AirAsia has an eye on how technology innovation can disrupt the areas of the travel industry... When you’re the largest airline in a country, with more than 100 million passengers last year and ranked this year by Forbes the best low cost airline in Asia, you’re going to know a lot about what your customers need and want.  You’ll know about their behavior throughout their journey with you, and how you can grow them as a customer and your brand as an ever increasingly relevant player.  In the travel industry. AirAsia Group is taking that experience and running—(or flying)—with it. With an eye on how technology innovation can disrupt the areas of the travel industry Air Asia is eyeing for expansion, and to be of value to other industry players  — (and even other industries). Aireen Omar, AirAsia Deputy Group CEO (Technology and Digital), joins John Matson and Bess Chapman for a discussion on why the airline has made a meaningful play into venture funding and startups, a search for talent worldwide, and investing in unicorns. Recorded in the MouthMedia Network studio powered by Sennheiser. In this episode: Data is invaluable  What makes an airline stand out—how you make a customer feel, the right kind of services and products, as seamless sand possible And branding is important, seeking a fun and enjoyable way to consume it Understanding needs and wants, and helping them discover what they don’t know they want Redbeat Ventures, embracing technology, and how AirAsia has a. lot of data, and has discovered the behavior of passengers AirAsia wanting to seek for talent all over the world, and find solutions and disrupt the travel industry they want to expand to, and be of value to other industry players (and perhaps other industries as well) The resulting venture fund and separate and off balance sheet, to invest in unicorns around the world The wide range of who be in the fund, including lifestyle companies The beauty of how AirAsia can work with startups, given the 100M+ passengers per year The likely impact of an economy shift on the business