Transforming travel

Chief Executive, The, June, 2007

Wouldn't it be nice to get a heads up on your BlackBerry when your flight to Vienna is delayed? Or how about what opera is playing--and the chance to buy a pair of tickets? Or maybe you'd like a package deal to tack a leisurely weekend onto the tail end of your business trip? Those are the sorts of perks with which companies like Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) hope to woo a long-neglected market--the beleaguered business traveler.

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That's the thinking behind CWT Freedom, the business travel tool that automatically delivers itinerary information to mobile devices such as BlackBerrys, smart phones. Palms and Pocket PCs. "We seem to have forgotten about the traveler," says Hubert Joly, 47, who left Vivendi Universal in July of 2004 to take the helm of the travel management company. "It's been all about efficiency, helping our clients trim their travel costs. That's important, but as an industry we also need to make it a more pleasant and productive experience for travelers."

But Joly, whose broad background includes time spent in the tech sector at EDS France as well as 12 years in consulting at McKinsey & Co., is the first to admit that pleasing travelers with extra services isn't as lucrative as delivering savings through negotiating prowess and amalgamated purchasing power--areas CWT has been working to corner. The company now has a presence in 150 countries around the world and does a whopping $20.5 billion in business volume, $1.7 billion of which it pockets as commission fees. Joly attributes those impressive figures largely to eight acquisitions over the past three years: two in the U.S, two in France, and one each in Germany, Austria, Brazil and Mexico. The most recent acquisition--Englewood, Colo.-based Navigant International for $510 million--alone doubled the company's already sizable U.S. business.

While more acquisitions are in CWT's future as the company continues the rollup strategy that's been working so well for it, Joly is currently fired up over public policy issues that could impact travel broadly. "We should create a public policy agenda around how to facilitate business travel," he asserts. "You cannot grow in China unless you go to China. Business travel is an essential ingredient of economic expansion, and yet you never hear about it on the political agenda."'

What exactly should you be hearing about? Accessibility of airports, air traffic congestion and restrictions on foreign ownership of airlines are among the issues that Joly would like to see on international political dockets. "In Europe, air traffic is a mess, and that means longer wait times, loss of fuel in the air, more cabin emissions," he says.