Stephane Lagut Of EY On The Future Of Aviation and Aviation Tech

As part of our series about “The Future Of Aviation”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Stephane Lagut.

Stephane Lagut is EY’s Global Advanced Manufacturing & Mobility Assurance Leader; Global Aerospace & Defense Sector Leader. He is an audit partner with 30 years of experience serving large multinational companies in various industries in the Americas, Europe and Asia. He is passionate about helping develop enterprise resilience with a particular focus in advanced manufacturing and mobility, with deep sector knowledge in automotive and aerospace and defense.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I didn’t have a career plan to be honest, I think you’d be surprised at how many people in very senior positions say that. Or maybe you wouldn’t, maybe you were exactly the same. For me, I followed my instincts to try seizing opportunities when they came, and this is where it has led me! However, I think it is fair to say that there is a link between my current role as EY Global Aerospace & Defense leader and my passion for flying. I have been fascinated by flying since I was very young and started piloting at 15. I then went on to become an officer in the French Navy before joining EY in 1992, so maybe on some level I did know what I wanted.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

Oh, far too many to narrow down. I’ve been very lucky, probably the most interesting thing for me is the international experiences that my career has afforded me, working with clients and colleagues across the globe. I’ve been based in France, the US, France again, Japan, UK, Korea and now again in Japan. It is never dull and there is always a moment of anxiety when moving and starting a new life somewhere, followed by a feeling of strong energy coming from cultural diversity and novelty of challenges and then professional and personal satisfaction resulting from these balancing forces.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

There are quite a few instances where I have made a fool of myself due to cultural misunderstandings, sometimes using words out of context when learning Japanese, and unexpected culinary discoveries. I once chose the lower bed on a night train going through China, which meant I was obligated to spend the rest of the night playing cards with the other occupants of the compartment. We spoke almost none of the other’s language, but the fun of the game and the camaraderie of the long journey helped fill in the gaps. And in all of these instances, I feel that I learned the important lessons to be open, take genuine interest in others and that being willing to honestly try new things gets us a long way!

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

First and foremost, my parents who have provided me with well-balanced education and environment of safety and challenge and still now provide regular advice. At EY, I am particularly grateful to Dominique Thouvenin, who was a fantastic partner and mentor of mine who led by example. He also provided the right mix of challenges and confidence to form solid grounds to build on and I’ll be forever grateful to him for that.

You are a successful business leader. Which three-character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Success comes from the combination of the right talents, that we should be able to identify, secure and retain. In order to do that we should:

1. Be respectful- When I joined the Navy as a young officer, I had rank but no experience. I was eager to learn from the most experienced staff, particularly from a chief petty officer with 20+ years in the service. His returned appreciation drove recognition from all of the crew. As aide de camp to an admiral I once missed arranging some logistics, which could have left our admiral stranded onshore. Thankfully my mistake had been identified by this CPO, who had already taken corrective action. My respect had earned me an extra life. If you’re respectful to your colleagues and clients, there will be times when they help you out when you really need it.

2. Be open to the unknown and to change- I think that opportunities are the convergence of (i) understanding of the past and present, (ii) vision of the future and (iii) availability of resources. I read a lot and love history, philosophy, arts, fictions, etc. and enjoy meeting people, everywhere. Folklore and myth not only bring me refreshing entertainment, but I also find they are a great source of inspiration for business and helps a lot in understanding what makes people tick, particularly when trying to get to grips with a different culture. Folklore and legends are what we are made of, they are a fantastic medium to accelerate mutual understanding, demonstrating interest in others and trust building.

3. Be honest and do the right thing- Honesty in providing judgement and acting accordingly is critical to building trust, and trust brings business success. I could experience this a number of times as an auditor and also as a consultant: maybe the message is difficult to convey — and unpleasant to hear — but it allows efficient mutual understanding, brings clarification, and ensures that we progress together, with teams and clients.

Let’s jump to the core of our discussion. Can you share with our readers about the innovations that you are bringing to the Aviation and Air Travel industries?

EY brings independent perspectives and insights derived from deep industry knowledge and experience to address challenges that are critical pain / differentiating points in the Aviation and Air Travel industries. We bring to the table an unsurpassed mix of talents ranging from the traditional skills of consulting firms (assurance, tax, transactions, consulting) to digital transformation and advanced long-term value engineering, leveraging academics, research, government, alliances with other Big Tech partners. Presently, we have a particular focus on sustainability, workforce, supply chain, and digital transformation, each increasingly important and challenging issues in the aviation industry.

As a global organization, we bring our leadership to the defining frameworks to ensure fair assessments and comparability in the industry, generate fresh perspectives to attract and secure access to capital by addressing ESG requirements, not only from a regulatory perspective, which is already an immense challenge, but also — and perhaps more importantly — from a customer and stakeholder perspective. Addressing these challenges in the right manner will bring more efficient access to capital and access to retention of the needed talents.

Aviation companies are under constant pressure to maximize profitability and improve operational efficiency. Operating in an uncertain world, they need to continuously adapt to business disruptions. Digital brings in a new level of interconnectivity, which challenges organizations to think differently about risk and resilience while embracing opportunities through driving innovation.

Digital is disrupting the fundamental way in which organizations do their business. Connectivity, data analytics, innovation and focusing on the customer create the backbone for redefining businesses. The new wave of digital technologies provides the greatest opportunity to reinvent operations and deliver a breakthrough in performance. Furthermore, digital disruptions enable organizations to accelerate growth by becoming smarter, more customer-centric and more agile.

In context of numerous sources of strategic and operational disruptions, EY supports our customers’ enterprise resilience through every digital element of business transformation including tax, legal, people, regulatory, compliance, technology, innovation, and capital investment strategy. We look across the entire value chain to ensure that an organization is fit for a digital world and help them grow and protect their business.

Which “pain point” are you trying to address by introducing these innovations?

Combined response with the above.

How do you envision that this might disrupt the status quo?

Our industry is undoubtedly at a crossroad: major disruptions are happening at the same time in (i) customers appetite — be it the pandemic, flygskam (lit: flightshame), cost, evolution of technology; (ii) climate change challenges — fuel efficiency, CO2 emission targets; (iii) evolution of workforce — digital skillsets, product solution development cycles, aging, hybrid working, purpose-led industry. The winners and losers will be determined by their ability to innovate (both technically and financially), which is driven by the ability to attract and retain talent.

My expertise is in product security, so I’m particularly interested in this question. Recently there were famous cases of hackers breaking into the software running automobiles, for ransomware or for other malicious purposes. Based on your experience, what should aviation companies do to uncover vulnerabilities in the development process to safeguard their vehicles and aircraft?

I’m not a cybersecurity expert. As far as I know, no commercial aircraft has ever been hacked, which is remarkable considering these systems are under constant attack. Aircraft themselves are secure. I’ve learned that there are multiple layers of security and firewalls surrounding an aircraft and these are continuously upgraded. Importantly, data transmission is controlled by hardware, like routers or switches and the direction of data flow is transmitted in one direction, into the passenger cabin and are unable to flow out of the cabin. A significant reason for this level of protection is the industry, as a whole, views the threat of cyber-attacks on the same level as flight safety. OEMs and others continue to invest significant resources in an effort to stay ahead of the threats as they are well aware of the potential catastrophic consequences to a hacked aircraft.

With the perspective of development of urban air mobility for goods delivery and maybe soon for persons transportation, questions over the management of lower and urban airspace security will gain importance, for instance, how to identify & protect urban environment and event / large social gathering from ill-intentioned or ill-functioning drones.

Aside from the safety and security of aircraft and vehicles themselves, there are critical areas subject to hacking and other IT/cyber related threats. As digital is taking a more important place in the sector for supply chain for instance, improving IT & cyber resilience is critical to various strategic aspects in the industry such as (i) protection of IP, (ii) security of supply flows, (iii) timely maintenance and ground support, (iv) personal data protection, (v) cooperation with government and law enforcement agencies, (vi) enforcement of sanctions regimes, etc.

Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career In The Aviation Industry?

1. Teams / crew: As I’ve alluded to earlier, you can’t achieve anything on your own. You need to be able to create and work with highly successful teams. I believe the bedrock to any successful team is a diversity of opinions, and then creating a space where you can respectfully and honestly share those opinions. Challenge and transparency in design followed by seamless execution are critical to ensure safety

2. Technical and design skills: Flying objects are fantastically complex and need reliable and durable operations in extreme environments. This requires immense skill which must be constantly improved and then tested. Not only that but the design of these systems is almost as important. I genuinely believe there is no other industry that is quite as global as aviation, as these complex systems must be operated in simple manner and be able to be maintained on worldwide basis by diverse crews.

3. Safety and risk management mindset: should be constantly alert to maintain trust from customers and investors. This applies to all activities, initial and maintenance, quality and resilience of supply chain, ground support and in-flight services.

4. Understand the environment and forces in action to be able to manage risks and address — or anticipate? — stakeholders demands. This will become critical to win the competition to access capital necessary to be resilient and fund innovation and development. In this respect, access to capital is probably not anymore, the reserved domain of financiers but will be much influenced by ESG considerations. Understanding and navigating divers and sometimes contradicting demands will be absolutely critical.

5. Last but not least, an ability to dream the future. We need to think out of the box to develop innovative solutions to the many disruption and evolving demands, attract and retain talents, open new horizons, and opportunities, ranging from urban air mobility to space travel!

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

Our planet is experiencing serious problems that are going to continue to get worse if humankind does not find solutions or change our habits. My primary passion will always be in the future of aviation- so I often think about how we can change the way we conduct ourselves in the sector that is better for our planet and for the next generation of humanity. For the past decade, the aerospace industry has recognized and responded to environmental concerns expressed by consumers, the environmental lobby, governments, and other players by, for example, cutting emissions and reducing noise levels. Together, these factors have made a greener, cleaner aviation sector inevitable- but there is much work to be done.

While there remains a number of challenges, from funding to the inevitable war for talent, there is also a great deal of excitement about the prospect of urban air mobility — or flying taxis — thanks to advancements in electric and autonomous vehicles that have sparked renewed excitement about the integration of battery power in aviation. The largest hurdle in the race for full electrification of long-haul passenger aircraft, however, remains energy storage. Batteries and their support ground infrastructures will need further massive investments and innovations to develop to the point where they’re competing with aviation fuels for energy density to enable the revolution start moving on the tarmac and ultimately take off. To go back to your question, my movement would be to do everything in my power to move these projects forward in the quickest and most efficient way to help save our planet and those who live on it.

This mission to help our planet could even be accelerated if we cooperated and moved towards a greater cultural understanding. Once we learn that diversity is our strength and continue on the path of inclusion despite trends towards de-globalization, we can achieve so much more than what is currently perceived. To go back to your question, my movement would be to do everything in my power to move these projects forward in the quickest and most efficient way to help save our planet and those who live on it.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

EY Aerospace and Defense Official Page

Stephane Lagut –EY.com

Stephane on LinkedIn

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

About The Interviewer: David Leichner is a veteran of the Israeli high-tech industry with significant experience in the areas of cyber and security, enterprise software and communications. At Cybellum, a leading provider of Product Security Lifecycle Management, David is responsible for creating and executing the marketing strategy and managing the global marketing team that forms the foundation for Cybellum’s product and market penetration. Prior to Cybellum, David was CMO at SQream and VP Sales and Marketing at endpoint protection vendor, Cynet. David is the Chairman of the Friends of Israel and Member of the Board of Trustees of the Jerusalem Technology College. He holds a BA in Information Systems Management and an MBA in International Business from the City University of New York.