GUEST COLUMN


DON’T GET LEFT OUT IN THE COLD


Why September travel freezes frustrate travellers and non-travellers alike


I


T’S TWO-THIRDS OF THE WAY through the year, and your finance team declares a freeze on all business travel. Despite the fact you have a significant pitch coming up, you have to go through detailed justification and layers of management to circumvent this, culminating in CFOs having to spend precious time signing this off. Sound familiar? Many businesses today have run down their travel funds by September, hitting the panic button to impose a blanket travel ban. At the same time, they boost the travel budget for the following year, with no analysis or logic. And so the cycle continues. To make money, you need to spend


money, whether it be visiting prospects or exhibiting at events. But in a business environment where competition is high and customer loyalty easily swayed, half the battle is knowing which area to invest in, and being able to predict travel and expense (T&E) levels – and poor management of this leads to travel bans. The problem isn’t isolated to one partic- ular sector or geography, either. Freezes are now common across the board, with many organisations experiencing “September Travel Freeze Syndrome”. In September last year, Deutsche Bank put a stop to junior and mid-level employees travelling, and later the Bank of England cut staff expenses after a £390,000 travel bill row. And it’s not just sales teams that are affected, as travel managers’ workloads can double as a result of analysing hundreds of individual travel requests that will still come in. CFOs and finance directors also carry this extra load – the same people likely to have imposed the ban in the first place.


The solution is better visibility, actionable T&E insight and forward planning. While data analytics is being deployed within most businesses to enhance productivity and competitiveness, the one area that lags behind is T&E.


As T&E is the second largest expenditure


MATT BRAY vice-president, SalesTrip


MANY BUSINESSES


HAVE RUN DOWN THEIR TRAVEL FUNDS BY


SEPTEMBER, HITTING


THE PANIC BUTTON TO IMPOSE A BLANKET TRAVEL BAN


buyingbusinesstravel.com


after payroll, there has to be a better way than imposing blanket travel bans. So let’s drop the rigid rules in travel policies that only focus on costs and savings, rather than productivity and return. The next generation of business traveller has dif- ferent expectations around flexibility and self-empowerment; they will not be dictated to by policies that don’t encourage their best performance. Policies need to flex to manage and engage with employees. Of course, finance people prefer concrete figures, to predict future spend. The future of T&E management lies in being able to derive ROI from spend on a case-by-case basis. This visibility around who and what to spend money on will then enable business leaders and sales teams to determine which customers are worth investing in. Also integrate T&E into your customer re- lationship management system for a holistic view of all spend associated with acquiring and retaining business; no doubt your sales and finance teams will warm to you if you cut out pointless administration and their need to justify what they’re doing and why. n SalesTrip was a finalist in this year’s Business Travel Show Disrupt Awards.


2019 MARCH/APRIL 129


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  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136