Craig Banikowski
The National Business Travel Association this month named its next president and CEO, Hilton Hotels Corp. global travel management director Craig Banikowski, and vice president, Monsanto travel manager Jim McMullan. The two direct members will run unopposed at the August convention and serve two-year terms. Banikowski this week spoke with Management.travelabout his platform statement, due out to members by month's end.
What are the key issues for both direct (buyer) and allied (supplier) members of NBTA?
Obviously you look at our economy, both locally and globally. The industry is in some serious water relative to airlines continuing to lose money. But I also look at this as an opportunity relative to bringing our travel management expertise to the forefront. Here at Hilton we have a far greater focus on travel policy and who we do business with on the managed travel side. And from a supplier perspective, you look at the ability for suppliers to come in and negotiate better deals on behalf of their customers--but also trying to develop more of a relationship that can be managed in both bad and good times and trying to work out the highs and lows. You look at the demographics of companies: You're dealing with 20-, 30- and 40-year-olds. Their needs are different. Social networking is changing the face of communication. You've got issues like climate change, legislative issues, safety and security. There are so many things a managed travel program has to keep its hands on to ensure so many pieces are operating well. It all goes back to your education and knowledge, and understanding what the components of your program are.
Do you expect to push the envelope on industry use of social networking, maybe taking NBTA's direct member ListServ (emailing list) to the next level?
Definitely. Technology is one of the key points that I consider part of my platform. It continues to evolve and [you have to keep up] especially during lean times, relative to employment and people being displaced. Social networking and peer networking is critical to knowing when a job is open. Being able to send one blast and touch so many people even with just one sentence ... I just love it. I thoroughly enjoy Twitter. I know some people hate Twitter. I do think ListServ is an awesome tool, but we have to keep up with the times. Everything evolves.
Do you think the mainstream media attention on meetings and events coming out of the bailout activity--and the federal government commentary on that--will be good or bad for travel management in the long run?
The way I look at it, and this will be part of my platform statement, now is not the time to put your head down and try and stay low under the radar. Now is the time to definitely look at it as an opportunity to demonstrate what skill set you have relative to managing travel. It's critical now that we demonstrate our value. I've never seen such a bright spotlight on procurement and expense management, and I'm taking everything I know and parlaying it forward. In the old days you had purchasing and you had travel, and we saw the development of procurement and managed travel, and that kind of took the edges off the old purchasing model. You can't just look at bottom-line price being the only driver. So I think it's a roll forward for travel managers and directors, etc., to continue to hone their skills and demonstrate them. There will be value from all of this because so many practices will have been cleaned up. People are revising policies and crystallizing managed travel more so than ever before. It's not just in the United States. It's a global project that we're all participating in.
What made you want to run for president?
I'm very much a believer in the association. I have done a lot of work at the local level, having been at chapters in North Carolina, the Rocky Mountains, Southern Colorado, and now president of Los Angeles. I'm firmly committed to the symbiotic relationship that exists between NBTA and local partner chapters. I look at that as something that can be taken globally, and hopefully that can occur while I'm in office. We want to develop more of the foundation throughout the world to help support the national endeavors as we continue to grow.
Why do you think you don't have an opponent?
I would love to think that everyone who heard I was running said, "He's the best candidate," and "No one could do what he's doing." But I truly believe it's a very challenging year for direct members. We're being given more and more work. We're tasked with analyzing everything from black car service, hotels, airline, rail ... every component is being looked at and revised. You barely get the ink dry on a policy, and it's time to revise it. So that is a definite factor in limiting the number of people who were running for office. One of the good things is, being a direct member working for Hilton (an allied partner organization) gives me kind of a unique perspective. I look at Hilton allowing me the time to run for this office as something to help support the industry that Hilton itself is part of. If I was working for any number of other companies, it might be somewhat different. But Hilton is giving me the bandwidth. It does take time. There's a time and energy commitment, and the company has to support you in that.