.jpg)
In our popular series, cargo.one Founder & Co-CEO Moritz Claussen hosts rare and revealing chats with visionaries from the logistics world, uncovering their most valuable insights and formative experiences. Subscribe today!
cargo.one:one continues with candid personal reflections from an industry sage – Thilo Schaefer, Director Cargo at German carrier Condor. With over 30 years of experience gained worldwide, Thilo has priceless learnings and approaches to share.
After training as a business engineer and time spent in the Air Force, Thilo applied his analytical thinking to combined traffic terminals designed to transfer more freight from roads to railways. However, as an aviation geek or self-confessed “kerosene junky”, it was not long before Thilo joined Lufthansa’s prestigious Management Trainee program – the perfect training ground for a diverse career in air logistics.
Enjoy the full length episode, here:
While at Lufthansa, Thilo developed an OS that would serve him well in the following decades: “I took a really clear path on how to develop myself. And that has always followed the same pattern – developing something in the headquarters, developing a concept, and then going out into the field organization and living with what I have developed earlier.” An example of this successful approach was his co-development of Lufthansa’s time-definite services.
Continuously changing perspective
As the Head of Global Handling, Thilo was responsible for more than 300 stations worldwide, and would also lead Lufthansa’s Italy operation for six years. Strong operational experience in many markets granted Thilo a “continuously changing perspective”, enabling him to understand regional needs and “a lot of understanding for the viewpoint of partners”.
An important learning for Thilo in his air cargo career is that “transparency needs to remain for all participants throughout the chain”. This would become a fundamental part of the concept of digital freight and an area where Thilo unlocked substantial new value for organizations including Leisure Cargo and today, Condor. Thilo recalls how over the years he has won over even the most sceptical colleagues by proving the business case for lean logistics and innovation.
“If you have the information under control, then you have the process under control. And that actually drove me a lot.”
Thilo Schaefer
Advantage from digital
Thilo explains the transformational power that the right innovation and technology can bring to any air cargo operation: “IT is not a bottleneck anymore…So digitalization is one of the prerequisites for the implementation of efficient and effective processes. You have the confidence and the transparency and the data integrity that allows you to show customers that you're actually doing a great job.”
Today, applying powerful learnings around digital freight processes enables Thilo to boost commercial agility for Condor and zone into competitive gains: “So for us, it's absolutely key...Here digitalization plays a role, we can jump actually the queue and become a leader, even if we are starting from a little bit behind.” Thilo is mindful that he must always “stay innovative” and “be creative in order to bring cargo to these nice blue water destinations”. The right data set up now affords his team exciting options around “implementing new processes such as dynamic capacity, dynamic pricing.”
Thilo shares a valuable sense of where competitive edge can be cultivated and how the value proposition for air cargo airlines has broadened. Thilo explains what customers are seeking from a top tier capacity partner: “Not only hygiene factors like the balance between price and quality". Motivational factors are now vital too: “Data transparency, data integrity, data quality, forward thinking, innovative thinking, having ideas about the future, which for me counts most and counts more.”
Inspiring new talent
For the past 12 years, Thilo has additionally worked as a University lecturer in the air cargo aspects of aviation management. This paying forward of valuable industry knowledge and investing into young talent is a key motivation for him: “Whenever I have the opportunity to talk to a single person or a group of one thousand, it just doesn't matter. I try to inspire them, to make them hungry to join the team, to make them hungry to join our industry. That's my driving force”.
Thilo notes that perhaps his biggest pride to date is how successfully the staff he has led have flourished and progressed within the industry: “I'm actually also a little bit proud that some of these talents I could bring in this industry now have grown to directors, VPs, somewhere in this industry.”
“Probably the thing I will be most proud of is not only such things like implementing products – it is being proud of people who have developed and who will be the next generation to bring and move this really amazing industry forward.”
Thilo Schaefer
Thilo remains a passionate advocate for the future of air logistics: “The way for this industry to future-proof itself is to talk about its achievements and to bring on new talent – because we need talent to come to this industry, talent that comes with different experiences and different backgrounds to add to whatever we're doing already.” Perhaps the biggest advert for new joiners is that after 30 years in the industry, Thilo has to admit with a smile: “98 per cent of my time is fun.”
Want to hear Thilo introducing our podcast in Italian? Tune into Episode 7 now to discover it all! 🤩
cargo.one:one features many more exciting guests in the series. If you enjoyed this episode, stay tuned to our blog or subscribe using your favorite podcast platform including Spotify, Apple podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Castbox and more.
.jpg)
