THE BUYER Q A
meet Mike Butcher Regional Travel Manager, Alcatel-Lucent
Mike Butcher is Regional Travel Manager for
Western Europe & Africa at French telecoms
company Alcatel-Lucent. Mike answers our questions about his role in managing the company's travel spend
Q What is the extent of your
remit at Alcatel-Lucent and how long have you worked there? I’ve worked at Alcatel-Lucent for more than 20 years and am currently responsible for all travel strategy and operations within Western Europe and Africa. I’m also responsible for the car fleet in the UK and Ireland.
Q Are there any peculiarities pertaining to your industry that colour your decisions/policy? We have a mature mandated global travel policy which makes extensive use of self-booking technology to drive compliance. A single TMC has been
compliant as a result of internal communications and education sessions! We’ve taken a number of actions to restrict the mavericks over the past few years. For example, hotels are capped according to the market in each location and this has been built into our expense management tool raising an instant flag for anyone who has booked above the cap. Of course, the likelihood is that they’ve booked direct with the hotel or by some other means. In any event, the risk for the traveller is that they may not be reimbursed for above cap hotel costs.
“Booking tool providers need to up their game as our travellers fully expect business travel technology to be as good as the leisure market”
implemented worldwide, which has significant benefits when it comes to reporting and for instigating changes. Our global organisation requires a global approach and our airline alliance, short-term car rental and hotel agreements reflect this.
PROFILE
With more than 30 years’ procurement experience for a number of national and international organisations, Mike Butcher has been responsible for indirect purchasing for Alcatel-Lucent – a leader in fi xed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies, applications and services – since 1993. Over the past 16 years, he has successfully navigated the UK&I organisation from a fully decentralised and uncoordinated travel model to achieve a single UK&I travel policy.
Q Are you a one-man band or do you have a team to help? I am a member of the global travel team but operate alone within my region. However, in order to support the operational activity, I have formed a 'virtual' team by co-opting 'willing' local contacts in each country to help communicate with local travellers.
Q How many travellers do you look after? Are they compliant? We’re no different from any other company in that the mavericks exist, although most travellers are
Q How does company culture influence the travel policy? Being a technology company, our travellers are extremely competent in the use of advanced technology and we seek to use this wherever possible. I have to say that, generally, business travel tool providers really do need to up their game as our business travellers fully expect business travel technology to be as good as the leisure market.
Q What recent changes have
you made or are thinking of making to your travel manage- ment programme? The main issue that comes to mind is to find a smart way to deploy our self-booking tool in smaller countries which, up to now, haven’t been able to justify a rollout due to lack of return on investment.
Q What do you see as the biggest issues on the horizon? Cost will always be a significant factor but we are also acutely aware of the need to safeguard our travellers while overseas, particularly in high risk countries. We are looking at smart ways that we can track our travellers as well as introducing restrictions and local escorts in some locations.
Q How has your role changed in
your years in this business? Technology has been an incredible catalyst in the development of business travel but the tools are only as good as the people that use them and are definitely not the answer to everything. The basics are still valid in terms of getting the best deal for the traveller and the company with minimum risk to both.
Q What qualities do you think make a good travel manager? A thick skin, tolerant approach and a huge helping of common sense are invaluable, as is a good understanding of what a business traveller needs. And never forgetting that at least 70 per cent of travellers think they can do the job better!
Q What makes you passionate about this industry? It’s a great industry to work in and I’ve met some great people over the years who have helped to make it enjoyable.
Q Transparency is talked about as the Holy Grail to a successful travel programme. How do you ensure it's a reality? Transparency is a great goal but requires both sides to practice what they preach. I suppose that no-one shows their full hand all the time but I try to be as open as I can with suppliers – you have to be if you want to develop long- term relationships based on trust.
THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE 21
AND
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76