ITM Faces Depletion Of Travel Managers

The Institute of Travel Management—the British and Irish equivalent of the National Business Travel Association—in September will conduct a general meeting to vote on widening its direct membership criteria. The impending restructure reflects the increasingly endangered species in the United Kingdom during the past 18 months of the dedicated in-house travel manager. Personnel who previously spent their working week doing nothing but manage travel are being replaced by general procurement professionals within their organizations or are seeing their jobs outsourced to travel consultants, travel management companies or procurement companies.

Among the companies to have dispensed with full-time travel managers are Carlton Television, Boots and Hewlett-Packard (all outsourced to travel management companies), Diageo (responsibility handed internally to a head of procurement) and BAE Systems (awarded to outsourced procurement organization Xchanging Procurement Services). Most symbolically of all, the ITM's own chairman, Tom Stone, has quit his job as director of travel management for Universal Music International to assume the function on a self-employed, outsourced basis. It is no small wonder, therefore, that ITM executive director Loraine Holdcroft talks of "the gradual extinction of the travel manager's role" in the institute's latest newsletter.

ITM is responding by considering a range of options for its direct membership, which currently is limited to full-time travel managers. One possibility is to extend the definition of direct members to include self-employed consultants, plus TMC account managers who have dedicated, single-client roles. Another alternative is to end all membership distinctions between buyers and suppliers. The ITM board will outline its preferred option at its annual general meeting in Wales on April 2.

One travel manager who lost her job last year was Maggy Sainsbury, director of global travel for Diageo and one of the United Kingdom's most respected practitioners.

"More dedicated travel managers will lose their jobs, but I think it is a fad," said Sainsbury, now a freelance travel industry adviser. "If companies lose people now, they may not find anyone in three years' time when their travel programs fall apart and they realize the value of travel instead of the cost."

Some travel buyers in the United Kingdom have anticipated the convulsions in the marketplace by safeguarding their jobs through expanding their roles and responsibilities.

In some cases, this has mirrored the route taken most notably in the United States by Colleen Guhin of ON Semiconductor, who has expanded her global travel manager role to include buying telecommunications and desktop computers.

One example in the United Kingdom is Ian Hall, who previously oversaw a budget of €200 million as head of travel for Europe at Unilever. Today, he is responsible for €1.4 billion of spend as European director of non-production items supply management, a remit that includes real estate management, plus buying office supplies, security and temporary labor. He also thinks the old travel manager's role is finished.

"If you want to be a travel manager, you should join a travel management company," he said. "If you want to be in procurement, prepare to be a generalist."

Tracey Randell, the European business travel manager for Viacom, has made an even more radical departure from her regular duties. Although maintaining responsibility for travel, she requested, and was granted, the task of European coordinator for a multimillion-dollar HIV/AIDS awareness campaign being mounted by Viacom on both sides of the Atlantic.

Randell's tasks have included handling creative and media work for the first time, negotiating deals with condom manufacturers and even addressing a conference on sexual health.

She regards the new role as a career-saver. "It's adapt or die for travel managers," she said. "Travel managers need to look at what they do and find ways to employ those skills in other areas."