FORMER head of Travelport Asia-Pacific, Simon Nowroz, has set up The Amazing Mr Anderson, a consultancy that aims to eschew the usual dull and hands-off consultancy experience in favour of a ‘studio approach’ where clients are stirred to collaborate and innovate to generate growth and positive social impact.
The UK-based firm is preparing for a launch in Asia-Pacific and targets the travel and tourism private sector, which Nowroz believes needs this service the most.
Said Nowroz: “Travel is a big employer, but it is also a big polluter and land developer. These last two can have negative effects if not managed properly. Unchecked pollution can drastically increase health risks and drive climate change, while ill-thought through land development can destroy the local ecology, communities and cultures – the very things that make travel interesting. By innovating with local communities these risks can be better mitigated, ensuring a more sustainable and balanced approach to travel and tourism.
“Asia is particularly at risk because it generally has less government intervention, rules and regulations. It is also less ecologically aware (i.e. little by way of sustainability education, few reporting requirements on firms and less shareholder attention).
“Environmental and social sustainability in travel and tourism are the issues of the day, and the story that needs to be told. Our studio is focused on social sustainability (the people who make up the destinations that we travel to) and we want to help the travel sector to get better at social inclusion and innovation.”
The Amazing Mr Anderson is a member of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council and Social Enterprise UK. It does pro bono work with the Clinton Foundation and Hult University in community development, and is already working on bringing social innovation to the education, healthcare and media sectors.
“Most consultancies drive innovation through a dull and hands-off experience of power point slides and excel spreadsheets, with little emphasis on experimentation. As a result about 75 per cent of current innovation efforts fail in companies,” said Nowroz.
“We undertake innovation programmes in a studio environment, where our clients are encouraged to tinker and experiment with ideas and concepts. This hands-on process results in early prototypes, rapid market testing and quick iterations, and results in much higher success rates. Our studio methodology is rooted in the science of Stanford’s design school processes.”
Asked why he decided to to this, Nowroz said: “As someone fascinated by innovation, change and problem solving, sustainable commerce is the single biggest problem to be working on today. I am driven by the magnitude of change required, by the complexity of getting it right and the urgency to mobilise around solutions. I simply couldn’t be a spectator once I fully understood the challenge. So I’ve invested financially, emotionally and intellectually to create a place (our studio) where we can collective work through what we do next.”
According to Nowroz, the current model is “simply broken beyond repair” and the question is, what next?
“Destinations are being destroyed, cultures lost, societies destabilised, oceans polluted. The very resources that make travel attractive and successful are being undermined and quietly lost. Legacy firms have assets that are no longer fit for purpose (highly polluting), processes that are linear (instead of circular) and strategies that fail to deal with the pending risks. New firms carry less of the ‘20th century infinite resources’ mentality but need helping scaling,” he said.
“The planet cannot sustain how we live today, so we’ve already lost that debate. Now the question is, what next? The “what next” will take years to unfold…there are quiet voices that need to be heard, small experiments that need to be shared, and journeys that need to be encouraged.”
