Saurabh Agrawal’s Post

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Helping brands grow profitable Omni channel growth with Tech , Ai and Growth Marketing | Ex: Lenskart, Amex, Tata Group | Top 100 AI Leaders, Career Coach ✨

Why is Indigo a Profitable Airline When Others Struggle ✈️ 🤨 The airline business has been one of the most difficult industries to survive in, let alone be profitable. Yet, Indigo has managed to stay profitable, maintaining dominance with a 60% market share and ranking as the world's third most valuable airline. I recently watched an insightful episode of Shantanu Deshpande's podcast, "The Barber Shop," featuring Aditya Ghosh, the ex-CEO of IndiGo (InterGlobe Aviation Ltd) and founder of Akasa Air. Aditya shared his wisdom in building Indigo and Akasa and key strategies that have helped Indigo and Akasa thrive despite the challenges in the industry: 1. Differentiate Between Customer Needs and Wants: Indigo focuses on key simple things like punctuality, consistency, and affordability. 2. Value adds - Focusing on things while the customer is willing to pay for ex. Meals , seat choice. And eliminate unnecessary frills of the red carpet . 3. Building loyalty- Trust and reliability are the best loyalty program, not points. My favorite part of the podcast was when Aditya compared airline loyalty to the loyalty of a barbershop. India has a huge opportunity for air travel growth in the next 5-10 years, but operational efficiency and sound business economics will be key. Check out the video snippet below and find the link to the podcast in the comments 👇

Saurabh Agrawal

Helping brands grow profitable Omni channel growth with Tech , Ai and Growth Marketing | Ex: Lenskart, Amex, Tata Group | Top 100 AI Leaders, Career Coach ✨

1mo

Here is the link to the full episode , do check out. - https://youtu.be/VTFa3od58AE?feature=shared

Agree Saurabh. If the value differentiators of your product/ service are very clear, one does not need a loyalty program or could spend little on marketing efforts. Zara, ZUDIO , Apple and Tesla are great examples. While I agree with everything Aditya Ghosh is saying about providing what a customer is willing to pay for, I feel that sometimes IndiGo (InterGlobe Aviation Ltd) overdoes it to get a few extra bucks. Try booking for a family of 2 or 3, and you will always find the seats are allocated all over the place, just so that the customer has to cough up a few extra bucks - then it feels heartless...

While most of the points are valid, the TRUE TEST for Indigo starts now . . . With Air India, Vistara & Air Asia India merger and Akasa gathering momentum. The next 1 year will reveal the outcome. Also last month the promoters sold 2% stake in the airline . . . maybe they see the winds of change

Ajinkya Parab

Senior Manager - Business Transformation M&M Auto

3w

Interesting insights but I personally believe that different customer segments are willing to pay additional for different set of offerings. Company just needs to ensure that their feature set offering attracts maximum customer segments to breakeven and profit even if it means losing out on certain customer segments. Currently airline ops. largest customer pie wants 'just take me from point A to B without much hassle' so Indigo is aligned to this pie and doing good. But if customer pie suddenly shifts to premium offerings, Indigo could lose out unless it is agile.

Nakul Saxena

President - LetsVenture

1mo

Very insightful and relevant to all the founders.

Johncy George

Airport Operations @ SpiceJet Limited | Experienced in NCASP Implementation | Passionate writer | Chef 4 Biryani

1mo

This is a man who understand business.

Jayakrishna Bhaskaran

India Head - OTAs, Key Accounts & NDC Projects at Oman Air ✈Travel Digital Transformation ✈API Contracting ✈Onboarding ✈Solution Management ✈B2B & B2C ✈Customer-Centric ✈Change & Risk Management ✈People Mgmt.

1mo

Very well articulated podcast. Thank you for sharing Saurabh Agrawal

Gaurav Sharma

LinkedIn Growth Advisor🚀 | Strategic Partnership Lead at Mobavenue | Consultant to Business Owners | A Happy Networker

1mo

This episode helped me brrak down why folks do invest and build in the aviation ecosystem Saurabh!

Prashaant Gosavi, MBA

Transformation Leader | Maintenance Operations | Aviation Industry Expert | MRO and Airline

1mo

Interesting!

P.V Narayan

TRIZ Champion (2021); Vice President on India Activities - MATRIZ Official, President at TRIZ Asia & Evangelist TRIZ Association of Asia, & Passionate Cyclist. 🚲🚲🚲

3w

One needs to focus on the Main Paramater of Value ( MPV ) MPV is that paramater for which the customer is willing to pay you that extra dollar (product or service) Voice of the Customer(VoC ) to identify the needs or parameters most of the times deceive so work on the Voice of the Product(VoP) and marry it with the Voice of the Customer. That sweet spot where the VoP and VoC overlap is the MPV which one needs to focus on. TRIZ helps identify these MPVs in a very systematic way. It also helps identify hidden MPVs which are not known by anyone

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