ABTN looks at how the economic downturn is providing a great, possibly one off opportunity for travel managers.
Should you see Armani-suited men and women wearing those peanut-shaped helmets scurrying around London on electric bicycles, please be sympathetic. These are bankers from JP Morgan-Chase. Regrettably they are not doing penance for the damage some members of their profession have done to the global economy.
What they are doing is saving money on taxis. Nobody has to be reminded that these are tough times and every one must make sacrifices. The author of this heart-warming idea is a senior manager at JP Morgan and it is still very much at the consideration stage. But it raises the spectre of Britain's Corporate Manslaughter Act which places a legal obligation on senior managers to exercise a duty of care on employees. (Remember the famous advice of Sir Stelios when his easyJet board was arguing how much to spend on airline safety: "It just takes one accident......")
But this inspirational thinking at JP is relevant to business travel for two reasons. First it shows just how far some companies are prepared to go to cut spending in these difficult times. Secondly it reveals that senior management are actually taking an interest in travel.
The second annual American Express/CFO Research Global Business & Spending Monitor last week revealed that chief financial officers around the world are still aggressively focused on cutting costs and that hopes of any quick economic recovery were low.
Just what some of these reductions are was revealed at the Management Solutions UK/Association of Corporate Travel Executives forum in London where several managers spoke of the cuts being imposed.
They go beyond the most quoted one of flying economy rather than business class or staying in three or four star hotels rather one in five star ones. JP Morgan is considering mandating the use of the Heathrow Express train rather than let staff use cabs.
But not of all of these cuts can be classified as "bad". At the BBC, for example, if a staff member tries to book a taxi journey of more than 40 miles, up will flash a warning on the screen to desist and go by public transport. If the employee defies this, the cost comes out of his/her salary.
Again at JP Morgan, Bernadette Basterfield, its international head of travel, has taken the opportunity of finding savings by introducing a system which has cut the time a car waits for its passenger by 40% which is good management in anyone's book.
But the real gain for travel management in these times is that senior manager are not only listening but, as the putative cyclists at JP may soon find out, coming up with ideas. At the MS/ACTE forum, Richard Lovell, formerly Carlson Wagonlit Travel's president EMEA but since retirement working in a variety of roles, told an intriguing story.
About a year ago when the credit crunch was showing signs of biting, he visited the London offices of Lehman Brothers (remember them?). As he walked in, he counted no fewer than 16 black Mercedes, all with uniformed drivers, awaiting a command to drive a banker somewhere or other.
The purpose of Mr Lovell's visit was to discuss with this lot the idea of sharing cars. It was not a concept with which they were familiar nor one in which they had the slightest interest. "These cars are quite big, they could have sat at either side without touching each other. I was not asking them to sit on each other's lap. They just lived in a different world," he said.
A year ago the idea of senior management dirtying its hands with such matters was, shall we say, not prevalent. At the MS/ACTE forum several travel managers remarked that a year ago, senior management hardly spoke to them. Now they were being invited in for discussions, talks, swapping ideas. Some of the ideas may be daft but much good can also come of this.
It is perhaps the best, the most positive opportunity this downturn is offering travel management. It is a chance to get the ear of someone who can give good travel management its proper place in a company's hierarchy, not just in the bad times but for the future.
There is so much more to discuss than electric bikes. Travel managers should seize it now because there is a feeling that once the worst is over, these senior managers will be calling for their chauffeur-driven limousines and heading off for a first class seat on the plane. When that happens, the moment will have gone.