Throughout her speech, Rhoades highlighted company values, customer service, employee involvement and thinking creatively as the most important aspects of successful entrepreneurship. Rhoades used her own experiences as well as those of other successful company executives to make her point.
In her speech, Rhoades acknowledged that most of her business ideas tend to be unconventional, adding that the reason top companies are successful is because they think creatively. When Rhoades worked at Southwest airlines, she hired Mormon mothers in Salt Lake City to take airline reservation calls and allowed them to work from home, a move that she admitted was unorthodox. To train these workers, Rhoades would hire "obnoxious New Yorkers" to help the mothers practice dealing with difficult callers.
"I break every rule you ever heard of with new ideas," Rhoades said.
The importance of a good team over a good product was another of Rhoades' concentrations and keys to success.
"Leaders make you successful, not the product," said Rhoades. "You have to have A-players on your team. The toughest thing to do in business is fire somebody."
Employees are individuals and should be treated as such, Rhoades said.
"We believe in treating people fairly, not equally," she said. "Everyone isn't alike so you must reward individual performance."
Rhoades believes that, when working with "A-players," dozens of rules for every foreseeable problem are not necessary. Instead, she asks them to do the right thing and come up with their own solutions. At Jet Blue, instead of handing her employees "a two-to-three hundred-page handbook" she offers a twenty-page manual.
"We tell our employees there are no rules," said Rhoades. "We ask them to do the right thing and that is consistent."
The best leaders are those who serve the employees rather than themselves, Rhoades said, highlighting Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines as an example of an entrepreneur who is also a great "servant leader." Kelleher announced on Sept. 12, 2001 he would take a $1 per day salary to help keep the company afloat. As a result, Rhoades said Kelleher never had a single layoff, which is unprecedented in the airline industry.
Rhoades also pointed to Peter Ueberroth of DoubleTree Hotels as another outstanding leader who fostered relationships within his company. She said that he brought back humility to business by travelling in yellow cabs instead of limousines and folding linens with his staff upon arriving at one of his hotels.
"All great companies and people know success depends on the relationship you build with employees and consumers," Rhoades said.
As a woman who has been involved with multiple successful companies, Rhoades said she is always excited for the challenge of starting up another business or taking on another project.
"I have loved my experience [as a woman in business]," Rhoades said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "I have had a lot of experience as the only female on a team so I was excited that there are three women working on the board at Jet Blue. I enjoy working on teams with both men and women because it is great to have balance."
Rhoades, who spoke at Dartmouth last May, was brought back courtesy of the Rockefeller Center and the Club of Dartmouth Entrepreneurs. Co-presidents of the Club of Dartmouth Entrepreneurs, David Chattman '08 and Jeff Kolovson '09, said they are hoping to bring another entrepreneur to speak at the end of this month.
"The main focus of our group is to raise undergraduate interest and participation in entrepreneurs," Chattman said. "We have a business competition every year that we sponsor and we aim to foster a relationship between undergraduate students and the Tuck School of Business."
