Face to Face: Martin Warner, Chief Operating Officer – Asia-Pacific, Carlson Wagonlit Travel
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1) The corporate travel market has been hit hard by the global economic slowdown. What trends have you noticed in the way companies plan and undertake their travelling needs?
Business travel expenditure is one of the largest controllable expenses for a company, and in the current environment, we know many companies are seeking to reduce their overall expenditure.
However, as business travel is often an essential component of running a successful business, companies cannot just stop travelling. So we help companies get better value from their travel budgets and help them reduce expenditure. From a macro view, it may involve putting in place a stringent travel policy and consolidating and negotiating a better agreement with their key travel suppliers, and in the nuts and bolts it may involve changing the class of travel they fly in, i.e. moving from business class to economy, or staying at a different class of hotels. With changes like these, we’ve helped companies achieve significant savings, while not having to reduce the number of trips they actually take.
Other trends we have noted are that business travellers are taking more short-haul trips rather than intercontinental trips, and internal meetings and conferences have been trimmed more than customer facing activity.
However, these changes are not sustainable in the longer term and we believe companies will return to travelling for internal meetings.
2) Has CWT developed any new products or services to help companies travel more efficiently during these difficult times?
Yes, CWT has introduced a number of tools to help companies optimise their travel programs so that they get maximum value. One of these is the CWT Program Management Centre, a Web-based central gateway which provides the detailed data that travel managers and buyers need to optimize their company’s travel program.
CWT has also introduced and is currently rolling out CWT Policy Messenger which helps clients manage compliance to travel policy by automatically emailing travelers and/or their supervisors when an out-of-policy booking is made, eliminating the need for time-consuming, manually generated notices.
Both products, which were developed by CWT, are award winning for the innovative ways in which they help companies manage their travel program. Demand for both CWT Program Management centre and CWT Policy Messenger has been extremely high.
3) CWT achieved strong growth in 2008 (sales up 7%). How were you able to achieve this in such a difficult year, and what are your projections for the current year?
In 2008, we continued to build on a high client retention rate. Client satisfaction is testimony to delivering on our promise of value, and referenceable accounts help service our organic sales process.
We also had a strong run in new sales growth in the last 3 years, while retaining more than 98% of our existing business in Asia Pacific.
4) CWT expanded with the acquisition of several local/national travel groups in 2008? Is this a strategy that you will pursue in 2009, and will this be affected by the economic situation?
CWT is always looking for opportunities to grow organically and will explore options that may or may not lead to acquisition.
5) What product/service innovation developments are we likely to see from Carlson Wagonlit in 2009?
Whilst demand for travel itself is lower, the demand for our Program Optimisation Services has never been greater as more companies seek better value from their travel budgets. Hence our current innovation development is focused around Programme Optimization and further expansion of our Solutions Group to consult on the 8 levers of effective travel management. We are also investing in automation and Quality Assurance in Traveller and Transaction Services to drive a better quality at point of sale, and achieve even higher levels of client satisfaction
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