People in aviation need to be far more active in shaping their careers and that sometimes includes accepting career opportunities outside of aviation so as to develop a breadth of experience.

This is according to Torbjorn Karlsson, senior client partner for human capital firm Korn Ferry, who spoke in a wide-ranging video interview with Smart Aviation APAC. 

“If you go back 20-40 years ago, the norm was you stayed with an organization throughout your career. It was what you aspired to do. You went to work for a great company and had a career for life.”

“But the way the world is moving today with disruption, technology and change; that’s kind of unlikely.”

“People need to have a clear idea of where they are going and why,” he says, adding that “people need to take control of their own career and shape it.”

As for breadth of experience, Karlsson explains: “We talk a lot about being ‘T-shaped’ – you need to be deep into something but also broad.” But the way many airlines are run and structured today, makes that difficult to achieve, he adds.

“Airlines have been doing the ‘efficiency play’, so many have become streamlined organizations…that’s great from an efficiency and cost perspective, but the challenge is it’s not broadening leaders.”

“Many airlines today have a single P&L (profit and loss) and that’s at the airline group level. But airlines need to stress test their leaders in various sizes, scale and complexity around the P&L,” he adds.

The key to becoming a CEO is learning how to make money so the company is profitable, says Karlsson, adding that one way streamlined airline organizations can help their future leaders develop a breadth of experience, including responsibility for a P&L, is to partner with companies in related areas.

Another benefit of this is that change and innovation often happens in these related industries, so the lessons learned can then be applied to the airline business, he adds.

Watch the full interview now, to learn more.