Cathay Pacific helps to spark innovative thinking among homecoming entrepreneurs and local youth
The homecoming technology pioneers, who have made their name in areas ranging from the biomedical industry to manufacturing and software development, arrived at Cathay Pacific’s headquarters last Friday for a sharing session held in the airline’s Innovation Centre. Joining them were around 30 of their protégés - young Hong Kong entrepreneurs who are developing their own innovative solutions. Facilitated by the airline’s Innovation team, the group went through a special Design Thinking session where the homecomers worked with their respective protégés to come up with solutions relating to different parts of the airline’s customer journey.
The Cathay Pacific Innovation Centre is a recently formed section that comprises a multi-disciplinary team drawn from diverse backgrounds, including designers, engineers, architects and entrepreneurs. These innovators have been tasked with visioning and delivering the future of travel. Adopting user-centric design processes, the Innovation Centre services different business units in the Cathay Group to integrate innovation into the airline’s business and operations.
Cathay Pacific Manager Innovation Centre Bidyut Dumra said: “There is always a way to do better and we see many opportunities for us to improve the airline’s operational efficiency and enhance the overall experience of our passengers through innovation. Members of the Centre have diverse backgrounds which can bring different creative ideas into our planning process. We also organise various interactive workshops with universities and local community organisations to help generate ideas. We will continue our commitment to innovation, introducing more leading-edge products for our customers and helping to make Cathay Pacific an industry trendsetter.”
The Service Matrix, an award-winning mobile application for cabin crew, is just one of the tools successfully developed by the Innovation Centre through user-centric design processes. The application digitises a catalogue of instructions into a simple checklist for cabin crew, providing the service details for a particular flight against the specific cabin class crew are serving. The Service Matrix ensures all cabin crew know what the service procedures are, making it easier for them to prepare for flights and ensure a consistently high-standard customer experience.
The Innovation Centre team is currently exploring a wide range of other solutions - including a pre-flight app for pilots, technologies that will be employed on Cathay Pacific’s new A350 aircraft, and the use of drones in airline’s operations - to support Cathay’s ongoing innovation journey. The airline will continue to deploy innovative solutions in the provision of superior service to its passengers, at the same time fostering innovation in the local community and among the younger generation, in line with its commitment to being a responsible corporate citizen.
