The Weekly Update: Business Travel Edition
Back in the glory days of business travel, upon being seated you were offered a glass of champagne and the Steward inquired how you liked your eggs. As soon as the plane reached altitude, you would hear butter hitting the hot pan as your scrambled eggs were prepared with just the right amount of herbs and a side of bacon.Back in the glory days of business travel, upon being seated you were offered a glass of champagne and the Steward inquired how you liked your eggs. As soon as the plane reached altitude, you would hear butter hitting the hot pan as your scrambled eggs were prepared with just the right amount of herbs and a side of bacon.
The decline started in the early 90s. Canadian Airlines – perpetually in debt crisis – once announced that they could save $500,000 by cutting ½ inch off each dessert. The death by a thousand cost-cuts had started and a few years later there was no dessert at all.
One of the blessings of COVID has been not having to travel. The time saved has been given back to both work and family and the sheer bone-tiredness of commuting in sardine cans has been alleviated.
But will business travel come back? In the past months, most experts agree “no.” Peak business travel has passed.
Our experience is that travel we once thought was a “must do” can be avoided without sacrificing the quality of a project. Post-COVID, the expertise we have accumulated working efficiently in virtual meetings means the bar has been raised for declaring travel essential. Beyond the time saved, concerns about the high environmental cost of flying or driving gives us reasons not to travel. Other colleagues we’ve talked to seem to share our experience. It seems likely there will be even more pressure on companies to minimize sending their employees to far-flung exotic destinations, vibrant urban centres, or Hamilton (not the musical).
The value of meeting people face-to-face is recognized as the number one benefit of business travel and Zoom somewhat makes up for this. But what about the other nine benefits of business travel? In case you’ve forgotten, they are
Escaping the office.
Experiencing a new culture.
Enjoying good food and drink.
Checking off a new destination from one’s bucket list.
Staying in a nice hotel.
Corporate covered cost of visiting a new place.
Gaining air miles or hotel loyalty points.
The feeling of importance that comes with business travel.
Telling people that you’re traveling on business.
With the exception of #6 (unless you manage your expenses with unusual creativity), you can replace business travel with a few simple steps.
Get up before dawn, drive to the airport and park in an outdoor lot an uncomfortable walk from the terminal. Stand around inside for a good 90 minutes awkwardly nodding at strangers. Empty your keys, wallet, mobile phone and loose change from your pockets. Take of your shoes and belt. Put it all back on again. Take a shuttle to an airport hotel. Collect your Marriott points. Dress in that Matador costume from Hallowe’en 2017 and order nachos for lunch. Leave an out-of-office note on your e-mail and cancel your Zoom meeting because of a flight delay. Then call your partner and ask them to meet you in the hotel bar for an evening assignation. Business travel never was so good!
Speaking of collecting points, a 2019 KPMG survey of 18,520 consumers from more than 20 countries found that only 37 percent identified points and rewards as one of the most effective ways to secure their brand loyalty. In almost every country, points and rewards were less likely to earn loyalty than corporate transparency and honesty. And Canadians are among the highest users of rewards programs in the world.
Back to your next De-stress Trip. If you really want to amplify the verisimilitude (definition: a word meaning “realism” used to impress the attractive person in the seat beside you), try this:
Sit beside the chattiest person you can find and try to read a book.
Buy a cheese and cracker snack pack from a convenience store and eat it as your lunch.
Take a half-full coffee and top it up with boiling water.
Randomly press buttons and wait for nothing to happen.
Get into a crowded elevator, press the stop button and wait 90 minutes.
Lose your charging cable.
Wrap a dark t-shirt around your head and try to sleep under bright lights.
Bump into every person you walk past - bonus points if they have a hot beverage.
Practice the deep sigh every time someone asks you something.
Repeat “I don’t know Carmen from Canada, but I bet she’s nice.”
Sleep upright in a folding lawn chair and use your child’s smelly and suspiciously damp stuffy as a neck pillow.
If cold, cover yourself with a threadbare bathroom mat.
Jam your carry-on suitcase into the top shelf of your hallway closet.
But what about the most important reason to travel – to build face-to-face relationships? I would suspect that our networks have been getting smaller and less intimate over the past year. To improve this, your dating life can give us some clues.
First, we might need to look beyond our existing circles to find new people. This often can be accomplished by joining groups focused on topics you are passionate about. Be it painting, local idioms or sustainability – people with shared interests. Anyone new will be stimulating.
Second, we all know someone who is a super-connector. The person who knows everyone and remembers their name, the names of their cats and their last backcountry adventure. We don’t need to be one of these people to build our networks, we just need to know and stay connected to these people. This person in your life should be the person you reach out to as soon as you finish this weekly update.
Even if you’re not a super connector yourself, you can practice one of their most potent superpowers: give value, be generous, don’t expect anything in return. Never enter a relationship with self-interest in mind.
Just like a great first date.
Stay safe. I’ll pick you up at 7. If my flights lands on time.