Innovation can also mean leaving out what already exists. Focus on your core competencies.
The future of your business could fit on the back of a paper napkin. In fact, Rollin King, the owner of a nearly failed airline, managed just such a plan. He was sitting in a San Antonio restaurant with his attorney to liquidate his company. But King wasn’t about to give up without a fight.
And so, on the back of the napkin, he drew a triangle connecting the three Texas boom towns of Dallas, San Antonio and Houston. This was the birth of low-cost flying – the biggest revolution in recent aviation fit on the back of a napkin: “Back-Of-The-Napkin”. The idea for the so-called “low-cost carriers” was uncompromising reduction:
– As few distances as possible, as short as possible, between important cities
– Fly to secondary airports instead of expensive metropolises (i.e. Frankfurt-Hahn instead of Rhine-Main)
– Only one type of aircraft; short downtimes
– only one boarding class; narrow seat pitch; no service
– Additional sales through additional offers (rental cars, hotel bookings, snacks for which a fee is charged)
– low non-wage labor costs
– low ticket prices
Low-cost flying resembles discount markets: Abandonment of everything that previously seemed indispensable.
