💥BAM!💥

How the Next approach can power up Booking.com’s visionary effort to improve the global tourism industry

“#OccupyInnovation,” says Collaborne CEO, Moodi Mahmoudi, at the Booking.com Annual Meeting.

I love Booking.com.

Every time I enter its headquarters, I am amazed by the energy and enthusiasm of all Booking employees, who work tirelessly (and passionately) to make travel more efficient, fun — and, most importantly, sustainable.

Which is why I’m especially impressed with the Booking Booster Programme, which aims “to turn tourism into a force for good by supporting a select group of extraordinary startups as they look to scale their businesses and impact globally, working together toward a more sustainable future for the global tourism industry.”

With such vision and ambition, however, comes the need for innovation and transformation to craft a disruptively new approach to travel and tourism. It’s no surprise, then, that the theme for Booking.com Annual Meeting (BAM) was “Wherever My Imagination Takes Me.”

Photos from BAM 2017.

And I spoke about just that at BAM, addressing the attendees on the importance of blowing past the barriers that have been holding us back, making innovation something for everyone, every day. It’s our #OccupyInnovation outlook to the industry.

Of course, this outlook should be hardwired into the daily operations of an organization, but with the ambitious scope of the Booster Programme, it’s a topic that couldn’t have been broached at a more relevant time.

My talk focused on three “to-dos” to accomplish this feat.

1. Act like a child

Outline the importance of building curious, question-centric organizations. This is also the basis of one of my previous blog posts.

2. Be disciplined

Innovation almost never fails due to a lack of creativity. It is instead a lack of discipline that often leads to innovation failing.

3. Love data

Focus on the importance of measuring innovation progress and success to better steer it.

Here is the presentation in full.

Note: A video of the talk is in preparation, and will be posted in the coming weeks.

As usual, attendees of the Annual Meeting were eager, excited, and attentive. It was a joy to be a part of, and I can’t wait to return, to see what else we can cook up, making the world a better, more sustainable, more innovative (and, of course, more easily travelled) place.