Singapore Airlines - what the secret in their service sauce?

On a flight last night, I took the opportunity to grill the Chief Steward of one of the world's top service airlines (Singapore) about how they achieve their high standards; is it down to training? Selection? His response is that it's mainly down to:

1. Pride in the brand

2. Selecting people likely to show this pride

3. Only rewarding behaviour that exceeds expectations - not behaviour that simply meets expectations.

The pride logic is similar to a certain BBC 24 newsreader who turned down a 500% salary increase offer from CNN "because CNN is just not the BBC".