Netjets Volume 4 2018

ON THE PULSE Our New CEO

ON THE PULSE Our New CEO Europe: Mario Pacifico WITH A LIFELONG PASSION FOR TRAVEL, PHOTOGRAPHY, TENNIS AND TIMEPIECES, THE NEWLY APPOINTED CEO OF NETJETS EUROPE IS A MULTIFACETED ITALIAN EXECUTIVE WHO COMES TO THE COMPANY FROM LUXOTTICA, WHERE HIS VARIOUS ROLES OVER THE COURSE OF 13 YEARS INCLUDED COO OF THE NORTH AMERICAN BUSINESS SERVICES ARM OF THE COMPANY. A NATIVE OF MILAN, THE STYLISH 55 YEAR OLD IS NOW BRINGING HIS BUSINESS ACUMEN AND APTITUDE TO NETJETS. HE SPOKE TO FARHAD HEYDARI ABOUT CURRENT OPPORTUNITIES, COMING CHALLENGES AND HIS VISION FOR THE FUTURE On the first 100 days at NetJets Over the past three months, I’ve really invested a lot of time in talking with people, understanding people, both my colleagues and the NetJets Owners. This is such a fascinating business. Coming from a different industry, there are so many opportunities that I see in the market, even though we are already the market leader. Safety is a wonderful example. We value safety above all else and more than everyone else, but you can’t see safety, not directly, like you can see new planes or our onboard services. But safety is the biggest investment for the company worldwide and our competitors don’t have the same standards, not even close. But I’m not sure our potential customers know enough about this. And this is a change we can make by enhancing the awareness of our value proposition, making sure we communicate properly our emphasis on safety as a point of differentiation in the market. On being present My personal goal in the coming years is to spend time with many of the Owners. It offers, among other things, the opportunity to challenge us. Which is good. I want to put my face in front of Owners and say, “I represent this company. Help me to help you – I want to understand your needs and enhance your experience even more.” The key to moving forward is to improve the network of information and to create solutions – to really listen to the Owners and to take on board all the advice that previously might have been lost. Our Owners are successful in so many industries; there is tremendous potential for learning from them. On brand awareness There are a certain number of things we can do with communication but ultimately I think that the best way to improve our brand awareness is through our ambassadors: our Owners. If they are happy, it can make all the difference: personal referrals carry so much weight. People expect me to say positive things about NetJets Europe; I am the CEO of the company. But if a customer says something, that is invaluable. We are redoubling our efforts, making sure everyone is involved and everyone is focused on putting our Owners at the centre of everything we do, including an expanded events programme that strengthens the feeling of NetJets as a kind of private club. On working with the global NetJets team It’s vital that we have both brand representation that is consistent worldwide as well as some particularities and differentiation within individual markets. European expectations are different from American ones in some respects and we need to be conscious of those differences. It’s also important that we leverage the experience of the global group – they’ve been in business for 30 more years and we have many synergies that could benefit us both. For instance, in the US we have a pretty big team working on analytics, looking at the market evolution, landscape, competitors, a lot of data worldwide. In the past, we haven’t been able to make full use of that, so now we are creating weekly conversations, allowing us to exchange experiences and relating those experiences to the data. © NETJETS 26 NETJETS

At the top Mario Pacifico in his London office On investing in the future We are investing heavily, adding almost one aircraft per month. And we’re not just renewing the fleet, but adding new types of aircraft, like the Cessna Latitude. This is valuable year-round, but will help especially during peak season: summertime. Demand is growing; we need to service it, cope with operational challenges that result from this increase in demand, and continue to increase our standards as we do. So we will have a better, larger fleet. The more aircrafts you have, the more you are able to cope with the needs. On new in-flight menus The Owners have already begun to experience some of the new menus and in-flight amenities. We will be expanding those offerings more. For example, we have recently collaborated with the Head of Wine at private members club 67 Pall “ Help me to help you – I want to understand your needs and enhance your experience even more ” Mall, who has curated our new onboard wine selection [see his notes on the following page]. On the coming opportunities for Owners this year Our programme of exclusive events is expanding. We’ve received wonderful feedback about our recent events, and this year we’ve added another gastro event with Tim Raue [see a profile of the chef on page 64] and we are looking at starting a series of business talks and conversations. We have wonderful Owners with such a breadth and depth of experience. Our ambassadors are also very keen to collaborate with us, so in addition to Roger Federer, this year we are welcoming Rafael Nadal, and we will host a tennis academy in Palma. It’s a very exciting time at NetJets – we are so optimistic about the future and we are looking forward to expanding our offerings and further enhancing the experience of the Owners. ■ 27 NETJETS