, exactly.
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>> [LAUGH] >> I do know, firsthand, how a motive and even tribal people can be about their airlines However, some have had as we've discussed, some very negative experiences with United and some have even stated that they would quote, unquote, never fly the airline again.
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Why should they reconsider?
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>> A funny thing, so over time you get to know people everywhere and some of the SNL cast I become friendly with and everybody knows Weekend Update, right?
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If you go back to the time when they reported on the DOW incident.
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That's the flight where we had to, a bad flight.
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>> [LAUGH] >> Earlier in the week, somebody had found a scorpion in one of our overhead bins.
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And so, he leads with this.
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And tonight on the news, United Airlines found a scorpion on the thing.
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And then he kind of smiles and he's thinking, honestly, that wasn't the worst news of the week for United.
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And they were brief and just mentioned that, they were very nice to us, they just mentioned it briefly as they do for everyone else.
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And then he stares into the camera, and he goes I will never fly, and it's with a serious face, pause, pause, until they have a good price to wherever I want to go, then of course I'll fly there.
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>> [LAUGH] >> There's a guy that use to run Spirit Airlines which he- >> [LAUGH] >> He would carry around these 12 letters and he would open one of the letter and it would be somebody saying I'll never fly this airline. >> Yeah.
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>> None of this and the remaining 11 letters were from the same customer over the course of two or three years.
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The economic impact, and the price of things makes a difference to all of us, there's no question.
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You may not fly someone again or whatever.
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People are very emotional about this business, it's very personal to them, which is why our purpose and mission is about connecting people.
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Not the physical connection from point A to point B, but connecting you, as a human being, to something that's really important to you somewhere else, and that's the foundation of our shared purpose.
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Then again, back to my previous comment, involve 90,000 people, telling me, telling us, what was important to them.
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So connecting people in that more personal way, and then uniting the world.
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Which is an interesting thing that came out because it's really led me and us to be able to do a lot of.
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Take stands in DACA, Dreamers, the separation of children.
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Gun control and some of the issues that surround that, because when you have a shared purpose that's uniting the world that your 90,000 employees had told you, it gives you a responsibility to take action.
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And take a position on some of those things.
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>> So I want to transition into speaking about some of the management and leadership challenges, and some of the things that you've done recently.
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Many do not realize that the flight attending crews from the United Continental merger continued to work separately for over eight years.
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That is, until earlier this month when you successfully finalized the deal with the unions.
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How did you succeed in reaching a deal after so long, and can you share some negotiating tips with us?
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>> So the actual contractual deal was signed a couple years ago when we agreed on the contract.
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Implementing the contract was what just transpired.
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>> You got 26,000 people, flight attendants who are the front, the face, the brand to some degree.
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Coming from two different cultures.
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All of you will study mergers and acquisitions, we'll do all the math, the synergies, how cost can be.
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All the things that we like to do.
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The human integration of different cultures Along with the systems that support them are very critical in how you handle those and how you manage them.
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Because there's so much pride and so much more history and so much more resistance to change in those kind of mergers and integrations. So it took us a while.
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The contract had been going on for five years.
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And when I came, it's just my style, this is where history will always follow you.
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So I had spent ten plus years at a railroad where we were largely union oriented.
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And unions tend be headed by the same people across on a national level.
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When a union from one company, when you switch to another company, calls the union people at that other company and say, that's a good guy, he's going to work with you.
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Huge, huge benefit to starting a calculation. So I don't make that up. I don't do that.
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It's just the way I work.
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And the way you work with people, now, my dad was a union meat cutter.
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My uncle was head of the IBEW in California.
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Started unions in Los Angeles, literally when people were getting killed for organizing things.
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So I grew up in that environment.
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I've seen the value of it to some degree, I also see some of the deficiencies as we move forward.
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But nevertheless, it's the world they've chosen and you have to admire, you have to respect it, more importantly you have to acknowledge it, right?
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Seek first to understand, then to be understood.
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And we don't do that, you're a union guy, you clearly you don't have my best interest in mind. You know what? Try it.
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And I think once you've built that little bit of that history, it made a difference when we came to United.
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And we settled that five year contract in one year and it wasn't usurious.
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It wasn't giving everything away.
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It was very fair contract for both, which is the way it should be, right?
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A fair day's pay for a fair day's work.
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And the only thing that needs to be negotiated is what's a fair day and what's fair pay.
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[LAUGH] That, ladies and gentlemen, many books written on that.
25:53
But having a relationship to start the conversation is much easier than not, in my mind.
25:59
>> So being located in Silicon Valley, Stanford students are often drawn into the start-up and the technology companies in this area after graduation.
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But why should we consider working for a more established company, such as United, instead?
26:14
>> Well again, back to the concept of know thyself. What makes you tick?
26:19
If you're just following, [COUGH] again, I have to be careful because my children have all become bankers and consultants.
26:26
>> [LAUGH] >> Not that anybody wants to do that here.
26:29
>> [LAUGH] >> And tech is a great space.
26:34
And if you're good at it, you really love it, and it's something you really want to do?
26:37
And it really motivates you, and gets you going, go do that thing.
26:42
The sooner you learn that what you love, and what you want to do, and what makes you passionate, and you go do that?
26:48
I'm telling you, you're young, you have lots of life left.
26:52
You go do something just for the money, just because what's your friend, that's just currently what's hot?
26:57
You'll wake up some time in that career, and say, dang it, I wish I had done something else.
27:03
So again, back to, nobody knows yourself better than you.
27:06
So think hard about those things and if that's what you want to do, wonderful, go do it.
27:10
It's all great training ground.
27:12
But sometime between then, it's kind of like choosing a major in undergrad, all right?
27:16
Go try all the different things.
27:17
But at some point in time the school calls you, the dean calls you and says, dude, you gotta pick.
27:22
Life won't tell you that, life will let you go on, but at some point in time your personal well being, how you reflect with the people around you, how you're production to your community.
27:34
And more importantly, how you interact with your loved ones, and you all all have loved ones, it makes a meaningful difference if you're doing something you really like. I love what I do.
27:44
I won't say, it's a very difficult job, [LAUGH] because of all the factors that we face, all over the world.
27:50
There's not a single exogenous factor that doesn't affect an industry like us.
27:53
We're always working with that.
27:55
But you're right, my foundation is the energy that I derive from my people and that's what I love to do.
28:00
That's why I chose to come here from CSX.
28:02
That's why I choose to continue.
28:03
That's why I chose to come back from dang I almost died, right?
28:06
I mean, who comes back from a heart transplant to do this stuff?
28:09
Well again, it's just who I am.
28:11
And it's good to know that because you'll have decisions in your life that will require you to make some tough decisions.
28:18
You can go read all the books and talk to all your wonderful professors.
28:21
All of the advisors, all the counseling you could possibly get, but man, it always comes back to you.
28:27
[LAUGH] And so and it's great, you're the best at it about making decisions for yourself.
28:35
>> But this is still Silicon Valley, so I do have to ask a question about the future.
28:40
You have worked in travel and transportation for many years now, and my question is, what do you think will be different about the transportation industry, say 20 years from now?
28:50
>> Gosh, it'll be completely radically changed, right?
28:54
I mean, from, I hosted Dara from Uber and a guy named Dennis Muilenburg who runs Boeing.
29:01
You guys know Dara and Oscar?
29:04
There's some first name people out there and so.
29:06
>> [LAUGH] >> Mostly because Dara's last name is literally unpronouncable.
29:10
>> [LAUGH] >> But I had them both at an event down in San Diego, we talked about the future of transportation.
29:19
And when you hear them talk about airplanes that fly in space to literally flying cars, one's building the software, one's building the actual vehicle, they can do that.
29:29
So the Jetson's, somebody remember those cartoons a long time ago.
29:34
I've read about them, I just, somebody.
29:35
>> [LAUGH] >> And so there's just so much technology that's going to be in our future.
29:42
I think the way I approach technology is two-fold.
29:45
One, whatever's new, whatever's hot, whatever's applicable to us, let's roll.
29:50
I mean we've got Palantir here in the valley.
29:52
We came out and visited about a year and a half ago and interviewed all sorts of different folks with all this great technology.
29:58
Big data, artificial intel, all those wonderful buzzwords, they can do that.
30:02
I'm looking for things that are relevant.
30:04
It's what I call it relevant innovation or relevant technology, that's relevant to you, my customer, today.
30:10
50 years from now, 10 years from now, there'll be something more.
30:14
I don't want to wait for you for 5, or 10, or 50 years to be my customer.
30:17
I want to you to be my customer now.
30:18
So what is it that I can do that's really healthy and worthwhile for you?
30:22
So I have things, we know so much about you, in a non-creepy way.
30:28
>> [LAUGH] >> I know all your flights.
30:31
I know whether you've been upgraded, I know how your flight went.
30:34
And so I have an app and when I sit next to you, I know all that.
30:38
I know your last five flights.
30:40
And I know everybody is sitting around and before I get on an aircraft.
30:42
I check everyone and what I see is red, yellow, green. It's as simple as that.
30:46
And it says, here's a red.
30:48
Hey, you flew from San Francisco back to Chicago a month and a half ago, sir.
30:54
Sorry about that, do you want to tell me, and so I bring it up.
30:59
And they're like, whoa, I don't even remember the flight, but you start a conversation.
31:05
But the fact, it's that personalization that's important.
31:08
So take that conversation and make it even better.
31:11
So I know all of that about you.
31:13
So why can't I call you if you're a traveling, road warrior person, why can't I call you on a Thursday evening when you're leaving on a Friday?
31:22
And what are the stressors, right?
31:24
Traffic, parking, security, upgrades, all of those things right?
31:29
Are you on time, all that sort of stuff.
31:31
Well, I have enough data to be able to proactively call you on a Thursday afternoon and say hey, ma'am, I've seen that over the last five flights we haven't been able to upgrade you.
31:44
You're a valued customer.
31:45
I want you to know that A, you have your upgrade, B and I'm working with TSA on this.
31:51
I'm going to get you through security in a different line.
31:53
And by the way, because we're partners with Uber and Lyft, here's a code for your Uber so that you have a car, you have security and you have your upgrade.
32:03
The night before you're going on a flight.
32:06
How better do you sleep that night?
32:08
Now, again, for all of you that travel a lot, you'll recognize that.
32:12
But that, to me, is relevant tech, and that's how you put all this big data and management, thereof, how you put it to use.
32:19
Not for this grandiose, how do I extract more revenue from you?
32:22
Which is important and we'll do that concurrently.
32:25
But more importantly, I want you to- >> [LAUGH] >> It's a business school, right?
32:29
>> [LAUGH] >> But again, it's a win-win, right?
32:33
And when I say I want you to feel better about flying with me, that's something that you'll feel better at.
32:39
[INAUDIBLE] Hey listen, I was kind of pissed because I haven't been upgraded, all of a sudden they called ahead of time, knew what was going on, helped me out.
32:46
So that's a vision that we're working towards.
32:49
And so technology is a great advantage in all those places. It has to scale. We are massive.
32:56
Just so big, it's not even funny.
32:58
So we have to make sure we do, we're able to work with some.
33:01
And the association is great.
33:03
We've gotta have Boeing, Microsoft, and everyone else.
33:05
But we're always looking for someone else, too.
33:08
And so it's exciting to see what excitement's going on around here.
33:12
>> So you mentioned your platform, the platform that you've been given as the CEO of United, and I want to transition to talking about some of the larger things out in the world that you have played a role in having conversations about including the fact that United is a leader and its efforts to reduce carbon emissions and recently committed to having it's emissions by 2050.
33:33
But a recent UN climate report suggests that we only have until 2030 before we start to see the catastrophic and irreversible effects to warming.
33:43
So you are a leader but can and should you do more to reduce an offset?
33:49
>> I'l start with a humorous approach back to my SNL. Michael Shay said this. He goes have you heard?
33:55
The planet's dying in ten years and then he says why don't I care?
33:58
[LAUGH] We don't, and he goes to say humorously.
34:06
Because you can't say everything's going to die because no one cares about everything, they care things that are all on me.
34:13
You should watch it, it's pretty funny.
34:15
I'll tell you my evolution on this.
34:18
Personally and really as a company.
34:20
First and foremost, we burn four billion, now- >> [LAUGH] >> Gallons of jet fuel, not regular fuel, jet fuel a year.
34:31
So carbon footprint, dude, I have a giant-size whatever issue in that regard.
34:37
I also made a business, and a lot of money for a lot of investors, moving fossil fuels, coal, for instance in the railroad space.
34:46
And at that time it was sort of my bias to disregard or disprove the concept of global climate change and any risk thereof.
34:56
I've evolved, I mean, I still have a big carbon footprint.
35:00
I just see what we are doing as a planet.
35:05
You just can't deny the fact that the hardware, whether it's industrialization, all the different things that we're doing are creating a bigger risk.
35:14
This planet will burst at some point in time, I don't know when it is.
35:17
So the questions Al Gore, in my conversations with him, are simple.
35:20
He says do you believe in climate change?
35:23
Can you do something about it?
35:24
And will you do something about it?
35:26
And so for me, and I think for our company, do we believe it's real? Yeah, I think so.
35:33
Yeah I can argue the cyclical nature of global warming, and cooling over many centuries and all of that.
35:40
But the difference is man made emissions, it all becoming more prevalent, and more impactful.
35:46
So yes, I believe in it, we believe in it as a company.
35:48
Can you do something about it, it's like I don't know, we burn four billions of fuel can we really do something? It's like, yes you can.
35:55
So bio-fuels are in their infancy but we're the leading folks to invest in companies that manufacture it.
36:01
We just flew from here to Zurich a couple of weeks ago on a fossil fuel.
36:06
It isn't quite scale or economic enough.
36:09
But our 2050 mission, to your question, it's going to take a while.
36:14
But will you do something about it?
36:17
I, we are choosing that that's going to be done.
36:20
And what's cool about it, because California anointed surfing as the state sport which I did a lot of that so I was very happy.
36:30
So our president Jana Lampkins here had a great idea, why don't we fly surfboards free?
36:36
And as a complete different gesture, guess who picks up on that? There you go, somebody.
36:40
And now for the skiers, we'll have to work on that.
36:45
But, it's a long way away, but you gotta start somewhere.
36:52
And by me doing it in this industry, hopefully it a lot of heavy carbon footprint companies to begin to ask the question, do you believe, can you do something, and will you do something about it. >> Yeah.
37:03
Immigration has also been a hot button issue, and you have been vocal.
37:06
You have come out in support of DACA.
37:08
You also refuse to let the US government fly immigrant children who had been separated from their families at the border on any United flight.
37:16
What responsibilities to executives of public companies have when it comes to taking a stand on these social and political issues?
37:24
>> I mention the profitable but principled earlier.
37:28
My opinion and I do it on the basis of the strength of what we've been doing in the business, and creating shareholder value, creating customer value.
37:38
And on that foundation of accomplishment, and success, in the terms that some people want to look at it.
37:44
I see a responsibility, we see a responsibility, my employees see a duty by the nature of shared purpose of connecting people and uniting the world, and I have every freedom from our corporation to do what we think is the right thing.
38:03
And what's hard about it is that it is not without its issues.
38:09
You take a position on anything, now a days, and the social media world lights up with negative.
38:16
Haters are going to hate, and boy, do they.
38:20
And so immigration and things like that, because of my heritage become identity politics, right, so you quickly discontinued.
38:29
Things are taken out of context all the time.
38:32
But you know what, if we're not building, and showing our next generation of leaders, that you are in this room, that you should be certainly profitable, but principled, that we shouldn't think about those social causes?
38:46
Regardless of what they are, whatever extreme that you can't voice it and I'm always very careful to not make pronouncements that are my bias.
38:54
If it's my opinion you will know that it's my opinion.
38:58
But there's just it's we teach a lot of things ,ethics, morals and values.
39:03
I'm telling you the intersection that you come to a fork in the road where you have to make a decision on something is a difficult one. And it's situational.
39:12
I don't have a problem with guns or anything, just whatever your choice is.
39:17
But when there's a shooting, and one of your pilot's family member loses a daughter who's 14 years old, I can't stand by and say nothing.
39:28
I won't stand by and say nothing.
39:31
And despite one person came to our annual meeting and just berated me.
39:35
Warren Buffett said this.
39:36
How dare you as a CEO take a personal approach. And you said it was.
39:40
I said, it had nothing to do with politics.
39:42
It had nothing to do with guns.
39:44
That was purely personal.
39:46
Somebody lost a loved one. I can't stand by.
39:48
I won't stand by, and the team, the family that I belong to won't let that happen either.
39:54
And so, I think we need more of that.
39:56
Thoughtful, not so much identity product, not so much But you know what, on the right things we have a big crisis coming with this caravan coming.
40:05
I mean the social and economic instability around us is awful.
40:08
This world is interconnected.
40:10
You know that because you're growing up in an environment.
40:12
It's so interconnected that something happens, it's going to affect the US and there's going to be all hell to pay.
40:17
So we will continue to work with all the right folks to see anything that we can add to that.
40:22
The political issues, immigration policies.
40:24
We'll let politicians manage with that.
40:26
I'm just there to pick up whatever pieces I can.
40:28
And I have the full support of my united family and our board.
40:31
And I think that's important to have.
40:33
But, again, importantly, you build that level of credibility.
40:36
You build that goodwill by doing the things that you're all learning to do here, right?
40:40
Strategy, involvement, leadership, all those sorts of things.
40:43
But there's such a big human component to all of this.
40:46
And don't ever forget that, know who you are, put yourself in the right situations, because you will face decisions in your life like I said before, where you have to choose.
40:56
And how you choose, and when you choose, there will be detractors, there's no question.
41:01
But so damn the torpedos, let's just do it. >> Yeah.
41:06
>> I mean I am fortunate to be in that position that what are you going to do?
41:09
[LAUGH] I mean, it's like you send me home to my family that I don't see very often? >> [LAUGH] >> Gosh.
41:14
[LAUGH] Well, my wife probably has something to say about that, but.
41:18
>> [LAUGH] So I want to sneak in one more quick question before we turn it over to the audience.
41:22
>> I hear we have a class coming in here soon. >> So, yeah.
41:24
One of the questions we often reflect on here at the GSP and that I think a lot about is this question of why should people follow you?
41:34
>> How do you respond to that question?
41:38
>> Why should people follow you?
41:41
I think, I have all these little silly sayings.
41:44
I always say proof, not promise.
41:47
It's like listen, I'll stand in front of you, I'm going to tell you what we're going to do.
41:50
And then you don't have to do a darn thing Because all you're going to see is proof of what I just told you.
41:56
And for the time I've been here, I can honestly stand in front of my entire United family and our share owners.
42:04
Increasingly in front of our customers as we do more in that space.
42:07
I had said is there anything ever I have told you that we haven't delivered on?
42:14
It's hard to say that, but I don't say things publically that we're not going to deliver on.
42:19
We're very careful and review everything we're going to say. It's important.
42:23
That's why people follow you because they talk to each other.
42:27
You telling someone, you need to follow me because I'm the man. I'm the boss. Or I'm the smarter.
42:31
I did all these things to this other company.
42:33
All that's part of the equation.
42:34
But every human needs a personal connection, a personal desire.
42:40
A heart and a mind connection that drives someone to what I generally call discretionary effort.
42:47
This is a business where, I have, they're spread all over the world.
42:50
A gate agent back in the back corner of some airport in Turkey, I have no control over her and what she's doing.
42:59
All I have is the communications that we've done, the feeling of family, the shared purpose and mission, all of those superlatives and all those things that keep people doing business.
43:09
Because then, that person, just like when raising children.
43:11
All your parents have let you go, mostly.
43:15
[LAUGH] And you're left to make your own decisions.
43:19
Are you making the right decisions? Some yes, some not.
43:22
And so, the why you should follow me is not a question I ask.
43:25
It's like, let me show you, let me prove to you, and then people follow in droves.
43:31
I mean they really do, it's a really powerful thing when you capture the hearts and minds of folks.
43:35
How you do it versus how I do it, that's what you have to figure out because there is no one way of doing it and you got a lot of talented folks, faculty that will tell you all those different things.
43:44
But my view is you gotta know who you are and for God's sake, another thing I say is swing easy.
43:53
We try too hard sometimes.
43:55
I mean guys in particular get a deep voice when you ask a question, well let me tell you sir, relax.
44:01
And I say swing easy because if you play golf, in particular tennis, if you see the professionals, they make that effort's effortless.
44:10
Right, their swing is effortless.
44:12
We in our career sometimes try a little too hard, especially early on.
44:15
Be the person that someone pulls aside and says hey, Oscar, you might want to try this versus that.
44:23
You got to be that person that people are willing to.
44:25
If I have a guiding principle or fact of something that's been done that I've been so fortunate to have is that across my career, someone's always pulled you aside.
44:36
Especially when you thought you were all that, right?
44:39
I'd been, I was the youngest of this, and the youngest of that, and all that.
44:42
But then somebody, key point if I could, one boss, it's a pointed story.
44:48
I'm sitting at a review, I just, I'm a 26-year-old kid.
44:51
I went from this level at one company, to this level at Coca-Cola.
44:56
And I'm just feeling everything.
44:58
And I think everyone around me is kind of stupid, because I'm the smartest thing in the world.
45:03
Six months in, my boss pulls me in, we have this performance review and he says, hey, you exceed our expectations, I took a risk on you, you've been killing it really.
45:12
You're crushing it, before that word was important.
45:14
>> [LAUGH] >> Then he says, and he closes kind of the book, and he pulls aside, he goes but if I could tell you something on a more personal basis.
45:22
And I'm like, he wants me to date his daughter or something, probably.
45:25
>> [LAUGH] >> No, he said, and this is critical. He said you know what?
45:29
You're really good, but you're not yet as good as you think you are.
45:36
And I was like, excuse me?
45:38
That sounded kind of negative.
45:42
>> [LAUGH] >> You're not yet as good as you think you are.
45:49
And I walked out of there, went through all those seven stages of anger, all those little things that people do. But it was critical.
45:56
Along life, you've gotta find the right person that has that desire.
46:00
Remember, sharing is caring.
46:01
And that made a huge difference, because I'd walked into an environment where I thought I was all that.
46:06
I was the youngest, and well I recognized that people around me were incredibly, deeply, knowledgeable and experienced.
46:14
Where my energy could be better, in fact, it's guided many things like that, so always make sure, and don't ask people, like, Hey, tell me something bad about myself, right?
46:25
You just gotta act that way.
46:27
And find people, love people around you.
46:29
Give them the liberty, give them the liberty to be honest with you.
46:33
You will find more often than not, when somebody tells you something negative.
46:37
And you go, hey honey, this jerk at work said this about me and your spouse will go well, honey.
46:43
[LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] >> It’s an important thing, I'm sorry.
46:47
>> No, we’d like to take a few questions from the audience, if that’s okay. >> Sure.
46:57
>> Hi, my name is Edward Silva.
46:58
Thank you, Oscar, I’m an MBA student here at GSB.
47:02
And my question is, where with the United do the new, creative, even crazy ideas come from, and what are you doing specifically to foster them?
47:11
>> Well they come from this listening thing.
47:15
It's amazing how there's really cool leading edge innovation and then there's just basic things that we need to do right and better.
47:24
And so, most of our people focus on the latter, it's like the simple things like this boarding thing I discussed.
47:32
And so, getting input from that.
47:34
On the innovation side, we started what all of you around here know, but it isn't often as prevalent and big 100 year old industrial companies like mine.
47:44
The concept of fast failure, right?
47:47
Big companies employ people like you to do all the analytics, and their and this, and all the studies, and all these things about an idea.
47:55
And you go months into it and then somebody determines it's a go or a no go And then maybe you try it or you don't, but you've wasted so much time.
48:04
It's like somebody has kind of a cool idea, it's like, go.
48:06
And so we built a digital sort of group, it's actually a separate building, just for many reasons, but you go in there and just the objective in those rooms it's just bring ideas.
48:18
Put them to, bring them up, and see how well they scale.
48:22
And it's amazing how many things take hold, but how energetic that is.
48:26
And now, in our company, it's cool to come up with ideas.
48:28
Before it was like, well, management doesn't like it. You're talking back.
48:32
So part of it is culture, but also part of providing an environment, but more importantly acting on that environment.
48:38
So once getting back to proof, not promise.
48:40
It's like, yeah, if you have an idea and it's coming up, I am taking you everywhere I go and showing your mug everywhere, it's like, his idea, this the guy who did it, this is what he does.
48:50
I mean, we have so many wonderful histories that we tell about our company.
48:53
So creating that culture and all of you are probably more familiar with it because if you live and work around here, it's easier to do that in a smaller younger company.
49:03
Hundred year old companies just don't do that, might the tenure of my Workforce the level of education.
49:09
All of those things are subject but never underestimate the power of human caring, human engagement and human experience makes a big difference, especially when it comes time to dealing with US customers.
49:21
>> Hi my name is Jorge Queto and I'm a first year MBA.
49:24
My question is related to work culture as well.
49:27
What do you think is necessary to create a more inclusive work environment for Latinos, as well as for people from other underepresented groups including women, black people, LGBTQ people, and undocumented immigrants.
49:39
>> Did we miss anybody on that list?
49:43
Veterans, disabilities like autism.
49:51
Biggest and best supporter I think of Special Olympics that we come in united because I believe in that whole breadth.
49:57
Yes, it's my heritage and my natural asset.
49:59
I'll tell you, diversity inclusion, two words.
50:01
Diversity and inclusions, they're two different terms.
50:04
Diversity has become, we've made progress, it's numeric, metric-oriented progress.
50:11
I have the largest percentage of female pilots in the world in aviation. Yay, it's 8%. But it's the best. I relax, right, no?
50:24
Diversity's is just not about numbers.
50:26
How are my women of color, for instance?
50:29
But more importantly, back to the other word, inclusive.
50:32
I go see my women pilots and I say, hey, yay, did you hear, you're the largest percentage in the industry.
50:39
Do you think they celebrate that?
50:40
No, because when I asked I said, what else can we do better?
50:44
There's always a list of things and those lists of things are on the inclusive aspect of it, right? Am I involved? Do you value me?
50:53
These microaggressions of stopping people.
50:56
It's like do you know that women get cut off in meetings more than anyone?
51:00
And you tell it to a guys, he's like no, it hasn't happened, watch.
51:03
And you go back and watch, it's like dang, we do things like that.
51:08
And so part of the thing that we're doing, and Latinos.
51:11
Latinos, by the way, the millennial thing we all talk about, guess what the demographic looks like very soon of millennials versus boomers, right?
51:21
Millennials bigger, next year.
51:22
73 million versus 72 million.
51:24
Guess what the percentage of millenials are that are Latino in this country, almost half.
51:30
So I don't go tell you you gotta do this and you gotta hire Latinos.
51:34
I tell you it is an economic force that is a massive proportions.
51:38
Why Dara from Uber and Dennis Mullemberg were in the meeting with me, is because they recognize that it's a A $2 plus trillion market, Latinos are, and 56 is in the transportation leisure business.
51:50
So it's a right market, right?
51:52
Where you're all looking for growth and for your companies and all the stuff, well, you go fish where the fish are.
51:57
And the fish have a little spicy salsa next to them.
51:59
>> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] I can say that.
52:06
But it comes across all cultures and everything.
52:11
There's just so much to be done.
52:13
I'll tell you, and I'm talking about it tonight in San Francisco with Women in the Workplace.
52:17
My next mission is to some degree, because we have one of the highest percentage of women in the workplace.
52:23
Again, the numbers all work out for us.
52:25
And a way, not the point, harassment, sexual harassment for a flight attendant for people is still an issue.
52:31
There's still idiots that sit next to people and think they can touch, think they can do and ask and say things that they shouldn't.
52:38
And there's still people that sit next to someone and don't want to sit next to someone because of their race, color, sex, or creed.
52:44
Those people have no time, nowhere, no business.
52:47
You can go fly elsewhere because that's just not something we're going to do.
52:50
Hard to do in this market because I have to remove them from the aircraft, right?
52:54
And then we have that whole other issue. >> [LAUGH] What else?
52:59
>> [APPLAUSE] >> So I'd like to close by doing a quick lightning round if possible. >> Sure.
53:11
>> So this or that style. Aisle or window?
53:19
>> An aisle because if you sit next to me you just get abused.
53:21
I mean, people reach over, customers and employees will reach over you, stand in front of you.
53:27
So I always sit at the window so I can just talk to people and not disrupt my fellow flying person next to me.
53:33
And yes I do fly my own airline all the time. Gotta eat what you cook.
53:37
Not all airline executives do that.
53:39
[LAUGH] >> Coke or Pepsi? >> You know what?
53:42
Coke was my last time, so Classic Coke, no additives.
53:45
I watch what goes into other products, and so, the stuff in regular Coke is at least God made, right? It's natural. It's sugar. >> Planes or trains?
53:57
>> Yeah, I got to go with my family, planes.
54:01
>> Adventure or relaxation? >> God, adventure.
54:04
[LAUGH] I don't know what that other word.
54:06
I do know what that word is.
54:07
And after I've done some adventure something.
54:10
Kardashians or The Bachelor?
54:11
>> [LAUGH] >> I'd label that the fall of Western Civilization as we know it.
54:16
>> [LAUGH] >> [APPLAUSE] >> NorCal or SoCal?
54:24
>> [LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] I'm a so cowboy. That's no question. I love it up here.
54:32
I got engaged here, I went running, walking, jogging.
54:35
It's hilly, I forget how hilly it is downtown, but the Saint Francis Hotel is where I got engaged.
54:42
So that always brings a lot of memory.
54:43
The Carnoelon Room probably most of you don't even remember, it used to be at the top of the BFA tower.
54:47
>> That's when I started my way through my, I thought I was so confident in my request to my wife to join me in marriage but I couldn't get the two words out for a while.
54:56
[LAUGH] So it's always be close in that regard.
54:58
>> Then of course the last one, Delta or American?
55:00
No, I'm just kidding, you don't have to.
55:03
It has been a pleasure speaking with you Oscar, please join me in thanking him.
55:06
>> [APPLAUSE] >> Great job. >> [APPLAUSE] [MUSIC]