OP ED: Casting Travel Mgrs. In Strategic Roles
It's important every now and then to step back and look at where our industry has been in order to focus on where it's going. Fourteen years ago, you would have had to look hard to find a corporate travel manager anywhere other than in the Fortune 100 companies. Mid-office quality control systems didn't exist, and online booking engines were purely Alvin Toffler-type futuristic visions.
Today, these functions are quite common. Almost two years ago (an eternity in today's business cycles), CFO Magazine listed corporate travel management programs in its "best practices" list of management tools.
The big question is this: Now that our industry is a recognized, accepted management function, will it evolve into something larger than a T&E expense management tool? My answer is that it already is, and has been all along. Unfortunately, too many people have yet to recognize the integral part their travel management resources can play in their company's overall business strategies. It's not just about saving money or providing reports on airline, hotel and car rental expenses. That has been the shortsighted problem in most travel departments: The focus has been on cost containment and not resource development.
The objectives of most businesses are to increase market size and maintain existing markets in the most profitable manner. Included in these goals are activities such as research and product development, human resources capitalization and cash flow, and communications.
How does travel management fit into this? Think for a moment about what it takes to expand corporate markets. It's like a fishing expedition: You have to research your territory, assess the equipment and other resources needed to succeed, and travel to the destination. Then you must set a base of operations once you arrive and find the most effective bait (marketing or sales pitch) to catch your quarry (the account).
Corporate travel departments and suppliers already transport and house their corporate "fishermen." In many cases, they even project budgets for these trips and provide advance intelligence on the locations travelers visit. But what about a local guide or, even better, some directory to identify untapped markets before the trip is ever taken? Any good fisherman knows the advantage of local knowledge and charts. With worldwide resources available through the agency, hotel, credit card and airline supply systems, we should be able to develop a database on demographics, probable economic growth and business potential for an endless number of industries. Currently, companies hire high-priced consulting firms to research potential markets, and there are no guarantees for success once the analysis is presented. Alternatively, a business might attempt to collect data on probable markets and then send a team to explore the possibilities. Regardless of the method one employs, it's an expensive proposition.
In the overall equation of market expansion and client maintenance, what if you, as travel manager or supplier, could provide critical strategic information at less than half the cost your company now has to pay? Would that redefine your role within the company?
Some travel managers already think and behave as "corporate market development" expediters, and have thus carved a permanent niche for themselves in the bigger company picture. For instance, look at Hewlett-Packard and Texas Instruments; they are among the trendsetters. It's hard to distinguish the lines between travel management and corporate communications or H.R. in those companies. Fourteen years from now, I won't be surprised to read that an alliance of an airline, credit card company, market development firm (formerly known as a travel agency) and telecommunications company has partnered with a consortium of businesses to develop a giant database on world markets and industries.
<I>David R. Murphy is president of ITP/Corp-NET, a travel management consortium.