Future of Business: The Need for Speed

We are living in a world of accelerated change thanks to technology and innovation. Today your TV has become your radio and your phone your TV. In the last 12 years we have seen new companies cause major disruption in the way we live and do business:

• Facebook started in 2004
• Youtube started in 2005
• Twitter started in 2006
• Netflix started streaming in 2007
• Apple launched the iPhone in 2007
• Android phones in 2008
• Airbnb started in 2008
• Instagram started in 2008
• Uber started in 2009

In 1996 Kodak were the largest photo business in the world and turning over USD$16bn. In 2012 they went out of business, laying-off thousands of employees. Kodak was a linear organization and was disrupted by exponential organizations. Former head of innovation at Yahoo, Salim Ismail defines an Exponential Organization as one whose impact (or output)-because of its use of networks or automation and/or its leveraging of the crowd-is disproportionally large compared to its number of employees. Kodak was the opposite having a large number of employees and lots of physical process and facilities.

In late 2010 two Stanford University grads, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, founded a company that would very much take on Kodak, enter Instagram.

Instagram is an exponential organization taking advantage of high-resolution cameras in smart phones and the social media boom. By early 2012 they already had 30 million users and just 13 employees. Facebook knocked on their door and Instagram was sold for USD$1bn!

Jim Carroll, futurist and bestselling author of the book: “The Future Belongs to Those Who Are Fast” talks about three important keys for success in business in the 21st century:

Transformation: What worked in the past surely won’t work in the future! Everything is changing at a furious pace: business models, customers, products and services, new competitors, organizational structure.

Acceleration. Companies need to very quickly and continually reinvent themselves, particularly in terms of the products or services they offer, the markets they operate in, the business proposition at their core. In this world of iOE (Internet of Everything) global business models, speed is the key for future success.

Collaboration. In order to transform and accelerate, be relentless with structure. Constantly rethink the skills you employ, the partnerships you pursue and the insights you get from shared ideas. We’re in the era of the global idea machine as witnessed with crowd-thinking and crowdfunding — align yourself to the new insight that comes from a connected organization.

However, air travel has got slower…Since Concorde was retired in December 2003, supersonic civilian air travel has not yet returned. Terrorism has increased security in airports, but as a result increased our travel time with longer check-ins and more flight delays. So once we use the marvelous technology we have been blessed with and connect with new people, opportunities, and businesses around the world, how do we travel faster than the competition?

Here are 10 reasons the private jet is the tool to give you the acceleration, innovation and lead you to more collaboration:

Time saving - this is one of the most significant reasons for using private jets. If you own a jet you can have it ready in just a few hours. You can pitch-up at the airport just minutes before your scheduled departure time and often have the car drive you up to your jet, fly directly to your destination (without any layovers), make productive use of your time onboard, avoid overnight stays (saving hotel $ as well as time), avoid waiting in lines at the airport, land at over 5,000 airports in the US (+3,000 airports in Europe) and so be closer to your destination. All of this can provide significant savings in both productive time and money. Productivity - the time savings above provide significantly more productive time, both onboard and before and after your flight. You and your team can make the most of the travel time to talk business or work with customers, suppliers or partners.

Convenience - There are over 5,000 airports in the US that private planes can use (vs 500 airports for larger commercial aircraft). This means you can often land closer to your actual destination. In the summer of 2006 the ban on liquids caused all sorts of inconveniences for people flying commercially, but private flyers avoided all this. You can reach multiple destinations in a single day, something difficult to achieve by flying commercial. Private planes also mean that you can travel with your special belongings such as instruments, sports gear, product samples or bring your dog in the cabin.

Flexibility – Your own private jet available 24/7 and can wait for you if you're running late. It's even possible to change flight plans in mid flight if necessary.

Productivity – 2/3 of passengers say they are more productive when working on a private jet than when in the office.

Staying Connected - Many private jets have technologies that allow employees to remain in communication with colleagues on the ground throughout the duration of their flight. This is critical for companies managing a rapidly changing situation.

Quality of service - Private jets provide luxury furnishings, plenty of space, individualized attention, and your preferred food and drinks can be ordered ahead of time.

Family time - spend more time with your friends and family by reducing travel time and not having to spend days and nights away from home.

Privacy - you can hold meetings and make productive use of your time, without being over heard. Your overall travel will also be far less visible when you're on a private jet, so helping preserve the secrecy around important negotiations or deals.

Reduced stress - without the lines, waiting, lost luggage, transfers, delay concerns or security issues of commercial flights you'll be a lot more relaxed.

Image - a private plane projects a well run, efficient, successful individual or organization, that values time and can afford private air travel.

You are probably thinking that private jets are expensive... Your CFO will always tell you that chartering or buying a private jet is not a good idea. Clayton M. Christensen is the Kim B. Clark Professor at Harvard Business School and a coauthor of the forthcoming Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice said:

"Finance is taught independently in most business schools. Strategy is taught independently, too—as if strategy could be conceived and implemented without finance. The reality is that finance will eat strategy for breakfast any day—financial logic will overwhelm strategic imperatives—unless we can develop approaches and models that allow each discipline to bring its best attributes to cooperative investment decision making. As long as we continue this siloed approach to the MBA curriculum and experience, our leading business schools run the risk of falling farther and farther behind the needs of sectors our graduates aspire to lead."

Interestingly buying and operating a private jet is not as expensive as most people think. I give a good example in the following video:

So if you want to be fast, maybe a private jet can help you...

Fabrizio Poli is Managing Partner of Aircraft Trading Company Tyrus Wings. He is also an accomplished Airline Transport Pilot having flown both private Jets and for the airlines. Fabrizio is also a bestselling author and inspirational speaker & has been featured on Russia Today (RT), Social Media Examiner, Bloomberg, Channel 5, Chicago Tribune, Daily Telegraph, City Wealth Magazine, Billionaire.com, Wealth X, Financial Times, El Financiero and many other Media offering insight on the aviation world. Fabrizio is also regularly featured as an Aviation Analyst on Russia Today (RT). Fabrizio is also aviation special correspondent for luxury magazine, Most Fabullous Magazine. Fabrizio is also considered one of the world's top 30 experts in using Linkedin for business. You can tune in weekly to Fabrizio's business Podcast Living Outside the Cube available both in video & audio. You can also follow Fabrizio's aviation videos on Tyrus Wings TV.

You can contact Fabrizio on:

[email protected]

OR Mobile: +44 7722 350 017