As anyone who follows me on Twitter or Facebook knows, I’ve become a big cycling nut in recent times. Without a doubt, the top sprinter in road racing is Mark Cavendish. in 2009 he won no less than six stages in the Tour de France in sprint finishes. For most of these, after four or more hours in the saddle, his winning margin was less than a second. How did he do this ? A combination of his own outright sprint and meticulous planning and execution by the support riders in his team.
The parallel for business ?
- Sometimes to win you only need to be just ahead of the pack, or, put another way, to be slightly cutting edge, not bleeding edge.
- If your edge over the competition is only slight, you’d better be sure you can execute.
Now, for a real world example. Last week I found myself rebooked for my journey home to Cayman on the innovative new service from British Airways from London City airport to New York JFK.
In the past few years we have seen several “all business class” carriers on the transatlantic route start up and flame out, burning their investors money as they went. In the past year or so though, we have seen British Airways not only launch their own “brand” in this arena (OpenSkies), but also, in Q4 2009, they launched a special service under the BA name.
As I took this service, the core thought that kept running through my mind was “BA have got this right”. In other words, they’ve learned from what others have tried before, and their product seems (to me at least) to have learned from those mistakes and… well, nailed it.
For those needing to get to/from Canary Wharf or the City of London, London City airport is so much more convenient than Heathrow, it should be a no-brainer to fly from there… except that the runway is so short, they need to stop to refuel on the way over, so any convenience is lost by added time with that stop, right ? Wrong. All it took was some slightly innovative thinking (just ahead of the pack), allied with some excellent execution :
- Checkin for the flight at London City closes just 15 minutes prior to departure. Yes, not a misprint. Execution : This could only be done with the co-operation (through dedicated security lanes etc) of the London City Airport team, and London City wants this to succeed as much as BA.
- Shannon refuelling stop. Just as with London City, Shannon Airport wants this to be a success, so their staff both rapidly refuel the aircraft, plus whisk the passengers through the terminal and the US Border Control preclearance. On my flight, our ground time was under 40 minutes.. total, with the innovation being the master stroke of having us pre-cleared for the US, so when we arrived we were domestic arrivals.
- Crew. The crew are from the London Gatwick base. As is known to frequent travellers, those crew are on different terms to the London Heathrow based crews, hence changing the cost base for this service for BA. On an anecdotal level only, it was also obvious to note how motivate and excited the crew were about being part of this service.
- JFK. Less than five minutes after arriving at the gate, passengers were curbside. If you’d maximised the opportunity of the 15 minute check in time at London City, on my particular flight that would have been “curbside to curbside” in 9hr 50min. No way you do that going via Heathrow.
- Oh, and let’s look ahead a little. When BA combine with AA the marvellous new AA Terminal 8 at JFK, with this flight being a domestic arrival to the US, that will allow you a flight connection to AA flights as little as one hour from landing.
- A few other things. Just to make sure this works right for the Business Travellers this is targetted at, this service has a special phone service desk that is serviced by the agents who handle BA’s top (Gold and above) customers systemwide. BA is leaving nothing to chance on this.
In summary, you’ve got a motivated team of BA (the company, BA (crew and other staff), London City, Shannon Airport, US Border Control… all pulling together to execute a simple idea… a service optimised for business travellers that makes their travel more efficient (oh, I didn’t mention, the first transatlantic service with onboard gprs for your mobile)
So.. be just ahead of the pack.. and execute.
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I agree that they seem to have got that one right. It’s something that came up today with a new Which survey about customer satisfaction. Something that I’m keen to maximise on when (note the ‘when’ not ‘if’) I set up the bike shop. To distinguish yourself from the competition you have to show that you care about the client (be they a customer in a shop buying a new part for their beloved bike or a top hedge fund manager setting up a Cayman Islands hedge fund). By showing that you care about what they are doing and have listened to what they told you, you can quickly distinguish yourself from the chasing pack (see what I did with a cycling reference there??)
Matt, your passion is cycling, but it is more than that. It is the passion to share that passion with others. Your ebullience and desire and ability to communicate to cyclists at all levels is what is going to be your unique competitive advantage in your business. I look forward to helping you “work your passion” !
Tom,
We have also launched a US preclearace service for business jets – the only one in the world. This allows business jets to fly directly to over 220 local airports in the US. Shannon Airport made Irish Coffee famous, invented Duty Free Shopping and also developed the world’s first tax free zone. Not bad for an airport in the West of Ireland. When you are next in Shannon, give me a call and we will have an Irish Coffee.
Joe.
Joe,
Great to get your comment, and that is fascinating news re biz jets and pre-clearance.
I was MOST impressed with your ground crew at Shannon, fantastic service, and also reflected in the smiling professionalism of the US PreClearance team. Such a refreshing experience.
As a member of the Cayman Islands Government Tourism Advisory Council, I am pushing for US PreClearance for Cayman, it will be such a benefit to our visitors and our tourism product. Fingers crossed !
Tom,
A great idea and the very best of luck with your efforts!! If you need any help please email me.
Joe.