In a week when the UK's Members of Parliament were having a few problems deciding how they should take back control of the country's borders, it was ironic to see news emerging from travel management company Carlson Wagonlit about its own view of borders.
The company announced that it was shedding the role of country manager in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Benelux, France and Spain.
The reason?
"Business is increasingly done across borders — especially within Europe — and as our customers evolve, we're evolving with them," said the company's EMEA managing director Chris Bowen.
"Our clients say it's really hard to find suppliers who act truly globally. That's what they want. So it's a case of supply adapting to demand. This has been increasingly noticeable with clients operating across the main European markets, who generally work under the same legislation and broadly the same currency too," says Bowen.
"The fact is that most enquiries are multi-country, and travel managers want to work with travel providers who can meet their needs quickly and flexibly in more than one market. Our faster growing segment is multi-national, and that trend is only going in one direction," he says.
The restructure means the following country directors are leaving: Peter Ashworth (Senior VP, Central & Eastern Europe), Antonio Calegari (VP & Country Director, Italy and Greece), Olivier Chateau (MD Benelux & Eastern Europe), Johan Wilson (VP and Country Director, UK & Ireland) and Brigitte Nisio (VP and Country Director, France).
The management structure is not getting flatter however.
In their place will be a network of regional vice presidents of program management and sales.
Stéphane Birochau has been appointed VP North & South Europe Program Management; Denise Harman has been appointed VP Western Europe Program Management; Westyna Kulczycka has been appointed VP Poland and Deputy Head of Eastern Europe; Jan Latenstein van Voorst has been appointed VP EMEA Multinational Program Management & Sales; and Jari Oinonen has been appointed VP North & South Europe Sales; and Phil Wooster has been appointed VP Western Europe Sales.
"The new model, which has been successfully trialed in the Nordics, will optimize speed to market and service to clients," the company said.
CWT's move is a clear response to globalisation. Yet in the era of Brexit and Trump's Make America Great, is globalisation still relevant?
Data released at the end of 2018 by the KOF Swiss Economic Institute, which has tracked globalisation for many years, says globalisation is continuing but has stagnated.
Our chart this week shows the Institute's world globalisation index.
The green line measures so-called "de facto trade globalisation" based on trade in goods and services. The blue line represents "de jure trade globalisation" and also includes customs duties, taxes and trade restrictions.
Analysing the results, the Institute says, "The level of worldwide globalisation increased rapidly between 1990 and 2007. However, the financial crisis and the subsequent Great Recession have slowed down its development. Since 2015, globalisation has continued to flatten out. Even in 2016, the most recent year of the index, the level of globalisation rose only slightly. Economic globalisation stagnated. Although financial globalisation continued to progress, trade integration declined somewhat at the same time. Social globalisation increased only slightly. Global information flows continued to increase, but at the same time the degree of cultural globalisation declined slightly. Of all the dimensions, political globalisation increased the most."
So while globalisation continues, it has stagnated. Rather than representing the new world order, CWT's new business model may actually reflect the changing nature of their clients rather than the world at large.