Making managed travel more visible
Travel managers are often taken for granted...until a crisis hits, says Jo Lloyd at FCM Consulting, as she examines the results of its Travel Impact Index
George Bailey was so overwhelmed by despair he wished he’d never been born. Clarence, his guardian angel, reveals what his town of Bedford Falls would have looked like without him. Having once felt invisible, George realises how deeply ingrained he was in the lives and successes of those around him. A real tear-jerker.
It’s the classic 1940s James Stewart movie It’s A Wonderful Life. A favourite of mine. And yes … I did think of it while looking at the data emerging from FCM Consulting’s Travel Impact Index. Why? George didn’t fully understand how valuable he was. Those around him (friends and family, but think stakeholders) didn’t realise how much they relied on him either. Sound familiar?
In quiet times, people often take travel managers for granted. When there’s a pandemic, geopolitical instability or major disruption, everyone wants a piece of you. But once things settle down, leaders default to questions about cost, and more recently, AI-generated savings, without recognising that managed travel already drives value every single day.
The early findings from the Index are revealing. More than 84% of programmes currently sit inside the “evolving” category. That sounds reasonably encouraging until you dig into the detail. Almost three quarters of those programmes score below 5.5 out of 10, suggesting many travel teams have become highly dependable operationally without becoming strategically understood.
That challenge is most acute within financial planning, which produces the weakest scores across the dataset. Many programmes still spend most of their time reporting backwards through spend, savings and compliance metrics while leadership teams are increasingly focused on resilience, future exposure and operational continuity. If travel managers only position their programmes through transactional reporting, leaders will naturally continue to view travel as a transactional category.
The strongest performing programmes in the Index tell a broader value story. Manufacturing currently scores highest while financial services scores lowest despite its maturity with governance and compliance. Top of the programme league are those that connect travel more directly to operational delivery, customer relationships and keeping the wider business moving effectively. Bluntly, those that support business goals.
Beyond that, AI will increasingly automate reporting, bookings, policy administration and routine operational tasks. The travel managers who continue to thrive will likely be the ones able to think more strategically, build stronger stakeholder relationships and explain travel’s contribution in broader business language rather than purely operational terms.
Much of the best work in managed travel happens without attracting much attention until something breaks down. George Bailey only understood his importance when he was shown the consequences of his absence. Managed travel programmes should not need a crisis before organisations fully recognise the value already sitting inside their business. We all need to get better at talking about it.
