Richard Anderson vs. Jeff Smisek: Airline CEO Leadership Styles
This paper compares the leadership styles and executive records of two prominent U.S. airline CEOs: Richard H. Anderson of Delta Air Lines and Jeff Smisek of United Airlines. The paper examines each leader's background, management philosophy, and approach to major airline mergers. Anderson is characterized as a strategic, open, and composed leader whose stewardship of the Delta–Northwest merger produced significant financial gains and industry-wide consolidation. Smisek is described as a pragmatic, culture-focused leader whose United–Continental merger encountered operational difficulties and ultimately ended with his resignation amid a federal corruption investigation. The paper evaluates both leaders' overall effectiveness and draws conclusions about their contrasting executive styles.
- Leader Backgrounds and Credentials: Career histories and education of both CEOs
- Comparing Leadership Styles: Open communication vs. pragmatic culture-focused management
- Evaluating Each Leader: Good or Bad?: Anderson's successes versus Smisek's failures and scandal
- Approaches to Leading Their Respective Mergers: Delta-Northwest consolidation compared to United-Continental integration
- Conclusion: Summary judgment on both leaders' overall effectiveness
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What makes this paper effective
- The parallel structure — applying the same evaluative categories to both leaders — makes comparison clear and systematic throughout.
- The paper draws on primary source material, including a direct interview with Smisek in Fortune magazine, giving concrete grounding to leadership claims.
- It moves logically from biography to leadership style to effectiveness to merger management, building a cumulative argument about executive quality.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates comparative analysis as a rhetorical and organizational strategy. By holding each analytical category constant across both subjects — background, style, effectiveness, merger approach — the writer creates a structured basis for judgment rather than simply narrating each CEO separately. This technique allows readers to draw direct inferences without the writer always making them explicit.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with brief professional biographies of each leader, then transitions into a direct comparison of their leadership philosophies. A dedicated section evaluates whether each qualifies as a "good" or "bad" leader based on outcomes and conduct. The merger section forms the analytical core, contrasting Anderson's deliberate, strategically successful consolidation with Smisek's culturally ambitious but operationally troubled merger. A reference list closes the paper.
Leader Backgrounds and Credentials
Richard H. Anderson, CEO of Delta Air Lines
Richard H. Anderson holds a Bachelor of Science degree as well as a Juris Doctor degree. Anderson served as Chief Executive of Northwest Airlines between 2001 and 2004 — his overall tenure at Northwest spanned from 1990 to 2004. He subsequently held the CEO position at Ingenix (now OptumInsight, Inc.) from 2005 to 2007, before becoming Executive Vice President at UnitedHealth Group Inc. from 2004 to 2007. He also served as President of the New Commercial Services Group at UnitedHealth Group from 2005 to 2007. Having accumulated numerous executive roles since entering the field in 1990, Anderson developed the leadership skills he would later use to drive organizations forward. He has served as Delta Air Lines' CEO since September 1, 2007 (Bloomberg, 2016).
Jeff Smisek, Former CEO of United Airlines
Jeffery (Jeff) A. Smisek graduated in 1976 with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics (summa cum laude) and earned his Juris Doctor degree (magna cum laude) from Harvard Law School in 1982. He served as President and CEO of both United Continental Holdings and United Airlines (formerly Continental Airlines, a United Continental Holdings subsidiary) from October 1, 2010 through September 8, 2015. Prior to that, he served as an officer at Sybase, Inc., and as President, Chairman, and CEO of Continental Airlines from January 1, 2010 through September 2010 (Bloomberg, 2016).
Comparing Leadership Styles
Richard Anderson
Richard Anderson is well known for his personable and open managerial style. During his tenure as Chief Executive of Northwest Airlines, he cultivated strong personnel relations by promoting informal, direct communication among all staff members. This commitment to open communication was symbolized by his simple work email address — simply "Richard." Anderson's accessible approach helped him initiate and maintain the dialogue necessary between management and labor unions to resolve workplace disputes.
Another defining characteristic of his executive leadership was his ability to maintain composure under pressure. Following the opening of Detroit's midfield terminal in 2002, journalist Tom Walsh of Knight Ridder-Tribune Business News noted Anderson's visible excitement and pride when discussing the new facility — a response considered unusual for a business executive known for his even-keeled, calm, and understated demeanor (Walsh, 2002).
Jeff Smisek
In an interview with Fortune magazine's Geoff Colvin, Smisek stated that pride and belief are the key drivers of motivation and organizational culture. He placed considerable emphasis on culture, particularly within service organizations, grounding his philosophy in two lessons from his mother: never lie, and treat others the way you wish to be treated. He argued that a company delivers good service when its employees enjoy working together, trust management and one another, and take pride in their organization. Simply training or lecturing employees is never sufficient; genuine belief in the organization and in management is essential for achieving excellent service delivery (Smisek, 2011).
Smisek's leadership style is widely described as pragmatic, with a strong emphasis on identifying and focusing on what truly matters. His business approach centered on a simple "Go Forward" strategy — a brief statement of organizational objectives covering finance, operations, employees, and marketing. This plan was designed to be easily understood by everyone in the company, from pilots to ramp workers. Smisek instructed his colleagues that if they were engaged in any activity that could not be traced back to the Go Forward strategy, it should be stopped immediately and efforts redirected. Nothing was considered worthwhile unless it connected directly to "the Plan" (Chimoff, 2011).
Jeff Smisek was ultimately removed from his role as head of the merged airline in connection with an ongoing federal investigation into the former chairman of the New York and New Jersey Port Authority. His resignation was closely linked to a company investigation into the conduct of David Samson, who had led the Port Authority. Smisek was accused of reinstating a money-losing service route from Newark to Columbia, S.C. — near Samson's vacation home in Aiken, S.C. — as a favor intended to prevent Samson from potentially withholding approval of financing agreements for new United facilities at Newark Airport. United allegedly reinstated the route in exchange for Port Authority projects in New Jersey that benefited United (Reed, 2015).
Evaluating Each Leader: Good or Bad?
Richard Anderson
Anderson concluded his tenure on a strong note. Beyond undeniable financial success, some analysts suggest that one of his most contrarian positions may prove to be a source of good news for the American aviation industry. Anderson consistently stressed the importance of doing one's homework. While seemingly basic advice, this principle was central to his image and success. He was always thoroughly prepared, understood the nuances of his business, and made sound decisions — including arriving at meetings having read all relevant documentation in advance, which prevented him from struggling to catch up in front of others.
He also emphasized knowing when to say "no." For leaders, this means trusting the team one has built and allowing it to operate independently. For knowledge workers, it means knowing when to push back in order to concentrate on the highest-priority efforts with the best potential outcomes. Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft, has cited focus on a limited number of things as a key contributor to his own success. Anderson applied the same principle by declining to accept every meeting invitation that came with his role as a leader of a multinational company (Johnson, 2014).
Jeff Smisek
Smisek aggravated an already troubled situation. United Airlines was plagued by persistent computer problems that grounded thousands of flights and frustrated millions of passengers. Thirty percent of United's flights were delayed in June and twenty-five percent in July, wreaking havoc across the company's operations. Customer satisfaction scores plummeted, with United's customers ranking among the least satisfied of all major U.S. airline passengers — the sole exceptions being deep-discount carriers such as Allegiant, Spirit, and Frontier, which make no pretense of prioritizing customer experience. Loyal customers defected to competitors as a result of persistent negative experiences.
It became apparent that United's top management was focused almost exclusively on cost-cutting — ironically labeled "Project Quality" — and treated operational efficiency as the only meaningful strategy, with little or no regard for its effect on customers, employees, or suppliers (Hartung, 2015).
Conclusion
Both Richard Anderson and Jeff Smisek brought distinct leadership philosophies to their roles as airline CEOs. Anderson's strategic, composed, and open style produced measurable long-term gains for Delta Air Lines, generating industry-wide consolidation and a rare era of profitability across the U.S. airline sector. Smisek's pragmatic and culture-driven approach reflected genuine conviction about the importance of organizational values, but ultimately fell short under the weight of operational failures, customer dissatisfaction, and ethical controversy. Viewed together, their careers offer a useful study in how leadership style, strategic vision, and personal conduct each contribute — or detract — from organizational success.
References
Bloomberg. (2016). Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL:New York). Bloomberg.
Bloomberg. (2016). United Continental Holdings. Bloomberg.
Carey, S. (2016, February 3). Delta Air Lines CEO Richard Anderson to retire, become executive chairman. The Wall Street Journal.
CF. (2016, February 9). Delta CEO Richard Anderson's retirement caps a remarkable nine years for the airline. Cranky Flier.
Chimoff, H. (2011, June 28). Leadership tips from United CEO Jeff Smisek. HarveyChimoff.com.
Hartung, A. (2015, September 11). Smisek's United ouster — were you really surprised? Forbes.
Johnson, J. (2014, July 29). Tips for success from Delta Air Lines CEO Richard Anderson. Airline Reporter.
Reed, D. (2015, September 8). Smisek's ouster as United CEO linked to alleged corruption of Christie-appointee at Port Authority. Forbes.
Smisek, J. (2011, April 21). Jeff Smisek: United Continental's king of the skies [Interview]. (G. Colvin, Interviewer). Fortune.
Walsh, T. (2002, February 25). Detroit Free Press Tom Walsh column. Knight Ridder-Tribune Business News.
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