BCD Refines Asia/Pac Strategy

BCD Travel in July approved a regional strategic plan authored by Mike Buckman, its Asia/Pacific president, that calls for the building of a stronger regional network, becoming the third prong in CEO Joop Drechsel's global growth strategy, along with the further penetration of online booking and the further globalization of BCD's meetings and incentives subsidiary.

In a region where BCD has been "relatively weak," Drechsel said the strategy not only would position the company as a global player, but also enable it to handle local travel management services for Asia-based multinationals.

"To send [former CEO] Mike Buckman out there was a sign to the market and to ourselves how seriously we took it," said Drechsel.

As the region's astronomical travel and business growth has been somewhat slowed by the sluggish U.S. economy, Drechsel noted, the company's plan is less for the present than the future, when Asian multinationals will require a travel management company with global presence but local expertise, whether in high-touch Japan or the more online-friendly Australia.

Recognizing China as a regional linchpin, Buckman's plan emphasizes the need for a strong position there that can be leveraged through BCD's minority-owned Hong Kong-based partner Jebsen Travel. Breaking from BCD's majority-ownership investment philosophy, there are no immediate plans for BCD to increase its 20 percent stake in Jebsen.

"One of the first things that came out of that plan was that there was no need to immediately change anything to that relationship," according to BCD's Drechsel. "It was actually already working for us."

"The overall solution doesn't necessarily mean that you need to be in all countries in Asia and have an ownership position everywhere," Drechsel said. "The 80/20 rule was also valid. You need to have a strong position in a number of key countries. Doing that, and finding other partnership solutions the way we do it anywhere, would be sufficient."

BCD immediately will deploy Western resources and personnel to the region to train staff, build technology synergies and develop common processes that feed into BCD's global infrastructure.

For Drechsel, training is a cornerstone of the company's Eastern promise.

"We started with not necessarily incorporating that into our previous investment proposals," he said. "Now I track it, and probably it's a one-to-one cost. If you invest $10 million in hardware, it's another $10 million in software in terms of service, people and training. You can get the best Chinese travel agent, but if he or she doesn't know how we do things, they're useless."

Meanwhile, Asia/Pacific is not the only high-growth area for BCD. Drechsel aims to lead the company into a leadership position in online booking technology. He said 16 percent of the company's European transactions are online and U.S. online adoption is at 40 percent. While it will take years for Europe to catch up to the U.S. figure, Drechsel cited the potential to leverage parent company BCD Holdings' online leisure travel technology, such as Vleigwinkel in the Netherlands and Vayama in the United States, adding that affiliates and local offices are asking for similar adaptations for the corporate travel space.

Traditionally a U.S.-centric business with "different margins," and "where your execution had to be absolutely spot-on," Drechsel said BCD Meetings & Incentives also will be pushed deeper into the company's global model as meetings management takes a stronger foothold in corporate hierarchies.