Business travel mindset must shift from 'automated' to 'intentional', White Paper advises

B2B travel platform American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) and cultural analysis firm CULTIQUE, have launched a White Paper detailing why travel is essential for cultivating winning cultures and achieving business goals in the post-pandemic era. With the publication of ‘Business Travel is the Center of the New Company Culture’, Amex GBT and CULTIQUE aim to help businesses decipher change, refocus business goals and identify opportunities to reinvigorate a fragmented company culture through travel. The White Paper suggests that corporate leaders should adopt a chief journey officer in what they believe to be a ‘new era of work and travel’. This could help organisations, they say, seize opportunities arising from the evolution of work with a travel programme that aligns with company culture. David Reimer, executive vice-president of global clients and general manager at Amex GBT, said: “Companies are working to solve the challenge of building company culture and tackling the feeling of isolation within their dispersed workforces. Culture isn’t built in isolation. It’s driven by the ability for teams to interact and get connected to an organisation’s purpose and vision. By elevating the role of travel in strategy and decision-making, and revisiting travel policies designed to support pre-pandemic operating models, organisations can use travel as a catalyst for progress.” Sarah Unger, partner and co-founder of CULTIQUE, stated: “Thinking like a chief journey officer underscores the integral role travel should play in a distributed workforce. It’s a powerful way to differentiate. To better relate to new employee desires and societal expectations, companies need to shift their business travel mindset from automated to intentional.” The White Paper also explores ideas on how, where and why a company is investing in travel can help showcase its values and bring it closer to its employees and customers. Mark Cuschieri, global head of travel at UBS, commented: “We are already seeing that sustainability will be an essential component of our programme. It will drive a change in mindset as to the purpose and reasons for why we need to travel. The ROI conversation about travel will be different. We need to work out how culture will figure in the future ROI conversation.” To download the full White Paper, please click here.