www.buyingbusinesstravel.com
Interview
on a company that’s already built up a system? Accounts payable, expense reporting tools – they’ve already got infrastructure in place for that particular method. There is cost of change, there is the change- management aspect all the way
equal platform between buyers and suppliers – we think that’s the best way to have open dialogue. “Travel buyers want to talk to their peers – the world is changing, and they want to know: has somebody faced this issue and how did they
We ask ourselves: ‘What is our core offering, what do we do really well?’ and then we focus on those core strengths
through the process... We want to make sure suppliers and buyers are aware of the downstream impact of proposed changes.”
EQUAL PLATFORM ACTE is one of several professional associations open to travel buyers: what differentiates it? “We’re celebrating our 25th anniversary this year. We were the first global travel association, first with a global board and global education programmes – it’s that vantage point that differentiates us,” says Koch. “And we were created to have an
solve it? We’re going to do more matching people up to peers who have successfully tackled issues and challenges – we’re rolling something out at the New York conference that will address this. Watch this space.” He adds: “Sometimes we’ve done creative and innovative things that people questioned at the time. I was proud to see British Airways win the CSR [corporate social responsibility] award at the Business Travel Awards this year: back in 2006 we created and hosted the first ever carbon neutral travel conference in Barcelona in conjunction with British Airways. It
was pretty amazing for a travel entity to be focused on carbon neutral. People said: ‘Why are you doing this? You’re drawing attention to the issue.’ We said that, as an industry, we need to show people we’re addressing it from a positive standpoint.”
CHANGING TIMES Koch believes the role of the travel buyer is evolving. He gives an example of when, as a consultant, one of his clients said her company was shutting a virtual conference suite because it didn’t get used. “I asked her: ‘Are they opening new ones?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Where?’ ‘I don’t know.’ I told her they should be reaching out to her about the most frequent routes, who’s flying them and where to invest in virtual conference rooms.” He explains: “As a travel manager
I would take advantage of this and say: ‘I’m in a unique vantage point where I can see across the whole company – I will pull this virtual conference programme together.’ This is a powerful message from the travel buyer to his company: ‘I’m not here to encourage travel – I’m here to encourage and maximise productivity.’ I think buyers who embrace that will have a tremendous future.” ■
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