Incorporating a Culture of Innovation

The session “Incorporating a Culture of Innovation” brought together executives to discuss how airports, airlines and concessionaires are incorporating innovation to effectively respond to trends affecting the ever-changing airport environment. Christina Cassotis, CEO of Allegheny County Airport Authority, Christina Heggie, Investment Principal, JetBlue Technology Venture, and Sarah Naqvi, EVP and CIO, HMS Host Corporation explained how they approach innovation in their businesses.

When Cassotis started at the Allegheny County Airport Authority, change was needed but it wasn’t happening. She was hired to disrupt a culture that wasn’t moving forward and addressing airport operations in an innovative way. She said that the issue many organizations run into is that they try to “innovate in a black box” before taking it to the rest of the organization and saying “implement this.” Cassotis explained that this method doesn’t work because it doesn’t get anyone talking about how to actually solve problems and lacks buy-in from the whole organization.

Heggie explained that JetBlue Technology Venture wants to make the airport the destination, a place where people want to go. Knowing what the passenger needs are and addressing them is the first step in that process. JetBlue Technology Venture works to find companies and technology that are encouraging change. They look for those not just making change in the immediate future, but further along, to stay relevant and continue to be relevant for years. Heggie also said that looking 30 years out, she thinks that going through the whole airport experience could be optional for travelers, making knowing and addressing those passenger needs all the more important.

From a concessionaire’s point of view, Naqvi sees the complexity and variety of brands within airports as the biggest challenge. The siloed approach that’s long been used makes it difficult to synchronize the experience across airports, brands and locations. By making customers, not the brands, the focus, concessionaires can create a common platform for their products wherever they are and ease customer fatigue, while creating that synchronized experience they’ve been looking for.