BTN Honors NBTA Prez: Travel Manager Of The Year

Salt Lake City - With a slew of innovations he developed as global air and car supplier manager for Hewlett-Packard, and the numerous industry advancements he oversaw as president of the National Business Travel Association, Kevin Iwamoto had a landmark year in 2001.

His accomplishments at Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP included a groundbreaking marketshare-based arrangement with United Airlines, reorganized global airline contracts that focused on regional rather than country-specific goals, third-party involvement in collaborative airline performance reviews and standardized global distribution systems audits that uncovered rate-loading inaccuracies, even as the HP-Compaq merger loomed.

At Alexandria, Va.-based NBTA, Iwamoto pushed change on all levels by bringing new leadership to various committees, working to bridge the gap between direct and allied members, stressing cohesiveness with and among local chapters and ensuring the association's membership was represented and more deeply involved in political affairs. Taken as a whole, these achievements earned Iwamoto the 18th annual Travel Manager of the Year Award presented by Business Travel News.

"I am overwhelmed and touched by the recognition bestowed on me by BTN and my peers," Iwamoto said, after accepting the award here. "I feel humbled by this designation, as the list of previous designees are people I have admired and respected during my career."

For supporting his efforts, Iwamoto praised HP's global travel team and senior management and his suppliers. "Because they are willing to listen to my out-of-the-box ideas and work within the process we set up, I believe we are mutually successful."

In late 2000, HP and United hammered out a marketshare-based deal, representing a first for the carrier on such a scale. To set mutually acceptable goals and fairly monitor contract performance, HP turned to Travel Analytics' Bravo software. "You don't just put your faith in the airlines and the airlines are just not going to trust the customer," Iwamoto said. "That leads you to a third party. This was getting them into new and more realistic territory."

Both HP and United saw the benefits, said Travel Analytics CEO Scott Gillespie. "I'd like to believe that the success with HP helped give United more confidence in writing marketshare-based contracts, and in using third-party tools for managing corporate contracts," he said. Marketshare metrics and third-party involvement became standard in March when United launched its Corporate Solutions initiative.

Prior to Sept. 11, United was not the only one to agree to new marketshare contracts with HP. "All of my agreements would go to hell in a hand basket because of new travel restrictions, so I decided to be proactive and make changes before the industry changed," Iwamoto explained. "My airline suppliers all agreed to work with me in setting realistic goals."

Iwamoto throughout last year was able to convince other airline suppliers to evaluate third-party involvement in the quarterly review process. "We have changed the way quarterly reviews are handled," Iwamoto said. "It had been airline analysis only and carriers had no way to answer questions in those meetings. In this collaborative format, it is live data and the numbers are crunched by a third party. We can ask about city pairs, region, point of sale, domestic versus international, etc. Travel managers need to take more ownership of this process."

Meanwhile, by early 2001, Iwamoto convinced HP's global airline suppliers to migrate from country-specific discounts and goals to regional ones. "The major learning experience was that the U.S.-centric approach to standardizing global deals is not realistic," Iwamoto said. "Once we passed the tediousness of negotiating country by country, we rolled it all up into a regional goal and brought it back into a global overview.

"There always have been renegade salespeople undercutting deals, but I have held the airlines accountable, saying the lower discount should become the default discount," he continued. "In most cases, they have accepted the responsibility and ended up learning from painful mistakes." HP gained administrative and financial advantages and global leverage, but confidentiality concerns prevented Iwamoto from identifying international airline partners and exact cost savings.

Meanwhile, to ensure rate-loading accuracy—and therefore associated savings entitled to HP—Iwamoto last year began quarterly, standardized global distribution system audits of airline pricing through ATPCO and Private Fares II, following the development of a similar audit of car rental rates begun a year earlier. "Many travel managers depend on the agency and the airline to have everything filed correctly," he said, "but we uncovered lots of anomalies. If an aggressive discount has not been filed correctly or at all by the supplier, then you really have negotiated nothing."

HP worked with WorldTravel BTI to design and customize the system. "This was initiated by Kevin when we added a new supplier two years ago and it evolved from there as we saw the value," said Sherry Perdue, the agency's director of global contract analysis for the Hewlett-Packard/Agilent account. "Under Kevin's leadership, HP became very involved in looking at ATPCO tools to make sure rates are loaded properly. WorldTravel BTI has been very informed on the product to make sure audits are used to everyone's advantage."

"This is an innovation in thought leadership," added Phil Gaskin, WorldTravel BTI senior vice president and global managing director for the Hewlett-Packard/Agilent account. "And the result is identification of areas where people normally do not look for savings."

HP continued to refine the process for online car rental auctions, an initiative Kevin began in 2000. "This will become a procurement standard for us," Iwamoto said.

Meanwhile, in his first year as NBTA president, Iwamoto changed leadership on several levels, notably within the organization's various committees. "I tasked these committees to come up with industry standards," he said.

Several committees presented white papers, glossaries, standardized requests for proposals and/or requests for information at the association's annual conference here last week.

Addressing one of his goals when he first took office, Iwamoto sought to close the gap between the allied and direct memberships. He has included the Allied Leadership Council "on virtually all topics" while NBTA crafted educational sessions specifically for allied members. "They have asked for these classes and we are providing them," he said. "The big focus is on being inclusionary."

Similarly, Iwamoto worked to foster cooperation among BTA chapters. The first annual Chapter Leadership Summit was held in May in St. Louis.

Iwamoto and the rest of the NBTA organization are searching for a new executive director following the expiration of Marianne McInerney's contract in May. Meanwhile, Iwamoto asked board members to oversee specific staff functions. He assumed the role of lead lobbyist for the organization, having testified on Capitol Hill on such issues as fair competition and distribution systems.

Advancing its political agenda, NBTA this month announced a political action committee, a separate entity that already began collecting voluntary contributions from buyer and supplier members. Iwamoto, who has supported NBTAPAC development, said, "This allows the membership to make donations to candidates who are travel-friendly, which we cannot do as an association."

The need for the PAC became more evident following Sept. 11. "I was so naïve to think it would be just a standard two-year run, given the changes in our industry. But it taught me how to manage under pressure and I am just a little older and wiser," he said. "I am indebted to the NBTA staff, board, committee chairs and volunteers. I could not do anything without their collective support and encouragement."