#8 How Airlines Win with Shashank Nigam, CEO of Simpliflying

Depatureunknown.com My most recent interviews were with experts in AI and immediately after finishing my discussions with Chris Noessel from IBM and Yves Bergquist from the USC Entertainment Technology Center my opportunity nose, whatever that is, wanted to sniff out more around the role of service in the future of transportation. You see, it is very easy to speak about the future in terms of technology – self driving cars, hyperloop, supersonic jets…but in reality there are very few companies who will be successful creating these capital intensive products. When you think about what will happen when we all have cars, planes or drones shuttling us around on demand service becomes the most important differentiator between your mobility service or mine. When you take a flight from LA to London you have a myriad of choices. Economy seats, business class lie flat seats, on board chefs, on board nannies, better movie selections and worse movie selections, friendlier cabin crew or colder cabin crew…all these elements make up the service component of your journey and are the things you actually remember. So when we project a future with mobility as a service we can learn a lot from what airlines are doing to keep and build their passenger loyalty. With this in mind I have a few interviews lined up geared around service in air travel with the hope that I can uncover some insights into what service can mean for the future of urban mobility. My discussion today is with Shashank Nigam. Shashank is the Founder and CEO of Simpliflying, on of the world’s most prolific aviation marketing firms. Simpliflying has helped more than 80 airlines and airports find their unique voice both online and in person. Shashank shares with me the story of how he began his career at Simplyflying as well the thinking behind the perks that keep his company thriving. Unlimited vacation and work wherever you like in the world being a couple of them. Based on the research for his newly released book SOAR he outlines some of the most important things that the world’s best airlines do to create incredible experience. We also step back from aviation and look at how service can impact urban mobility. This is a great conversation and I really enjoyed the stories he shares about the people that make air travel what it is today. As usual you can find all show notes and links at Depatureunknown.com along with previous episodes and ways to contact me if you have any questions or comments. Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy my conversation with Shashank Nigam.   How to get in touch with Shashank: https://www.linkedin.com/in/snigam @simpliflying