entrenched views in air cargo
that have to be challenged.
The industry has been slow to
adopt technology, although
that’s changing fast now and
there are many more dynamic
companies. The next challenge
is to recruit the right people
to manage the technology. If
we get the industry to invest
in soft skills, together with
technology, we’ll be in a
good position to move ahead
successfully. CARGO SECTOR
SKILLS
focus on their own academies.
When we did have a few large
and medium-sized forwarders,
as well as ground handlers
and airlines, at a professional
development course for
TIACA in Johannesburg and
Amsterdam, their comments
were revealing. The forwarders
kept saying things like “it was
eye-opening”, “we’ve never sat
down like this before” and “I
didn’t know where you (other
air cargo stakeholders) were
coming from”.
How can training help
managers to improve?
Our courses for management
are all about becoming better
leaders. Hopefully, the senior
managers go away with a better
idea of the strategies that they
will pursue, as well as what
people they will need to recruit
to get where they want to
go. We get them to ask hard
questions such as “Am I going
to be an ‘employer of choice’
that attracts and retains talent?
Or will I continue to pay
peanuts and pay no attention
to working conditions?”. The
programmes are tailored to
what we see as the participants’
needs. We don’t use a ‘cookie
cutter’ approach.
One essential lesson for
leaders is the need to develop
better soft skills, which means
emotional intelligence and the
ability to communicate and
empathise. One example of a
critical soft skill is the ability
to adapt and lead in different
situations, which requires
flexibility and resilience.
It means developing the
communication skills required
to share their vision and
inspire employees. And it’s an
important tool in developing
a collaborative approach with
other companies as opposed to
an adversarial one.
stressing the dangers of oldfashioned
thinking. He coined
the term “virtual integration”
to describe how we need to
collaborate with others.
Do middle managers have a
role in developing strategy?
We try to get the middle
managers and junior level
employees to think about their
vision for the industry. We
push them to ask themselves
‘what can I do as an individual
to change it or add value?”
Some of them say they can’t
do much at all because the
senior management take
the big decisions. But we
explain that theirs is a tactical
implementation of the overall
strategy. And we convince
them that they can also help
to formulate policy. It’s a twoway
process.
Finally, what can the industry
do to attract the best talent?
It has to provide clear career
paths for the next generation
of air cargo personnel. The
whole of a career doesn’t
necessarily have to be with
the same company. But people
need to feel they can get ahead
in order to be attracted in the
first place. Once they come
into the industry, there’s a
high chance they’ll fall in love
with it, and stay.
There are some deeply
The impact of one-stop shops like
Amazon and Alibaba is forcing the air
cargo industry to recognise consumers’
needs for instant gratification
ground handling agents and
airports are facing demands
to lower costs. Meanwhile,
special cargo has risen 4.2%
year on year, whereas general
cargo was down 5.5%,
according to WorldACD
figures in November. There are
companies, such as Emirates,
Air Canada and Lufthansa, who
have realised the importance
of this trend and are modifying
their approach. But there’s also
a danger that if they focus too
much on specialty cargo, they
will turn it into a commodity.
At the highest level of the
organisation, management has
to be thinking about how to
create innovative solutions and
stay ahead of the game.
How can air cargo best profit
from e-commerce?
To deal with these issues
requires a lot of strategic
planning at senior
management level and
investment in branding,
marketing, IT and
infrastructure. We need people
to think in a different way
and ask hard questions about
whether they are going in
the right strategic directions.
Without strong vision and
investment in the right
leadership skills, companies
won’t survive in the years
ahead. My colleague, Stan
Wraight, the President of SASI,
has been telling the industry
about the importance of
e-commerce for eight years and
Does the industry realise the
value of soft skills?
Soft skills are usually neglected
in air cargo, which tends
to stress compliance with
regulations and technical
knowledge so companies send
staff for operations training, or
security training, or dangerous
goods training. But they cannot
be effective leaders without the
soft skills. This understanding
should influence recruitment
policies, too. Managers need
to aim to find personnel with
good soft skills, especially
the ability to work in a team.
These types of people will later
develop into effective leaders
because they have the right
character. It’s much easier to
learn technical knowledge from
experience and instruction so
they should not be the main
criteria for selection.
What are the pressing
commercial realities that need
to influence strategy?
We encourage managers
to develop a vision that
adapts to the fast pace of
change, especially the rising
importance of e-commerce and
specialty cargo. E-commerce
is both a key opportunity
and a major challenge. The
impact of one-stop shops
like Amazon and Alibaba is
forcing the air cargo industry
to recognise consumers’ needs
for instant gratification for
all commodities. But it also
means the forwarders, airlines,
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