Las Vegas—Incoming Carlson Cos. president and CEO Hubert Joly, days before he officially takes over the role from chair and CEO Marilyn Carlson Nelson, outlined a plan for growth of the company largely buoyed by a focus on the Asia/Pacific region.
Joly, who assumes CEO duties at the Minneapolis-based Carlson on Saturday, said at Carlson's Global Business Summit here on Thursday that his goal was to more than double the marketshare of Carlson Wagonlit Travel, of which he currently serves as CEO, from 7 percent to as much as 15 percent. CWT recently this month claimed its sales had surpassed American Express Business Travel to become the number-one travel management company
(BTNonline, Feb. 4), and Joly said international growth was a key to maintaining that position.
"We are number one in India and number two in China, but we're very far from having completed our growth there," Joly said. "For example, we're not yet serving Chinese companies. We're serving international companies."
Joly said growth also would come through gaining new customers with innovations such as an "intelligent itinerary" tool to be introduced later this year, with which CWT clients' travelers could be linked to travel suppliers through their laptops or personal digital assistants and be notified of such events as flight cancellations.
For Carlson Hotels Worldwide, parent company of such brands as Radisson Hotels & Resorts and Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Joly outlined what he called Carlson's "nine-to-five" plan, in which Carlson Hotels would grow from the ninth-largest hotel company in the world to the fifth largest. As with CWT, much of that growth would come through new hotels in Asia, he said.
In addition, Marilyn Carlson Nelson said the company expects to grow from 13 to 55 hotels in Russia in the next three years, has 22 hotels in India and also is seeking to grow in key U.S. metropolitan markets.
Joly said he eventually would like to see one-third of the overall company's revenue and employees come from such emerging markets as India, China and others in the Asia/Pacific region.
Meanwhile, Joly said the search for his successor as CEO of CWT, a position he continues to hold, has been narrowed down to a short list of candidates from both outside and inside the travel industry. "It's very rewarding to see the category of individuals that the position now attracts, so it's progressing really well."
As to his eventual successor for Carlson's top job, Joly indicated he'd like to see an international focus in that search as well. "How about, if my successor is not from the family, someone from Asia?" Joly said. "How about a woman from Asia?"