FAN: Disruption. Was that a word they used in Silicon Valley 20 years ago?
Reggie: I don’t think it was disruption, I think it was just change. Innovation is one they probably used more. In fact, that’s one of the early conversations Scott and I had, in terms of what’s next? Scott’s early words were – we need to innovate.
FAN: But what does innovate really mean in the fleet industry?
Scott: Innovation is a broad term that means different things to different people. From some of our research we found out as an industry group we are not seen as innovative. That doesn’t mean that certain pockets of the industry aren’t innovating. It means our industry is being benchmarked against other industry groups such as airlines, Airbnb, or Uber.
Reggie: There’s no reason as an organisation why we can’t embrace all of these new technologies which are becoming part of the shared economy as part of our solution to customers. Now I’ll be the first to admit that it may cannibalise our existing fleet business, but my take is that you can either cannibalise it yourself or someone will do it for you.
So since earlier this year as an organisation we identified specific areas that we want to explore. There’s about 14 things on our list. And as I’ve said to everyone internally it’s a sprint to market to make sure we get all these things out to market and that we get them right. We also need to influence how the conversation is being conducted in terms of innovation or in terms of disruption.
At the end of the day we are a transport provider. So out of conversations among the executive leadership team we realised that it’s about more than just transport. It’s about mobility solutions. It’s about driver mobility. It’s about getting something from point A to point B whether it’s people, resources or goods or services.
One of things that Scott worked on earlier in our thinking is the compression that’s happening in the traditional fleet space in terms on how customers see fleet companies. If you look at it in terms of the traditional fleet it’s getting smaller.
The segment remains the same but the solutions now available in the market are evolving. ORIX needs to be in that space. There’s different ways we can play in that space that we’ll be talking about in the next few months.
FAN: Can you give our readers an exclusive on what this will mean?
Reggie: I’m cautious about promising things too early. But what I can say is I’ve brought in someone that has a strong background in delivering the platforms and solutions that we want to develop.
FAN: So people are also an important part of the innovation process?
Reggie: Absolutely. It’s always been about people. It’s also about making sure they’ve got the right tools and solutions in front of them.
Big Data is a good example. In our industry, we aggregate data from a lot of sources, how that data then becomes relevant to make informed decisions for clients is what is key. From that perspective, it’s critical getting the analytics correct. We need to make sure that our people understand that and they are comfortable being able to explain that to clients and prospective customers.
So while the traditional fleet is still important it’s the other things around mobility that are gaining more prominence and we want to be in that space when people are talking about disruption. We are already looked at as a fleet manager, a very good one, but we want them to talk about ORIX and the other disruptive solutions we can offer.
