The Conversation
Communication of another kind, via an online community, will begin in an effort for members to not lose momentum on issues between meetings. GTMC session meetings should soon be livelier as partner airlines and hotels of the association will for the first time be able to sit in on quarterly members sessions, while members will be given access to greater intelligence from the industry. “They need to know what’s going to bite them in their butt,” explains Sodha. The association’s quarterly transaction surveys will be augmented by more useful analysis provided by a third party data mining supplier, while the hefty lobbying that the GTMC already undertakes will be broadened out to non-industry bodies, such as the CBI and IOD, and to EU-wide institutions, to be able to “talk with once voice. I want joined-up thinking and talking,” he asserts. The GTMC supports the ‘Boris Island’ airport project and will also lobby for a short-term solution for the intervening 20-year period to maintain the UK's competitiveness as a global player against the likes of Germany and France. As for Sodha’s misgivings about Boris Island, these are his personal views, and not those of the GTMC: “A Dutch airspace agreement is required for Boris Island to work and I don’t know whether they will release their airspace to us,” he says. Additionally, the RSPB has warned of the 12-fold increase in engine bird hits if a major airport opens its doors for business in this Kent location. Couple all that with the setting up of a task
Always one to put his head above the parapet, including a board directorship of the ITM and another with GEBTA, Sodha explains, “it’s my nature. I’m passionate about the industry and I want to give something back.” Indeed, the company he shaped over the last
" Collaboration is my big thing, with members and other stakeholders. I want to spark debate and controversy with high-level people"
30 years has enabled him to do just that. Started with his savings of £1,750 in 1980, he carved a niche for travel in the not-for-profit sector, bringing professionalism and pioneering charity and academic contracts to the churches, NGOs, schools, missionaries and charity clients he gathered along the way. All of them aim to enrich the lives and wellbeing of others, mostly in developing countries, and this sits well with Sodha’s philanthropic tendencies. A few of those original clients, like the Methodist Church on Baker Street, are still with Key today, which is now the UK's largest TMC in this niche sector. The company’s highly laudable trading policy ecshews any corporate involved in the manufacture or sale of arms, or those that promote or encourage racial or ethnic discrimination or the abuse of men, women, children or animals. “It’s part of who I am,” he explains. Sodha’s early life in a developing country, Uganda, was brought to an abrupt end in the early Seventies when the country’s brutal dictator President Idi Amin expelled all Asians. It was enough to colour his views on the world and humankind.
“Poverty is something you see first hand; it’s
force to find a solution to weekly BSP remittances and Sodha evidently has his hands full for his two-year tenure. For the first time he won’t be aided by a Vice
Chair, initially – as he was to Mike Hare. It was decided that the time commitment is too great, something CWT's Andrew Waller discovered; he subsequently stepped down. Instead a Vice Chair will support Sodha from year two of the tenure. “The GTMC is in good condition. It’s no longer a boys club. It’s healthy, has a good level of partnerships and 33 members out of the top 50 travel management companies, so it's a good spread. It’s a wonderful organi- sation I’m going to be heading,” he says. How Sodha will find the time to steer the GTMC when he also chairs his own £75million turnover company, the 180-strong Key Travel, is a moot point. Delegation is clearly another of his strong traits. “I have a really great team and I just grill them once a month on figures,” he explains.
all around you,” he says. “One of my class mates left home at 5am every morning to get to school,” he recalls. Today, he sponsors a clutch of students through school or university to ensure there are no barriers to their education. Helping aid workers, field workers and disaster relief staff go about their work seemed a perfectly natural path to follow when it came to earning a buck or two. While duty of care is key – flying bodies back and dealing with kidnapping are the real challenge of this sector – Key Travels’ mainstay is ensuring its various clients don’t pay over the odds for their travel. It seems that Sodha’s assuredness and cool- headedness will gently steer the GTMC on to even greater achievements for its membership and the industry as a whole. One thing, however, does rattle this normally composed man: his golf handicap. In six months of last year he managed to reduce it from 17 to 12. His 2012 goal is to get it down to ten. But will Pinner Hill Golf Club or Euston Fitzrovia – the GTMC's offices – win out on that one? Time will tell.
AJAYA SODHA AJAYA SODHA, CHAIRMAN, KEY TRAVEL, AND CHAIRMAN, GUILD OF TRAVEL MANAGE- MENT COMPANIES (GTMC)
Ajaya co-founded Key Travel in 1980, and proceeded to carve a niche in the UK travel market, serving the unique requirements of the faith, charity and academic sectors. Through a close collaboration with the world’s leading airlines, Key Travel offers dedicated fares and conditions specifically designed for the non-profit community. With five offices worldwide, Key Travel has grown to serve over 2,000 of the world’s non-profit organisations. Ajaya plays an active and influential role within the broader business travel community. He is the Chairman of the GTMC, stepping up from Vice Chair, and also chaired the Air Working Party. He is also on the Board of the Guild of European Business Travel Agents (GEBTA), a member of the Air Passenger Joint Council (APJC) of the UK, and served as a Board Director of ITM during 2010.
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