Democracy blooming in the Middle East. Leaderless revolutionaries occupying Wall Street. Student athletes organizing to
get paid. Presidential candidates wanting to overthrow the U.S. Tax Code. Do you see the implications for managed travel? [more]
It's all about power from the bottom up. Compliance gets you nowhere. Stop questioning the status quo and do something dramatic. Create a cause. Organize. Apply pressure to the weak links in the logic chain.
Revolution is in the air. And on the ground, and in the hotel room. It's literally at everyone's fingertips in the form of a mobile phone. Big change in managed travel is coming, folks.
The BTN Group's recent survey confirmed the gaps between travelers and travel buyers on the travel policy front. No surprise, the youngest travelers are the least aware of and least likely to comply with policy.
It's a two-part problem. Communication and motivation. Young travelers aren't getting the message. When they do, the message doesn't make sense. It doesn't speak to their values. There's no WIIFM factor (What's In It For Me). Or more accurately, What's In It For Us--us being the cohort of the Millennials, the socially conscious, the socially connected, the technically savvy.
If travel managers are policy czars, then travelers are the subjects--and the subjects are getting restless.
There's a growing vacuum of understanding the rationale for managing travel. The old ways are fair game for fresh questioning.
As it should be. The question is, what's the answer?
Scott Gillespie is the author of Gillespie's Guide to Travel + Procurement. These thoughts are excerpted with permission from his blog.