Munich is European champion — at least in the ranking of the “World Airport Awards" awarded Munich Airport this title. The airport was ranked third worldwide among the 13 million passengers surveyed..
What makes Munich Airport so popular? The quality of the stay is one of the criteria. Nearly 8,000 employees work to ensure the airport remains at the forefront. Especially because the Munich Air traffic hub Keeping up with the times and consistently pleasantly surprising visitors—that's what the Innovation Management department is working on. Munich Startup interviews Sarah Wittlieb, Head of Innovation Management.
Goal: define the USP and surprise customers with wow effects
Munich Airport is trying to impress passengers, pick-up drivers, shoppers, and visitors not only with new events, but also with innovative services and products. This colorful playground allows the innovation team to express themselves and "create wow effects for customers." Wittlieb is responsible for this, with a clear focus on collaboration with startups.
Before each new collaboration, the innovation manager first checks how far the startup has progressed. She's looking for new products and services that can be quickly tested on the market. Second, she evaluates the type of people in the company, how professionally the founders work, how the team is structured. She also assesses whether and how the founders are willing to adapt the product to the airport's needs and those of the end customers.
The customer experience is paramount, “because our task is to always surprise and inspire,” as Wittlieb explains. Equally important, however, is the economic viability of the idea. And the startup must be reasonably secure on its own two feet so that the young company's financing doesn't suddenly dry up. The airport doesn't provide its own venture capital.
Using the example of the collaboration with NavVis, Wittlieb explains:
"We know from customer surveys that passengers want to know in advance: Where am I arriving, how do I proceed to boarding, what the route is like, where can I find things? Thanks to NavVis, we can now offer 360-degree views. In addition to the positive customer experience, it's also exciting from a business perspective, because we're placing our retail offering here. Both elements are connected, which is ideal."
Innovation management can simply try out
Charming: The innovation department has a budget at its disposal to simply test out a wide variety of ideas and projects. Only after the pilot phase does it begin to convince both airport managing directors to implement the new product or innovative service. Or not – because projects don't always survive the four-to-six-month pilot phase. And if the innovation doesn't live up to expectations and the cost-benefit analysis, the pilot phase may be terminated prematurely.
Wittlieb’s tip for startups is nevertheless – or perhaps precisely because of this? – “Persevere and stick to the idea”After all, there may be great opportunities in another industry, or even among competitors.
While targeted solutions to the airport's existing challenges are being sought, "In pilot projects, despite the opportunity-risk evaluation, I cannot say in advance whether it will really work," says Wittlieb. Nevertheless, she has free rein with the innovation budget and can simply try out new things.
At the same time, it is important to have the people from within the company on board and not to operate from the “ivory tower of innovation management.” This is also about “[…] to make people understand that it’s not a big deal if a project doesn’t work out.” Accept the notorious culture of mistakes in your own company and be ready for change.
The search for trends
In search of new ideas, airport employees swarm out and bring back a wide variety of ideas from trade fairs, startup events, or other innovative companies. The ideas are collected in a database, also developed by a Munich-based startup. Platform that crowdsources internally and externally operates.
In addition, the airport already has a Pitch event which led to the cooperation for lounge shopping with the Munich startup Wundery was created. “It’s always trial and error for us,” says Wittlieb. In this case, it worked very well because the startup responded quickly and flexibly to the airport's needs.
Even outside of an official pitch, Wittlieb and her team are open to ideas from startups—so just approach them! There's always a need for new ideas in three different areas:
- Munich Airport is concerned with the topic of "mobility of the future," and how to bring together multiple partners for intermodal travel, both established and young companies. Several projects are currently in the pilot phase, working with airlines and startups.
- Real Estate Management is the second topic area, as the customer group of around 16 million business travelers annually is of equal interest to startups and large companies (As of 2015).
- The third area where innovative concepts are always welcome is retail and hospitality. The focus here is on combining digital and analog offerings.
Learning courage, agility and team dynamics from startups
When asked what established companies can learn from startups, the enthusiastic innovation manager names three things:
- Courage. All startups and founders have demonstrated courage by building their own companies and believing in their ideas. We can learn this from startups: to have the courage to try something new and take risks.
- The speed with which things are implemented. Instead of waiting for the 120% solution like German corporations.
- Team dynamics. Compared to hierarchically structured companies, this is a completely different way of operating.
She tries to implement many of the things Wittlieb mentions with her team, bringing fresh spirit to a company that is normally
tends to think in larger cycles and is concerned with keeping risks as low as possible. And for those who, after reading about the airport, would prefer to get on a plane—they can get that holiday feeling on the innovation team's latest project: a travel blog called Travelers Insight.
