Talking business
finally, in March 2008 I joined Accenture as its workplace solutions lead for Russia. The role also entails a certain amount of involvement with the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States] countries.
Who are your role models, and who has influenced
your career? From an early age my father was a strong role model. He was a nuclear energy scientist, was internationally recognised and was for several years listed in the US Who’s Who. He gave me a clear example of how to succeed at work.
people I nurture grow within the organisation. At Accenture, we put a lot of effort into continuous training for our staff and we give them opportunities. It is usual for switchboard operators and receptionists to be given opportunities as executive assistants. For example, one of my current travel and event specialists joined the organisation as a receptionist. Many of the people in my team have been promoted to professional positions and into the legal department. When we hire people we consider carefully how they could develop within the organisation, and then when they join we do everything we can to help them
Olga Khorasanova
Alex Blyth talks to Olga Khorasanova, Accenture’s workplace solutions lead for Russia
ACCORDING TO A JANUARY 2013 report by PWC, Russia will be Europe’s largest economy by 2030, surpassing Germany and pushing the UK out of the world’s top ten. As a result, we can all expect to be organising more travel to and from this large and often complex country.
Olga Khorasanova has spent most of the past two decades working for global organisations and managing their corporate travel into, from and within Russia.
How did you first get into travel management? Well, I was a genetic engineer by education so it wasn’t the most traditional route. When
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the Soviet Union collapsed, I decided it was time for a new career direction, so in 1994 I went to work for American engineering firm Burns and Roe as its office manager. I then moved through various administrative and operational positions with law firm Russin and Vecchi, business advisers Deloitte, and then investment company Wermuth Asset Management. In those roles I gradually became more and more involved in travel management and,
Young Russians are extremely enthusiastic about travelling for business – they see it as a major perk of their jobs
Once in work I was fortunate to
encounter many people who have left a positive mark on my career and understanding of life. I would highlight the particular effect of Rodolfo Landini and Luigi Cerri at Accenture.
What does your current role involve and what do
you most enjoy about it? It’s a very diverse role, covering everything from managing office renovations
to devising travel policies and principles. I have a team of 15, and my role includes managing the travel budget, of which the flight element is US$1.5--2 million. I suppose there are two aspects I most enjoy. The first is the simplification of processes. I’ve been trained in Lean Six Sigma [a waste elimination management technique] and I really enjoy putting those principles into practice, taking a process – say, booking a taxi – and making it as straightforward to understand and do as possible. As an example, in the business
travel operation, we have reduced the amount of resources we allocate to ordering tickets and hotels by enabling our TMC [travel management company] to manage it all directly. We gradually educated our TMC in our corporate travel policies and guidelines, and from that point on, it was a fairly simple handover. The other aspect I enjoy is people development. I like seeing the
develop. It is very rewarding to be involved in making that happen.
How has travel management changed
during your career? By far the greatest change has been the outsourcing of travel management.
Accenture in Russia and CIS doesn’t really have a travel manager – it’s all done by our TMC. I believe this is a positive development: it simplifies and enhances our operations and it saves us money. It can be challenging for an organisation to accept such a dramatic change to how it has always worked, but if it wants to remain profitable it needs to be dynamic and always look for new opportunities like this.
In what ways do you use technology? Accenture is a highly technological company. One of our slogans is:
‘Work happens everywhere’, and if you walk through one of our offices, you’ll see that we enthusiastically embrace the latest technology in everything that we do. Perhaps this is most visible in
our touchscreen devices, known as Room Wizard, which are in most of the conference facilities here. We use these for online collaboration and virtual meetings. It is just one example of how my department is making ever greater use of technology.
MARCH/APRIL 2013
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