How the Drone Industry Can Expand its Regulatory Boundaries

As a burgeoning industry, drone companies are setting new boundaries every day. Their diverse set of uses makes them applicable to many other diverse business sectors, including energy, agriculture and engineering. With that, comes excitement but also uncertainty, and regulation remains a hurdle for both manufacturers of drones and their ultimate end users.

Leaders in the drone space will have to strategically operate under the current guidelines, but there is debate amongst industry insiders about how to improve their regulatory prospects going forward.

At Commercial UAV Expo Americas, these leaders gathered to address issues exactly like this. One speaker was Mike Blades, VP, Aerospace, Defense, and Security Americas Region at consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.

He explained to MarketScale that drone companies would be wise to utilize business partners in their battle for regulatory reform. Explaining how specific industries can see a quick return on investment (ROI) is a good start.

“Telling that (ROI) story I think is more important that telling the regulatory story because if you can get those business leaders, those C-level executives, to sign on to and understand it, you can present them with information that says yes, we need to bring drones in, or no, that’s not enough ROI,” Blades said.

He further stated that by getting other industry leaders to pitch change on their behalf would go a long way.

“The regulatory will follow because there will be more pressure from those industries to say ‘look, we need more support on the regulatory side because we’re adopting at a greater rate’,” Blades said.

Regulation may be hampering some of what drones can do today, but by succeeding at what they provide under the current set of rules, they will put themselves in a better position to grow in the future.