EBS Nomad: Commercial Outline

Commercial Outline

When stage coaches clattered and wagon trains rolled, journeys were slow, event­ful and interesting. The stuff of hard work, courage and high adventure. An eternal fountain for Hollywood scripts in which the journey was the reward and the arriving was the repose. Now the jet planes roar and the motorways hum, and our journeys have become fast, featureless and supremely boring.

The stagecoach traveller absorbed useful and inspiring detail from the land through which he passed. Every coaching inn at which he stopped to change horses, eat or stay the night was an exchange for local economic and cultural information. It was a crucible for new ideas and contacts.

Not so for the jet passenger whose speed has severed him completely from the social, economic and geographical hinterland into whose blue mantle he obliviously stares hour after boring hour, arriving at journey's end with an albeit subconscious sense of having been cheated of the journey itself.

Plying him with food, drink and luxury is no cure for this boredom. Neither is the viewing of yet another film in which he plays no part save that of a passive spect­ator. Killing the hours of his life with electronic games is no better. Passenger bore­dom is the scourge of modern travel. The airline that overcomes it will dominate the future market.

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The design of the EBS Nomad and its presentation in this document are
the Intellectual Property and Copyright of Robert John Morton

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The Opportunity

Overcoming passenger boredom is now the greatest untapped opportunity in the eternal quest for that competitive edge. Turning that boredom into a productive, in­formative, entertaining and educative experience is bound to benefit any airline in terms of passenger satisfaction and loyalty which in turn must mean increased mar­ket share and profit.

The Product

These are the benefits offered by EBS Nomad, an on-board system which provides passengers with:

• live displays of en-route position and flight progress information, plus weather details for the route ahead and at the destination
• selectable en-route audio-visual commentaries on the geographical features currently within the vicinity of the aircraft
• access to information relating to the business, industry, transport, tourism, entertainment, history, geography, education and culture of their destination and the cities and regions over which they are flying
• The audio-visual commentaries and information can be held on-board or up-linked from ground-based transponders operated by over-flown cities.
• This is by default a new and immediate advertising medium which is plugged directly into what must be the world's most captive audience.

Potential Market

So far, Nomad has been presented in the context of airlines. However, it is equally applicable to

• shipping lines and coach operators
• government and local authorities
• advertising facilities companies
• education establishments
• and even private individuals

The size of the market for on-board Nomad systems is the number of medium and long-haul commercial passenger aircraft (which do not compete with Nomad's dev­elopers). The size of the market for ground transponders is the number of major cities within 50km of the air routes flown by these aircraft. The coach and private markets will be considered separately later. The potential market share and reven­ue from these markets is covered later in a separate revenue and costings docu­ment.

Corporate Partner

I do not have the means to realise and market the Nomad product on my own. I must therefore find a suitable partner with the necessary finance, people and re­sources to do this. I want this partner to be a company:

• in its ascendancy with a hi-tech sunrise image
• headed by a technically-literate accessible personality
• with established credibility in the anticipated market
• looking to diversify within the bounds of its expertise
• receptive to new ways of working

An appropriate corporate partner could be:

• an airline or aerospace manufacturer
• a navigation equipment manufacturer
• an in-flight entertainment systems manufacturer
• an audio-visual & documentary film producer
• a geographic & business database builder
• an association of municipal authorities

Since the project needs to draw from several technical disciplines, it may be exped­ient for my partnership to be with a small consortium such as:

• an airline + a navigation equipment manufacturer
• an airline + an audio-visual commentary film producer
• an association of municipal authorities + a database builder

Business Opportunities

The production and implementation of Nomad presents the following demarkable business opportunities:

• design, write and licence the Nomad software - (1)
• design and manufacture installation-specific hardware - (1) (2)
• market the complete hardware + software package - (1)
• sell, install and maintain the hardware & software - (1) (3)
• produce the audio-visual commentaries - (2)
• build and maintain the information databases - (2)
• sell and distribute the commentaries & databases - (1) (2)
• manufacture ground-based database transponders - (1) (2)
• install and service the ground-based transponders - (1) (2) (3)

The bracketed numbers indicate who could optionally carry out each of these busi­ness functions:

1. the primary company or consortium
2. a specialist subcontractor
3. a network of dealers or franchisees

Business Relationship

If my corporate partner is a single company, then I join their organisation as a key employee or a full-time retained outside consultant to set up and run a new separ­ate division within their organisation to:

• design, write and licence the Nomad software
• design and manufacture installation-specific hardware
• market the complete hardware + software package

and to set up or source the means to:

• sell, install and maintain the hardware & software
• produce the audio-visual commentaries
• build and maintain the information databases
• sell and distribute the commentaries & databases
• manufacture ground-based database transponders
• install and service the ground-based transponders

I spend part of my time at my own office for uninterrupted creative work and part at the corporate site to work jointly with their development and marketing teams and other outside service providers. I also travel as necessary to meet with custom­ers, subcontractors, dealers, etc.

I receive:

• a salary or regular consultancy fees
• operating expenses
• a share of the profit from sales of the product

I retain permanently joint copyright of the design.

When development has been completed and the market has been established, my employment or retainment ends, but I continue to receive my share of the profit and I retain my joint copyright even if the design is subsequently developed further without me.

If the corporate partner is a consortium, then instead of setting up a division within one of the companies, a separate company is set up to develop and market the product. I would be, or have the status of, one of the technical directors of that company. Some or all of my profit from sales may in this case be in the form of shares in that company.

Why I Am The Person For The Job

Firstly, I conceived the idea and therefore have the true and original vision of what it is and what it can do. Secondly, I am an experienced systems and software devel­oper, project manager and business proprietor with an ideally proportioned mix of relevant experience in air navigation systems, communications networks, database design, presentation technology and product marketing.

© Robert John Morton: 21-28 May 1993