MU is delighted to announce the launch of the Advanced Air Mobility Competence Centre, addressing a critical leadership need in this emerging industry sector.
Julia Reichel, Consultant MU, and Florian Erhorn, Partner MU, have both specialised in electrification, aerospace and aviation industry for many years and are well familiar with the opportunities and needs to keep this impactful industry reach even higher. They are driving this initiative forward alongside the existing Aviation & Aerospace Group.
Two megatrends in the industry are clear. It needs to be sustainability-driven, and it needs to have the ability to lead an emerging purpose-driven consumer base and workforce. This requires the identification of leaders by skills and traits more so than in existing aerospace markets, where track record is often a key deciding factor.
Julia explains: ‘Leaders in AAM must balance technological progress with regulatory requirements, and at the same time uphold their commitments to diversity and sustainability and legal requirements. They must also adopt a modern, non-hierarchical leadership style to attract the best talent and leaders ’
She adds:’furthermore, the use cases are hinging on serving humanity rather than serving an elite section of wealth travellers the skills to drive social and regulary acceptance are key.’
In this environment traditional leadership models face challenges. Leaders understand that this industry is developing applications and use cases that serve humanity – from airline feeders but through to humanitarian missions, search & rescue, delivery of medical supplies an more so they must drive forward with innovative R&D, growing teams and securing industry spanning partnerships.
Jörn Jäger, ex-Voloctoper explains: ‘The eVTOL industry reaches a new type of talent with its use cases that range from passenger air taxi, cargo transport to emergency responses. The exciting thing is that it is a sector that will offer more sustainable, accessible and convenient services to existing user groups while not replacing existing modes of transport and offering infrastructure and services to customer groups and locations where mobility has so far been limited.’
He adds: ‘From a skills and leadership perspective this means that talent will be sought that portrait the right mixture of inherent safety consciousness and a rainmaker attitude.’
Traditionally, technical expertise has been prioritised in aerospace leadership roles, and the talent pool has come from within or other aerospace companies. And even if airlines and OEMs historically are very good at internal talent and leadership development, with the increasing demands on leadership, new leadership capabilities are needed beyond the technical aspects.
The close collaboration between the EVTOL and Vertiport community demands a further stretch, as Clem Newton-Brown from Skyportz adds: When we look for leaders and their skills to assist us to invent this new aviation ecosystem, we need leaders and experts who understand town planning, politics and licensing. And we need leaders who speak the language with property owners, who can lead community & business engagement, so that we can get to critical mass.
It is clear that the ability to get foresight on someone’s ability to perform is of critical value to employers in AAM as these businesses explore untrodden paths, finding new ways to do things.
Furthermore, inclusivity to accelerate innovation is at the core of this emerging market. Balkiz Sarihan, CEO Airbus UAM was recently named ‘Leader of the Year’ by EVTOL Insights. She agrees that this requires a certain type of leadership: ‘Being inclusive does not mean all of us always agree. But we nurture a culture of flat hierarchies and an extended leadership team. Daily we ‘debate, decide and do.’ Sounds easy, but it is a lot of work, that’s what it takes to build something that has never been built before. Much of what we do, whether it is our technologies, our vehicle, our systems or our certification standards are being done for the very first time. We are building simultaneously and interactively our business model, aircraft and all supporting systems. Each is deeply interconnected with the rest, evolving rapidly and all towards a shared ambition of “Safe Product and a Viable Business”.
AAM will be managed as part of the Aviation and Aerospace Subgroup by Julia Reichel and will be supported by the Battery Competence Center under Florian Erhorn, enabling fast, effective and targeted delivery to clients in this sector.
If you have further questions about the AAM Competence Centre, please contact julia.reichel@mercuriurval.com.