How Lufthansa Group Tries to Beat Back Its Own Bureaucracy
Photo Credit: Lufthansa's innovation hub in Berlin sold special flight packages to customers as a test. Lufthansa Group
Skift Take
The bureaucracy at a major legacy airline often rivals that of a government. So when Lufthansa Group decided it needed an innovation hub, it purposely built it in Berlin, far from the main headquarters. That was probably a good idea.
The Lufthansa Group, like many legacy airlines, operates one of the world's most impressive bureaucracies. It has established policies and procedures, and just about everyone is taught not to deviate from them.
That's the way it should be for safety. But for commercial matters, it's not the best approach. Modern airlines prefer executives take chances and "fail fast" with innovative strategies for everything from how they sell tickets to how they check in passengers to how they board customers and bags.
Airlines know they must evolve, though not every one is doing it the same way. Some ask every employee to think differently, asking workers with decades of experience to alter how they operate. Others, like Lufthansa Group, have set up outside labs to drive change, employing tech-savvy workers without airline experience, and asking them to make bold suggestions. It works because they're outsiders.
"They are not used to how we do things at a huge company like ours," said Christi
