NEWS@CWT

APPOINTMENTS

David Greenland, Executive Director for Client Management in Australia

This appointment demonstrates CWT’s continued focus on service delivery and client satisfaction. In this role, David also has overall responsibility for CWT Australia.
David has been with the company for seven years, with the past five as vice president global accounts for Asia Pacific. A proven business leader in client management, David’s depth of understanding and passion for the business will go a long way to further drive a high-performance organisation focused on delivering great service and value to clients.
Australia is a key market for CWT and in ’07 sales grew 42%. The company has 750 employees and offices across the country.

Douglas Anderson, President & CEO

Carlson Wagonlit Travel’s (CWT) board of directors named Douglas (Doug) Anderson president and CEO in April of this year. Doug, who joined the company as executive vice president and chief financial officer in April 2007, succeeded Hubert Joly, who became president and CEO of Carlson, the maj ority shareholder of CWT, on 1st March.
Doug is a US citizen with extensive international experience. He has worked in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe for 18 of the past 20 years. He spent 25 years at UPS, based in the US, Hong Kong, London and Brussels, and in his most recent position was senior vice president – finance and chief financial officer for UPS Logistics Group. Doug also worked in Geneva for the SITA Group as senior vice president and chief financial officer.
Doug is based in Paris and reports to the CWT board of directors. The board is composed of members from Carlson (55% shareholders) and One Equity Partners (OEP) which owns the balance. Hubert Joly is now chairman of the CWT board.

INVESTMENTS

CWT Now Owns 100% of Indian Operations

CWT has acquired the remaining shares in its Indian joint venture from Afl Private Ltd. This underlines CWT’s deep commitment to India’s growing corporate travel market, where it is already the market leader with 12 offices across 10 cities and more than 1,000 employees. The transaction also highlights the strategic importance of the company’s operations in India, which serve a growing global client base as well as a vast and ever-increasing portfolio of Indian blue-chip companies.

To build on current and past success, Praveen Gandhi continues to serve as CEO. Under his leadership, CWT India has grown sevenfold since 2000.

20% TRAVEL-SPEND SAVINGS POSSIBLE

Potential savings lie in advance air booking, restricted airfares, preferred suppliers, traveller comfort (authorised air-travel class and hotel category) and preferred booking channels, says CWT research

A well-defined travel policy with clear mandates can save companies as much as 8% of their total travel spend. Best practices in traveller compliance, which begin with a precise understanding of traveller behaviour, can result in additional 12% savings. CWT calculated this by comparing average market performance with best-in-class performance in ?ve main areas:

1 Advance air booking (reservations made at least two weeks before departure), represents the greatest savings opportunity, as discounts can exceed 50% of the price.

2 Restricted airfares can bring average savings of 24% on total air spend, even when the cost of changing or cancelling negotiated flexible fares is taken into account.

3 Preferred suppliers, when used consistently, deliver lower overall costs than a mix of suppliers utilised on a “best price” basis. Companies pay on average 23% less for flights with preferred suppliers and 5%–14% less per room night, depending on the hotel category.

4 Traveller comfort (authorised air class/hotel category) is well covered in most travel policies and compliance is usually high. Additional savings can be realised by aligning a company’s travel policy with standards in its particular business sector. This could mean raising the minimum flight duration for business class flights or selecting preferred hotels in a lower category.

5 Preferred booking channels (online and of?ine booking through the travel management company) bring tangible benefits, including lower prices , increased use of preferred suppliers and more productive use of travellers’ time. CWT found that though the vast majority of travel policies mandate bookings through the travel management company, only 40% of those who have a corporate online booking tool even refer to it in their travel policy. Of those that do, only 26% mandate their use for point-to-point air travel and 2% for hotels.


Eight keys to success

CWT has observed eight best practices for designing a travel policy and boosting traveller compliance

1 Engage management throughout the organisation to endorse and communicate the travel policy, promote compliance through pre-trip approvals or post-trip audits, and provide feedback on areas for policy improvement.

2 Provide travellers with clear, comprehensive guidelines in a user-friendly format that sets mandates in each of the five main areas for savings – rather than simply making recommendations – and provides specific guidelines for exceptional circumstances (eg. a preferred hotel is unavailable).

3 Standardise the policy to reduce costs and share best practices.

4 Promote compliance through communications and training that generate awareness for the policy, dispel travellers’ misperceptions, increase their understanding of booking processes and tools, and convey progress.

5 Drive compliance through point-of-sale measures that integrate the policy into the online and offline booking process and direct travellers toward compliant options.

6 Track progress and take corrective action via key performance indicators and separate performance reports for each business unit or division, individually targeted measures to boost compliance, as well as non-compliance reports.

7 Benchmark industry performance in terms of policy design and traveller behaviour to ensure the company’s program remains competitive.

8 Leverage travel management company expertise, technology and data to facilitate policy design and implementation, reinforce compliance, and improve performance.

PHOTO: BERTHOLD TRENKEL