I spoke with Lilium at the Farnborough International Airshow to find out.

Lilium is an air mobility company and developer of the Lilium Jet. The business aims to offer sustainable, high-speed air mobility through electric vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft. Of all the technologies showcased at the airshow, this was one of the most exciting.
The company has been in operation for nine years, and a culture of continuous improvement was one of its founding values. Although the company values have changed over time, a culture of continuous improvement still thrives.
I met with Martin Ascher, Principle Flight Test Engineer, who was very open and transparent and explained how Lilium has maintained such a positive and productive way of working.
Martin described the continuous improvement culture as transparent. However, this wasn’t in the way you might expect. There isn’t an Obeya board where everyone can collectively brainstorm and discuss projects. There is nothing visible. They achieve transparency through open communication with innovation boards or improvement backlogs owned by functional teams.
One of the reasons this approach works so well is that Lilium has a clear, singular goal that everyone knows and is working towards. The goal is for the first manned flight for beginning of 2025 and first customer deliveries for 2026.
To illustrate the whole company's buy-in to the goal, I’d also like to share a quick story about my conversation with Christine Pierk, Communications Manager. Christine very kindly allowed me to tour the demo jet (as you can see in my over-excited video) and told me all about the features and options for the jet. The demo was presented as a luxury passenger jet but can be easily reconfigured for cargo transport, medical emergency transport, and many other use cases. Inspired by this ‘configurability’ I suggested being able to ‘hot-swap’ batteries to speed up transportation in certain situations. While this suggestion was welcomed, it was met with a firm ‘no’ as ‘it’s not in our roadmap for 2026’. With this focus on the roadmap for 2026, Christine demonstrated true alignment with the company goal, showed that communication across the organisation was working well, and has all the makings of an excellent product owner!
Lilium operates in an innovative, competitive and fast-paced environment. Despite this, cross-functional innovation is the focus for only a small, dedicated team. Functional-based teams are at its core, keeping eyes and resources firmly fixed on the overall goal. However, innovation is part of the company’s DNA, and the innovation team setup provides a low-cost, low-risk pathway to ensure the business is always seeking new opportunities and improvements.
Lilium stands out not only for its technology but also for its ways of working. The company and teams have a logical and determined approach and know their customers very well. Many start-up technologies operate with a “let's prove it, let's demonstrate and let's worry about certification and accreditation later” mentality. Accreditation and regulation are often seen as barriers to innovation, particularly if regulations change frequently or are expected to change.
But Lilium views governance as a driver for innovation.
Lilium adopted “let's worry about certification and accreditation now” as a key part of its process. And so far, it's proving to be a winning formula. Lilium knows that passing air regulations tests is required before a flight can take off, and it uses this as a delivery catalyst for its teams. With this approach, Lilium can actually proceed on the pathway to launch far quicker than any other organisation.
This is not an easy path, and one that should be celebrated, as regulation can change rapidly. Lilium is embracing governance and using it to accelerate delivery, not hinder it.
Lilium has scaled from four founders to a company of over a thousand individuals while managing to maintain a strong culture of continuous improvement. With a laser focus on a singular target and a positive attitude to overcoming the hurdles in its path, Lilium is on track to meet the 2026 goal far quicker than any other company with similar technology.
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