“Using Data to Innovate.”
Flying passengers around the world is a complex business — one that is becoming increasingly data-driven. Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific knows this as well as anyone, as it uses analytics to support decision making on all fronts, from determining planes’ fuel efficiency to improving customer experience to managing crews’ flight and rest schedules. Even something as mundane as luggage handling is getting an analytics makeover.
Yet Cathay Pacific doesn’t take an all-data-all-the-time approach. The company’s chief information officer, Joe Locandro, is clear that data works in tandem with experience and business acumen when used for decision making. “Analytics will give you statistical spreads,” he notes, “but you still need to have this thing called experience and insight.”
Joe Locandro, CIO of Cathay Pacific, discusses how the airline uses data and analytics to improve various aspects of their operations. The company focuses on operational efficiency, customer intimacy, and innovation. Analytics are used to optimize engine performance, reducing fuel costs and increasing reliability. They also aid in crew and shift deployment, matching staff to appropriate planes, destinations, and schedules.
For customer intimacy, Cathay Pacific uses analytics to understand frequent flyer preferences, assess flying preferences, and analyze customer complaint data to identify trends and improve customer experience. Locandro emphasizes the importance of combining data-driven decisions with experience and insight.
Cathay Pacific also uses data to innovate and enhance customer interaction. Examples include tailoring content available for download at the airport lounge, based on data about customer preferences. The company’s innovation center, a small team working on design thinking and proof-of-concepts, focuses on using data and analytics to address business problems, such as baggage handling.
Despite the benefits of data and analytics, Locandro warns against relying solely on data, emphasizing the importance of experience, insight, and context when making decisions.
In a conversation with David Kiron, executive editor for MIT Sloan Management Review’s Big Idea Initiative, Locandro describes how his company uses data — and what caveats he puts on its role.