Rob Greyber
Expedia's Egencia corporate travel company this week promoted Rob Greyber to president, replacing Jean-Pierre Remy, who resigned after three years at the helm and nearly a decade at the firm he founded in order to take over as CEO of an unnamed, public European company. Greyber joined Expedia five years ago to manage airline partner relationships in North America. He was given responsibility to grow Egencia in North America in June 2007. Replacing Greyber in that role is Pamela Keenan Fritz, currently vice president of Asia Pacific and global partnerships. Management.travelspoke to Greyber about the challenges of leading the corporate travel unit during an economic slowdown and with declining or flat revenue, bookings and operating income. As part of its reorganization along brand instead of geographic lines, Expedia for the first time reported financial breakouts for Egencia with first-quarter revenue of $25 million, down 9 percent year over year and flat compared with the fourth quarter. Egencia gross booking dollar volume in the March quarter was $321 million, down 18 percent from a year earlier, but up slightly from the two-year low of $315 million in the December quarter.
How do you plan to reverse the declining revenue and bookings?
First and foremost, it is about listening to and working with our client; continuing to work alongside travel managers all the way up to CFOs on how they can navigate these difficult times and get the most out of every dollar, euro or pound that they are spending. Second, we are focused on winning new business and working with new clients to help them adopt new approaches and new strategies to driving savings. Finally, as with any company, we're always focused on how we can be more efficient and effective in the work that we do. Egencia has always been a company focused on innovation and how we can apply that in our own business to make ourselves and our teams more productive.
Recent reports have hinted at signs that the economy and corporate travel have bottomed out. Are you seeing the bottom of the downturn?
It's early in the quarter and relatively early in the year. We've not seen any definitive trends. We're keeping a close eye on the market and how booking trends, pricing and supply trends are developing through the year. One of our major airline partners yesterday characterized it as "seeing a bottom, but not an improvement," which is not great news, but it's always good to know where the bottom is I guess. I think this will be a challenging year in terms of the execution plans that everybody in the industry and economy made in Q3 last year that had to be changed in Q4 and probably changed again in Q1. Certainly it's a year that will require great flexibility, great focus and challenge all of our ability to execute. The exact timing of a recovery in the economy is not something that we're really depending on, but rather it's something that we're helping our clients navigate. It's hopefully something that will allow Egencia to continue to gain share on its competitors.
Is "innovation" a word you're hearing a lot from clients today?
Innovation for its own sake has never been our goal. Our goal is not to be the biggest, it's not to be the most innovative. Rather, it's to be the most valuable partner to companies in times like this and when we begin to see recovery. Innovation is certainly critical, but always within the context of business results. That is absolutely a dialogue that--while in the past I would say that people are always willing to engage in--the level of proactive outreach from CFOs, CEOs and, in some cases, investors, from all parts of the landscape, in addition to our travel management leadership teams has picked up, accelerated in the last quarters versus the last several years.
What's the biggest challenge you face?
One of the biggest is how to continue to execute on the vision that Jean-Pierre developed in the industry. That was our biggest challenge yesterday, and it's certainly our biggest challenge today. We're having very good success with that. We feel good about our progress on an absolute basis and relative to our competitors. But especially in times like this, it requires constant focus. I am very grateful to have such a deep bench to rely on at Egencia.
Are you looking at integrating videoconferencing requests or options into your booking tools as a travel alternative?
We're considering things like videoconferencing in our solutions. Integrating that functionality, whether it's reserving capabilities or just suggesting it to travelers as they are considering taking a trip, is something we could easily do. We hear about it as a level of interest in requests for proposals. Typically, we've not seen that interest sustained through the entire process. It waxes and wanes depending on what's going on with airfares and the economy overall. There is certainly a level of interest in it, and we'll keep an eye on it. If it's a direction that our clients want us to move in, obviously we have the ability to do it.