Posts Tagged ‘productivity value’
Productivity App for Business Aviation?
An economy is defined by, or limited by, time and productivity. Value is created in an economy when an improved use of the resource of time creates gain in productivity.
The purpose of travel by aircraft is to gain time over other means of travel, time that can be used to create new value.
Inside the experience of travel the journey itself can either add to or subtract from productivity. If I can be productive while traveling I gain value during the travel in addition to the gains on both ends of the journey.
Every day, those of us in business aviation, witness the gains in productivity both in time saved and in the positive experience of travel by private and business aircraft.
Business travelers who have experienced this form of travel know what I am talking about.
Business travelers who use the airlines will testify to the negative impact on productivity from the time drain and wear and tear of airline travel.
The airlines, and the system they have created around the hub and spoke, have done a lot to try and ease the journey by creating nice terminals with food, shopping, and wifi connections to the Internet. However, am I more productive sitting at the Airport Starbucks on my laptop for three hours waiting on the connecting flight, or being at my destination three hours earlier?
What about the time en-route?
If I can conduct a meeting in the air with clients, vendors or fellow workers what’s it worth?
When is the last time you had a business meeting while traveling on an airline in coach class or even in business class?
Business aviation wins hands down both in time saved in the journey and productivity experienced during the journey.
So why doesn’t everyone travel using a business aircraft?
Price and perceived value!
Business aviation is expensive when compared to the perceived value.
If our industry created a true cost-productivity calculator application that took into consideration not only the value of the time savings, but just importantly the productivity gains experienced during the journey, would it change the perception of the value of business aviation?
The technology is here today to do this.
I would challenge our friends in the tech sector to come up with an application that calculates the “true costs” of the various modes of air travel.
What would an application like that be worth to those of us in Business Aviation?
The Business Aircraft: Productivity & Value
A business aircraft is a productivity tool. It is no different than any other tool we use in business to become more productive. It has a cost and it brings, or should bring, value. The value has to exceed the cost. If it does then we get a positive rate of return on the investment. If the value does not exceed cost then it is not a good investment.
All of the mainstream and social media conversations about the “extravagance” or “corporate excess” associated with the business jet play well with the anti big business crowds and populist politicians, but they lack substance. So far, these conversations have had nothing to do with the reality of what a business aircraft does to enhance the productivity of a company and its most valuable assets – its people.
The discussion about the value of business aircraft should be all about productivity. If using business aircraft increases the productivity of an organization, and the measured gain in productivity exceeds the cost, then it makes sense. Bottom line!
I just purchased an iPad. I can use this device to increase my productivity in internet research and communications or I can play games on it. How I choose to use it doesn’t make it inherently good or bad. How I use it does determine its value in my personal and business productivity.
In that way, a business jet is no different than an iPad.
Those of us in business aviation need to do a better job of first understanding, and then selling the value proposition of business aircraft as a tool to enhance productivity.
Billions of dollars have been spent in research and development of new high technology aircraft that will take us higher, faster and further on less fuel. All the while, business aviation has invested very little in the technology to truly measure the enhancement of productivity gained by flying in a private aircraft. It is not just the time saved that we need to measure and quantify. What about the social and physiological experience of travel and its effects on human productivity and creativity?
Additionally, we should invest in the technology to learn how to better utilize the business aircraft to bring the costs down. How do we cut the inefficiencies of business aviation without reducing the experience?
An industry-wide increase in the efficient use of the business aircraft coupled with a measurable understanding of the value would do more than just silence the naysayers. More importantly, it would grow the industry that supports business aviation and bring an innovative increase in the productivity of our economy.