The job of management is not to manage the day to day. It is to build systems that produce the outcome when management is not in the room.
AirportLabs Allegra RMS has just won a Red Dot Design Award. It is the second Red Dot for an AirportLabs product, after SkyCore AODB in 2024.
Red Dot’s Brands & Communication Design competition took entries from 52 countries this year, across 18 categories, judged by a panel of 30. The last year Red Dot published the full breakdown, 6,992 projects were entered and 854 of them won a Red Dot. Red Dot headlines that figure itself: only 13 per cent of entries receive an award.
Winning once puts you in the top eighth of a global field. We have now done it twice, with two different products, in two different categories, two years apart.
The first one I could put down to luck. The second is the part I actually care about, because two is where a system starts to show.
And it is worth saying what won. Not a consumer app. Allegra RMS allocates gates, stands and check-in desks, and it runs live at Chicago O’Hare and more than twenty other airports.
The jury judged the Digital Solutions category on optimisation of use. Operational software for people who are on shift at 5am, judged on whether it makes their job easier.
Congratulations to the Allegra team, and thank you. You built it. I found out with everyone else.
Sources#
- Winners of the Red Dot Award: Brands & Communication Design 2026 announced, Red Dot Design Award, 3 September 2026: 52 countries, 18 categories, a jury of 30.
- Award-winning design: Red Dot Jury selects best brands and creative works of the year, Red Dot Award: Brands & Communication Design results 2020: 6,992 projects from 50 countries, 854 Red Dots, “Only 13 per cent of entries receive an award”.
- AirportLabs wins at the Red Dot Award: Brands & Communication Design 2026 with Allegra RMS, PR Newswire, 3 September 2026.
- AirportLabs’ SkyCore AODB wins Red Dot Award, Regional Gateway, 3 September 2024.