A Catalyst for Change

The term “catalyst” is thrown around in business almost as much as “transformation.” In case you forgot from early chemistry classes, a catalyst is “an agent that provokes or speeds significant change or action.” Now, I know what you are going to say; the pandemic has been something of a catalyst for the Airline cargo industry. Well, actually, it simply sped up the global growth of e-commerce. As a result, e-commerce grew across all regions of the globe at over 20% last year and looks like there is no going back.

E-commerce growth has become a catalyst for growth and transformation, and those airlines that embrace this opportunity will flourish. That sounds like a hyperbolic statement but it may hold the truth that is key to the world’s airlines over the next 5 years. Global e-commerce is projected to grow 28% over the next three years from $5 trillion to $6.4 trillion by 2024. That sounds like a market that should get airlines’ attention. What is even more amazing is that most of the e-commerce packages are 2 kilos-to-4 kilos and can sit easily in existing belly space on airlines, regardless of size or aircraft type. While many organizations fail at transformations, a focus on e-commerce can address many of the issues that often lead to failure in business transformations. 

According to a McKinsey article about why so many transformations fail, there are 10 common weaknesses that emerge as culprits that hinder success. Now, I do not want to address all of them here, but utilizing e-commerce as your catalyst for change can be an easy antidote to transformation failure. All 10 are important to address, but if we look at a few of them you can see how airlines focusing on e-commerce are changing their company and generating a robust new source of revenue. 

The first and most important of these skills is alignment. Focusing on e-commerce forces alignment throughout your organization as well as in relationships with ground crews and logistics partners. Skill sets are another issue that often arises because workers do not have the new skills that are often required for transformative ways of doing things. This is an overriding reason to use a company that has the developed skills and experience required to build new processes and practices that create success, working alongside your teams. At SmartKargo, not only are we a complete e-commerce logistics platform but also have dedicated subject matter experts in all facets of e-commerce logistics. Finally, focusing on growth is key to being successful. There are tremendous growth opportunities globally for e-commerce as stated earlier. Moreover, many e-commerce sellers are competing with Amazon, at the glass. The option of using Amazon fulfillment services (FBA) to achieve speedy shipping of their products does not sit well with them. These shippers are looking for good alternatives that will differentiate their brand.     

For an airline looking to kick-start a transformation and kindle more revenue, e-commerce can provide an easy start, with a partner like SmartKargo. By providing a platform and expertise for change, your airline can connect with the e-commerce ecosystem. Your airline provides the differentiation needed for e-commerce companies to compete with Amazon. And it indisputably aligns your organization and the KPIs to meet aggressive revenue projections. In the process, airlines create a robust new revenue engine that can efficiently transform their organization. Many airlines are using this catalyst now to drive new revenue. After taking off on the e-commerce journey, they find that delivering on the promise of new revenues can happen quickly.