Every week, CargoForwarder Global shines a ‘Spotlight On…’ a particular aspect of the air cargo industry, demonstrating the huge variety of career opportunities it offers. Air cargo and aviation depend on communication in order to ensure safe and smooth transport and travel across the globe. Over the years, that information exchange has become increasingly digital – and messaging more complex as our heavily fragmented industry has evolved at different speeds on often inflexible legacy systems and circuits. As always, where there is inefficiency, there is room for innovation and improvement. This week’s Spotlight candidate, Ingo Roessler (IR), Chief Commercial Officer, Innovative Software SARL, talks about his role in making messaging easier and more cost-effective, and shares his advice on forging a career in the air cargo industry.
CFG: What is your current function and company? And what are your responsibilities?
IR: I have been engaged with Innovative Software SARL from Luxembourg, since 2010, as Chief Commercial Officer and partner to promote EDIfly, a software technology developed by Anders Dam Jensen from Denmark, meant to substitute legacy communication channels in the aviation industry, including air cargo. Actually, the majority of our business is in passenger-related verticals, e.g. Global Distribution Systems, Government, Baggage, etc. I am in charge of promotion, distribution, events, and liaison with our international sales and support partners. Our largest partner is Jakarta-based PT EDIfly Solusi Indonesia, an independent partner with 100 staff, who supports many of our customers with 24/7 helpdesk, hosting, and project management services.
CFG: What does a normal day look like for you?
IR: Just following the sun. Since our company is globally active with customers spanning from New Zealand, Asia, Africa, Europe, North- and South America, there is never a boring day. Days tend to start early and end late, basically following the sun to interact with our partners. Of course, promoting EDIfly entails a certain degree of travel – after the pandemic, much of this can indeed be substituted by on-line meetings. That was the most positive consequence of Covid-19, at least for us. However, face2face meetings are still vital to advancing relationships and projects, gladly.
CFG: How long have you been in the air cargo industry, and what brought you to it?
IR: Next year I will indeed be celebrating 4 decades! An informal dinner at the Paris-CDG warehouse of Lufthansa Cargo with Mike Nicholson, a former and famous UK-born manager in Lufthansa Cargo, led me to look into a stint with German Cargo Services in 1987, where I stayed for a few exciting years working as a Route Manager for a fleet of all-cargo aircraft, e.g. DC8, 747, and 737.
CFG: What do you enjoy most about your job?
IR: Working with people from across the globe to solve real problems and also make our industry better every day. Step by step. Our team, in a former Frankfurt-based GSA called Capitol International, indeed created the first working version of Cargospot with its Swiss owner, Dr. Gabriel Weisskopf from Softair AG. Later Cargospot was purchased by CHAMP Cargo Systems to replace its legacy platform. It’s a shame that I didn’t secure royalties for the GUI of Cargospot, because I created the landing page of Cargospot with a pencil drawing on a sheet of A3 paper! [Laughs]
CFG: Where do you see the greatest challenges in our industry?
IR: Air Cargo and Aviation are very fragmented and not very determined to embrace innovation due to the justifiable safety-related culture in many airlines and airports. Plus, many entities have a public-sector background, which makes decision-making very political at times. IATA has also not been driving initiatives smartly in air cargo. Cargo:XML was almost a complete failure and now ONE Record (a great idea in theoretical terms), may face a similar fate as it can only succeed if everyone participates. The last truly successful initiative in IATA, was really the electronic passenger ticket, mandated to all its members. For Air Cargo, nobody had the stomach to promote the same principle, only the excuses as to why it wasn’t possible.
CFG: What advice would you give to people looking to get into the air cargo industry?
IR: Based on a sound formal education in a logistics or airline-related course, an exciting career can be found if you work in different companies during your early career steps. I grew up in airlines, air cargo, then built railways for 5 years, followed by air charter, starting-out airlines (Etihad, which was most exciting), and now IT. An open mind, language skills, and having worked abroad are the best assets for any career path. Forget about the question from the HR consultants: “Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years’ time?” Life isn’t that predictable, really.
CFG: If the air cargo industry were a film/book, what would its title be?
IR: ‘Here today, but where tomorrow?!’
Many thanks, Ingo!
If you would like to share your personal air cargo story with our CargoForwarder Global readers, feel free to send your answers to the above questions to cargoforwarderglobal@kopfpilot.at We look forward to shining a spotlight on your job area, views, and experiences.
