ADVANTAGE’S 2019 BUSINESS TRAVEL SYMPOSIUM

Gillian Upton

reports from the 4th Advantage Business Travel Symposium in November, where delegates debated the future of the industry

The Game Changers-themed symposium brought together a clutch of straight-talking buyers who shared strident views on how TMCS could do better.

Travel managers shared best practice in The Buyer Bootcamp part one: Changing Games. Sandra Dvorak of Refinitiv advised TMCS to spend the first six months after implementation assessing what type of organisation the new client is. “Find out what their values are, where the decision-making sits, what the strategy is and whether it’s been effective and understand the main suppliers,” she said.

Duncan Edwards of Inchcape stressed that understanding the culture of a company was critical to the success of a programme. “We see TMCS as out outsourced experts. They know what good looks like,” he said.

A larger group of buyers answered questions at each table in The Buyer Bootcamp part two: The Human Game. Favourite among them was ‘What makes a good account manager?’, and conversely, major failings. Inchcape’s Edwards summed up the latter: “To not actively listen and attempt to move ahead on their own agenda,” and voiced his opinion on the most transformative thing that an account manager can do. ”To understand the context in which the client is operating in, and the challenges faced, and in turn identify the right solution and importantly the steps required to be taken.” A plea from Nikki Rogan of Synamedia was for TMCS to be honest when they can’t deliver.

Buyers were in unison about rarely getting asked how a TMC can identify the key stakeholders and having to drive the agenda and spoon feed the TMC, a major turn-off for many. A lack of senior people in the account manager role is at the root of it, they believe.

Johnny Thorsen (pictured), VP of MEZI, added a more positive note, predicting that smaller TMCS can beat their larger counterparts on speed if they become travel programme architects, partner with relevant start-ups, become knowledge brokers, eliminate manual repetitive work processes and focus on high-value services.