A modality innovation approach

Abstract

Royal Schiphol Group is the overarching organisation of multiple airports, among which Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. As the world around these airports is quickly changing with aviation under pressure, and a huge amount of new potential modalities, RSG is in need of an approach to deal with new kinds of modalities. This project was executed for the Innovation Hub, part of the department of Strategy & Airport Planning withing RSG. The initial assignment was to find a way in which RSG could identify and select modalities with potential. 

During the project, first the context was outlined by analysing the organisation of RSG and the environment in which they are operating. After this literature concerning open innovation has been compared to the way RSG handles external innovations at the moment, as this is how RSG can strengthen their MMH position further. It appeared that currently RSG misses a structured approach to handle new modalities. RSG therefore needs a strategy and a corresponding way to assess innovative modalities. An extra exploration was done, consisting of literature, interviews, observations and internal documents, which led to design principles for the strategy and the toolkit (wat waren deze).

In the end a strategy is developed in which 4 steps (identifying, identified, assessing, choosing) were included. In this strategy RSG is encouraged to connect more to the world of mobility and its future with the use of an orchestrator, positioned in-between the innovation hub and a newly acquired scouting team. Executing these steps would lead to a decision on the fifth step: engaging. In the developped strategy, RSG shifts from reacting on modalities to proactively monitoring the world of mobility by providing structure in searching. In this way they can connect to this future world of mobility and by regularly assessing modalities, Schiphol can quickly change direction if necessary. Within the strategy, an orchestrator is present to lead the strategy. The orchestrator will be responsible for setting the exact strategy within the MMH direction, as he or she knows what happens in the market and within Schiphol. He or she will be building bridges between RSG and start-ups.

For the assessment, a toolkit is developed in which the factors which influence the potential of a modality at Schiphol have been incorporated as well as the proposed way of working in the strategy. This is reflected in a card deck that should be used to assess modalities, and canvases that should be used to document the session and ensure follow up of the session is assured. Herein, the goal of the toolkit is to facilitate a structured discussion concerning new modalities which can be used to substantiate decision making by RSG.

This report describes the entire process gone through to come to the final design. The final design is further elaborated on, an implementation plan is proposed and lastly a discussion and recommendations of the final design are provided, to provide directions in reaching its full potential.