Globalising your travel programme and integrating markets such as India can be fraught with challenges. Having a well thought-out strategy, active engagement of in-country stakeholders and a clear 'go to market' roadmap can be your recipe for success.
The Challenge
When commencing your integration initiatives in India, some of the top contending concerns include
- Need for a high touch/low tech service delivery model
- Desire to maintain 'status quo' in view of India's unique specific needs
- Limited management information, data and analytics on the health of the programme
- Absence of a structured employee CSAT and vendor performance scorecard
To navigate through this seemingly unsurmountable landscape and secure success, one would need to start by understanding the business travel market dynamics.
1. Understanding the market reality
The Indian business travel market is the third fastest growing business travel market worldwide. As per the recent GBTA study, the market stands at US$25 billion and is likely to growing north of 12% for the next three years.
Despite the exponential growth in business travel, most corporations in India still regard business travel as a fulfilment activity rather than one which requires strategic focus and planning.
Further, in India, there is almost no supplier-agnostic, neutral industry body that shares knowledge and best practices on business travel. There are a few recognised forums that allow this knowledge-sharing between peer buyers with each company pretty much working standalone and navigating its own challenges.
Success in business travel operations is still largely deemed to be securing the lowest possible transaction fees. It's not uncommon for the travel agency/TMC to offer a minimal transaction fee coupled with free account management, free onsite staff (or implants) and extended credit period as the general operating model. Many international travel partners also have a very different technology, operating and service delivery model in country given the market.
Generally there is very limited engagement from the senior leadership in the business travel programme. Many CEOs in Indian companies recognise that travel is a big cost but they are largely limited in their ability to drive change due to the largely opaque systems of operations and lack of quality data and analytics. Partnership models between buyers and travel partners are generally antagonistic and largely driven by lack of trust and transparency.
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2. Understanding India's specific needs
When you go into a market like India you are often confronted by a very strong resistance to change including internally from your in-country stakeholders. It's important to take an objective neutral view of such situations and understand the underlying drivers that fuel such comment.
Yes - there are many operating situations in India that may appear alien to more evolved European and American markets. These have to be understood and taken in account when planning a transition.
The most important element of planning is obtaining visas - Indians require visas to almost all countries. Further consular requirements to secure such visa can be complex and requirements can vary even by the respective consular location where the visa is applied.
Further, most companies in India do not provide their employees with corporate credit cards, which is still largely restricted to very few organisations. Most companies still pay their travel agency/TMC using a cheque or on account model with limited lodge cards/purchase card implementation. This results in a separate eco-system of travel advances for domestic and international travel and on-account payments to suppliers.
While these realities exist, it would be correct also to point out that Indians don't live on another planet! The operating needs of Indian businesses are similar to other global counterparts. The penetration of mobile phones and internet in India is growing rapidly. Indians are very accustomed to buying travel online for leisure and they welcome technology and business models that make their lives simpler.
3. Engagement with the Indian stakeholders
Given the size of your India programme and the criticality of success, the next phase is to develop a robust and transparent engagement with your India team. This would require multi-level employee engagement commencing with leadership.
The best way to take this forward would be to do a short-term assessment to
- Evaluate the strengths and gaps in the current Indian travel operations
- Evaluate the commercial value of the local travel agency/TMC versus the benefits of implementing a global programme partner
- Establish service needs and expectations of local India team across levels of management and function
Based on this assessment, a major step would be to hold a formal presentation to the India leadership team to secure their buy-in. It's important the India leadership share this mandate with the wider organisation, which would provide confidence in the programme.
4. Operationalising the mandate
A good way to start putting the mandate in place is to determine a roadmap with key milestones that need to be achieved within a time frame. A recommendation here would be to have a scheduled update with the senior management/executive sponsor in-country at periodic landmarks so they are kept abreast of the progress.
Based on your evaluation, you will probably find that you will need to conduct negotiations with your global TMC partner to secure India specific operational and commercial expectations.
At this stage, it would be great if you could get your TMC partner to assign a transition team that can manage the implementation.
5. The moment of truth — going live
Planning a smooth 'Go Live' can be both exciting and nerve-wrenching.
Getting to the moment of truth when the programme transitions to the new partner/platform will require several components to work in tandem
- Structured employee engagement roadshows to showcase the changes
- A robust user feedback and survey mechanism
- A 'Success Scorecard' that recognises vendor programme management, user feedback and success with critical initiatives
- Smooth de-implementation of incumbent agency/TMC, in phases
- Progressive rollout of new operations
The focus at this stage is to make the transition as transparent as possible and free from 'smoke and noise'. It's important to have a tiered level of support and escalation so things can be resolved speedily and with minimum of fuss.
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6. Tracking success
While the most difficult part is to get the programme transitioned successfully, it's important not to move your foot off the gas pedal.
A programme, especially in a market as complex as India, should be monitored by you directly for at least six months after going live.
This would include frequent scheduled meetings with your project leader and in-country support teams; close tracking of the 'Success Scorecard'; consistent re-training; an executive update on performance and gaps to improve and setting the agenda for the next important transitions.
Securing success in complex markets like India requires a clear understanding of the market dynamics and unique user needs. With this as a starting point, you can set yourself up for success by implementing a phased roll-out with specific tangible deliverables and success matrix.