McCord Lays Out Plans For National Expansion

<B> McCord Lays Out Plans For National Expansion</B>

By Sarah Welt

<I>Chicago</I> - McCord Travel Management last month announced a broad expansion plan for 1999 that includes entry into five new business markets, the opening of new offices in Dallas and Boston, and the expansion of its existing office in San Francisco. The agency also plans to build offices in Washington, D.C., and Houston.

McCord president and CEO Bruce Black said he also believes the agency can reach its aggressive sales goal of $630 million before the close of 1998.

McCord has been approached by would-be acquirers practically every year since it was founded, Black said, but it always has declined. "We are not in the business of selling our agency. Clearly we are intending to grow, and we're intending to acquire. So if there is going to be consolidation, I think McCord will be a part of the buying side," he said.

McCord has been pursuing an acquisition strategy for three years, during which time it bought Zenith Travel of New York and Hoffman Travel Service Inc. of Los Angeles (<I>BTN,</I> July 28,1997).

While it can meet its growth goals without further acquisitions, it "will consider purchasing good, well-established agencies with good management teams in the $25-50 million range," Black said. He noted that companies with a high concentration of professional service firms are an ideal fit and account for 60 percent of McCord's business mix.

Meanwhile, the McCord plan focuses on international hubs--which should help bolster Synergi, the global travel management network of which McCord and U.S. Office Products spin-off Navigant International are the U.S. representatives. Synergi in August closed its Frankfurt office and consolidated its New York operations (<I>BTN,</I> May 18), but continues to grow. With about 20 international agencies now, it is in final discussions with about five more.

On the domestic front, Black said Synergi doesn't plan to seek additional U.S. members, even though Navigant has said its plans concerning the network are not clearly defined (<I>BTN,</I> July 20). Synergi at one time counted a number of U.S.-based super-regional agencies among its members, but Navigant since has acquired Associated Travel, Mutual Travel and Professional Travel, and the other agencies dropped out.

"Whether Navigant will continue to be an active member of Synergi will really be a call they will make, and whether that occurs soon or whether it occurs later is really in (Navigant chairman & CEO) Ed Adams' hands," said Black. "For now, McCord and Navigant continue to support Synergi's needs in the U.S. We still compete from time to time for various pieces of business, but that is a world we've lived in for a long time and are comfortable with."

Internally, McCord has had a number of initiatives in the works. It put in a new management structure in March and added Bill Wass as chief operating officer in April.

Now, it is preparing to better manage the customer relationship by "looking at very specific management process changes that would include sophisticated software and very different management models," Black said. "Those include how we integrate the strategic requirements of our customers, the financial requirements of our business, learning and growth opportunities for our employees, and the business processes we use in an integrated fashion from the top of our organization to the bottom."

On the technology front, McCord is improving its agent productivity by rolling out a proprietary Turbo Sabre application it has spent two years developing.