Successfully Managing an Aircraft Continued from page 59 A sole focus on self- preservation is not the best or most sustainable business strategy. than it flies. Easier and more positive ownership experiences generate more aircraft owners, once again growing the pie. Better cost controls, financial tracking, and competent operations can also facilitate multi- party ownership, thereby lowering the barriers to entry for prospective owners. The more buy- ers who want aircraft, the more we will need to produce, and the more those assets will need to be serviced. Increased demand puts upward pressure on pricing and allows market players to increase industry pricing. Furthermore, owners who are more educated on the real cost of ownership are less likely to sell derivative services from their asset at a discount. These are just a few examples to showcase how exer- cising fiduciary duty yields greater overall value for the market. But, how can management companies accom- plish this? For starters, management companies can embrace technology to enhance operational efficiency, transpar- ency, and accountability. Messaging and collaborative work technology can work wonders in day-to-day busi- ness operations. Additionally, replacing manual work and rote tasks with automation and artificial intelligence can be a powerful force to help eliminate costly errors and overhead. Another common error is trying to rein- vent the wheel. Many organizations have developed their own software to handle business idiosyncrasies, and time and time again, these costly systems don’t deliver opti- mal results or don’t integrate with modern technology. Management companies can also welcome new busi- ness models and operational changes. The industry is stuck in a “we-have-always-done-it-like-this” mentality. Many believe that you need to have been bred from the industry to succeed. This doesn’t take into account that bringing new ideas, new processes, and non-conven- tional approaches generate more value in the long-term. Operators can also use KPIs and objectives and key results (OKRs) to track and improve performance. This Aviation Business Journal | Summer 2020 means collecting data, setting clear targets on what success looks like, and hitting your KPIs. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. It is important to use performance management con- cepts for the business and personnel. While performance management is common outside of business aviation, it is mostly absent in our world. As an industry, we should be striving to make the pie bigger instead of shifting slices around. We must move beyond our current myopia. Given that the industry continues to be plagued by incentive distortions and a decoupling of price and cost, anytime there is a shock—COVID-19, for example—mar- ket players who haven’t built a sustainable business suffer heavily. In many ways, we find ourselves in a classic prisoner’s dilemma. If we work in unison, we can achieve a greater outcome than if we continue to work solely in our own self-interest. Jean de Looz is Head of Americas for MySky, the only AI-powered spend management platform designed for the private aviation industry. De Looz, a 14-year veteran within business development and operations in the aviation industry, is a proven business leader with extensive experience in selling and managing high-value, private aviation services. De Looz has a wide scope of expertise spanning flight operations, aircraft charter sales, OEM aircraft sales, and asset management. De Looz previously worked at Victor, a private jet char- ter marketplace. In addition, he spent over five years at Dassault Falcon Jet in their Eastern (U.S and Canada) Aircraft Sales division, helping to make it the highest- performing division in the Americas. Previously, he held senior charter sales, aircraft management, and consultancy roles at Meridian Air Charter. There, he tailored effective transport solutions for high-profile global UHNWIs, Fortune 500 companies, and VIP corporate clients, as well as helped optimize the business and logistical operations of a portfolio of over 20 executive jets. De Looz is also a qualified commercial pilot and instruc- tor and has a MBA from world-leading graduate business school INSEAD. 61
