airlines.iata.org
Issue 02: Thursday 20 September 2018
Airlines.
5th World Financial Symposium
SPONSORED BY
September 17 - September 20, 2018 | Madrid, Spain
Iberia’s Transformative Journey Day 01 highlights 19 September, 2018
Gabriel
Aleks Popovich Perdiguero
ISSUE 02
Getting everybody on board by creating the right environment was a key factor in Iberia’s transformation journey, according to Gabriel Perdiguero, Iberia’s Chief Customer and Business Transformation Officer. “Like the US Marines, we never left anyone behind,” he told attendees yesterday. “It’s mainly a matter of telling people you are able to do new things. We want you to innovate on a daily basis,” explained Perdiguero. Recent innovation at Iberia has included improved wi-fi, customer payment by instalments, baggage delivered to the airport, and chatbots. The launch of international digital press, which took only three
IATA Airlines Daily_WFS Issue02_v1kt.indd 1
“It's mainly a matter of telling people you are able to do new things. ” Gabriel Perdiguero, Iberia, Chief Customer and Business Transformation Officer
to four weeks and replaced the traditional paper versions carried onboard, saved Iberia money by reducing weight and therefore fuel, and also resulted in cleaner aircraft. Perdiguero said that Iberia’s programme of innovation has contributed to a significant improvement both in Iberia’s Net Promoter Score, which between 2013 and 2017 rose at a compound annual growth rate of 29% and its EBIT, which over the same period went from a loss of €165 million to a profit of €373 million. Central to creating the environment in which these innovations were successfully implemented was the creation of 20-25 digital ambassadors, Perdiguero said. Working right across Iberia, these individuals play a vital role in disseminating and transferring innovation throughout the airline. “We focused first internally to locate the right people—you know the ones—the ones who are always experimenting with new technologies,” he explained. Iberia’s digital ambassadors need a specific skill set. “Creative, analytical, every decision based on data, commercial, product oriented—these are the people transferring the message of transformation,” he said. Perdiguero highlighted a number of other examples of how the development of a digital culture at Iberia was spawning initiatives, including big data and analytics, new and more collaborative ways of working, and reduced use of email internally, all of which were transforming Iberia into a digitally connected airline.
1
Subscribe free to IATA’s Airlines. magazine at airlines.iata.org
19/09/2018 19:39