When Jorge Miranda assumed the position of CEO at 12Go in January 2025, he introduced alongside greater than a résumé of worldwide administration expertise, however a philosophy based mostly on years of guiding digital transformation in fast-moving industries. For Jorge, being accountable for a world journey platform is just not merely about scaling operations or refining know-how; it’s about anticipating the wants of vacationers within the business the place mobility is altering virtually day-after-day.
Recognized for his pragmatic however forward-looking type, Jorge has already begun to stipulate a imaginative and prescient that balances between innovation and practicality. He sees his position as each strategist and bridge-builder, specializing in how the corporate can develop know-how to simplify complicated journey connectivity, increase into rising markets, and reply to evolving patterns in world journey. As Jorge joins us for at this time’s dialog, he shares not solely the place 12Go is headed, but in addition on what sort of management is required to maintain the corporate within the lead of world journey.
12Go has turn into a regional chief in floor and sea transportation inside Asia and past. How do you see your organization’s distinctive position in shaping the way forward for journey?
For many years, the world has considered journey via the lens of flights and inns. However the actuality is that almost all journeys start and finish on the bottom with ferries, trains, taxis and native transport. That a part of the business is huge, important, and but traditionally fragmented. Our position is to attach it, standardize it, and make it globally accessible in the identical method airways have been related up to now century.
If airways made the world smaller, we’d make each nook of it reachable. That’s the distinctive house we occupy: turning neglected, hard-to-book native journeys right into a seamless world mobility community. For vacationers, it means confidence that each leg of their journey works collectively. For operators, it means entry to world demand they might by no means attain alone. And for the business as an entire, it means a shift from fragmented offline silos to a related, digital-first infrastructure layer.
We see ourselves much less as a reserving web site and extra because the rails of recent mobility. Our mission is to construct the spine of floor and sea transportation worldwide, as a result of the way forward for journey isn’t nearly the place individuals fly, however how they honestly attain each vacation spot.
How do you outline your position as CEO in shaping the corporate and the business?
As CEO, my primary position is to carry readability and perspective. By no means begin small, at all times ask why. Technique, alignment, and ambition should keep on the heart. We’re not right here to play it secure; we’re right here to attach world sea and floor transportation in a method that vacationers have by no means skilled earlier than.
Inside the corporate, which means aligning individuals and priorities round a shared mission. Outdoors, it means elevating the usual of floor and sea transport, setting a brand new benchmark for simplicity, belief, and real-time confidence throughout a fragmented business.
Management can be about the way you carry individuals with you. I give individuals actual accountability, actual challenges, after which again them to rise. Capability issues greater than expertise, however equity issues most as a result of recognition and expectations should really feel simply if motivation is to final.
On the identical time, self-discipline issues placing the correct steadiness between management and empowerment. Typically which means rolling up my sleeves to guard route, typically it means stepping again to let groups personal it absolutely. An excessive amount of management kills momentum; an excessive amount of delegation too early loses alignment. The steadiness is difficult, nevertheless it’s the place actual progress occurs.
And progress relies on by no means settling. Greatness is constructed within the final 10%, the push from 90% to 100% that transforms good into distinctive. My job is to ensure the corporate by no means stops at “ok”.
So, being CEO comes down to 3 issues: readability of route, ambition past expectation, and accountability to our individuals, our companions, our vacationers, and to the business itself.
What key modifications have you ever carried out since becoming a member of?
After I joined, I used to be lucky to inherit a super-capable staff with a imaginative and prescient I already shared and a observe report of robust execution. That basis allowed me to focus not on reinventing, however on sharpening.
The modifications we’ve made fall into two classes: focus and expertise.
On focus, we tightened how we allocate consideration and sources. We shifted to OKRs, clearer information indicators, and a stronger sense of which strategic bets are working and which aren’t. We lowered processes that didn’t make sense, whereas constructing higher ones the place it mattered. And since we’re a distant firm, I put particular emphasis on the sensation of togetherness. Alignment is data-driven, however cohesion is human-driven, and each matter equally.
On expertise, we raised our ambition for patrons. Meaning refining our worth proposition to replicate the true worth we ship, turning into extra worth aggressive, and giving vacationers publicity to what they need quicker. It means enhancing the end-to-end journey so we’re not simply promoting a ticket, however delivering confidence. And I’m proud that a few of these modifications haven’t stayed inside 12Go, they’ve unfold into different corporations within the Travelier group, which reveals the broader impression of our strategy.
Taken collectively, these shifts transfer us from execution excellence to strategic management positioning 12Go to outline the worldwide customary for floor and sea journey.
What position does innovation play in your imaginative and prescient for the corporate?
Innovation is just not a division at 12Go, it’s the working system of the corporate. In an business that also depends on paper tickets and fragmented techniques, innovation is the one solution to earn belief and scale globally. Our success will finally be outlined by the tempo at which we are able to innovate efficiently, as a result of not each thought will work, however the pace and consistency of turning concepts into impression is what units leaders other than laggards.
I see innovation in three dimensions. First is intelligence: utilizing information because the compass for each choice, from pricing to companion reliability to buyer indicators. Second is simplicity: reworking fragmented journeys into one sensible, seamless journey that permits vacationers to maneuver effortlessly from anyplace on this planet to anyplace they wish to go.. And third is transparency: giving vacationers real-time visibility, reliability, and peace of thoughts at each step.
When these three dimensions mix with pace, innovation stops being about options and turns into about outcomes: sharper strategic bets, quicker suggestions loops, and a greater end-to-end journey. That’s the reason at 12Go, innovation isn’t nearly constructing merchandise, it’s about constantly elevating the bar for floor and sea journey, quicker than anybody else.
Wanting forward, what are the most important world tendencies in journey you’re getting ready for?
A couple of years in the past, floor and sea journey companies competed on provide; whoever had essentially the most routes and operators would win. That community stays an enormous asset, however the way forward for competitors is now not about provide; it’s concerning the expertise and the way vacationers handle their journeys
We see three basic shifts shaping the subsequent decade.
The primary is AI-powered reserving. Vacationers will transfer from looking choices to easily expressing intent, and platforms will reply immediately. The winners will likely be these absolutely built-in into this new method of planning journeys, guaranteeing relevance not simply to clients however to the clever techniques they use.
The second is seamless multimodality; vacationers don’t suppose in fragments, they suppose in journeys. The longer term is one journey, one ticket, one move, treating the airport, the pier, the ferry, and the ultimate lodge as elements of a single expertise.
The third is whole integration into the traveler’s ecosystem: real-time updates, stay maps, on the spot communication, and confidence at each step. The usual has already been set by different industries; now, sea and floor transportation should rise to satisfy it. Our position is to maneuver past being a bridge between operators and clients and to turn into the worldwide supplier of peace of thoughts.
Have you ever learn?
World’s Finest Nations For Enterprise Expats.
Finest Nations To Do Enterprise For Non-European Traders.
World’s Finest Nations For Journey Tourism.
World’s Finest Nations To Go to In Your Lifetime.
