New research from Harvard Business Review Analytic Services in association with Egencia® claims a well-managed travel programme can deliver a tangible competitive advantage.
The report, “Travel Culture: Your Competitive Advantage in a Global Market”, shows 58 per cent of business leaders say having a strong travel culture – one where the company, its leaders and its processes support the use of corporate travel as a form of strategic investment with business value – produces better business results.
Over the last year, companies with a strong travel culture had double the rate of improvement in key areas such as customer loyalty and retention (50 per cent vs 21 per cent), market share (43 per cent vs 22 per cent) and employee satisfaction (35 per cent vs 15 per cent), compared to companies with a weak travel culture. Profitability also improved (47 per cent vs 29 per cent).
Some of the findings include:
• More than half of business leaders interviewed agreed that having a strong travel culture is very important to their organisations’ business performance today.
• Companies with a strong travel culture have seen significant improvements in customer loyalty and retention, profitability, market share and employee satisfaction.
• Only a third of respondents say their organisation actually has a strong travel culture with the majority admitting it’s most often viewed as a cost to be minimised.
• Three-quarters of those who have a strong travel culture work with a single travel management company.
“Corporate travel is increasingly fundamental to business performance, particularly as companies expand their global footprint,” said Wendy White, vice president of marketing at Egencia. “A strong travel culture delivers more than a competitive edge, it helps teams across the world work better together and supports a unified company culture.”
However, less than a third (31 per cent) of the 587 business leaders surveyed believe that their organisation actually has a strong travel culture. In fact, most admit that managed corporate travel is not seen as a strategic investment in its future but rather a cost to be minimised.
A total of 587 respondents drawn from Harvard Business Review audience of readers completed the survey in March 2019.
The full report “Travel Culture: Your Competitive Advantage in a Global Market” is available here.
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