Business Travel

Business Travel

   The world of business has changed, and so has the world of business travel.  London's Heathrow is still #1 in international arrivals and departures; but guess which airport city is now #2?  Paris (no, #3), Atlanta (no, not even in the top 20), Hong Kong (no, #4), JFK (no, #17)...the answer?  Dubai.

   More than half of today's business travelers list having wi-fi in their hotel rooms as the #1 priority...not a comfortable bed (#2) or customer service (#5).  And nearly half report usually "enjoying" traveling for business.  And in one area, airlines are responding.  Gogo (a major supplier of inflight wi-fi) will boost bandwidth to 70+ megabits per second (in comparison, the average Mbbs speed on the ground is 30+ in the U.S. --although around 15+ in my city-- and around 80+ in Hong Kong...the U.S. ranks as one of the slowest providers of bandwidth speed in the world, not because it is incapable of increasing the speed, but because bandwidth providers refuse to do so, even as those same companies, notably Verizon, provide faster speeds to the rest of the world).  Inflight screens will increase to 11+ inches, beds will jump to 82"x35" (the average king size bed is only 80" long) and yes, legroom will likely stay the same in economy.

   Some of this is also reflected in the way that companies DO business.  Fortune.com reported that T.J. Maxx & Marshalls are set to overtake Macy's in revenue this year, causing more stores to open discount versions of their stores (Nordstrom expects that "by 2016 it will have twice as many Nordstrom Rack outlets as full-service department stores").  Adds Fortune, "While mall traffic overall continues to fall --some 15% of malls are expected to close or convert to other uses in the next decade...-- outlet malls are booming.  The result, says Mark Cohen, director of retail studies at Columbia University and former CEO of Sears Canada, will be a 'Darwinian struggle for survival,' which may ultimately take down some of the best-known brands."

   The point of all this is that both trends show our changing tastes, one on hand our increasing awareness of the term "global economy" coming home (today, it is more and more difficult to find products made in the U.S. even in stores such as Costco), all while trying to meet the changing tastes of consumers who run that changing economy (more bargains).  Convenience (ordering online) cuts down shopping, yet the stores, highways and airports all seem packed.  What's going on?

   Even businesses are trying to figure that out.  As Dennis Crowley, founder of Foursquare, told Inc., "I've learned that it's not just that the entrepreneurial experience is a roller coaster in the big-picture sense, but that everyday is a roller coaster.  You can feel like a rock star in the morning, and then by the afternoon you feel beaten up, and an hour after that you're exhausted."  And here's what Google's chairman, Eric Schmidt, told Fortune about how companies hire, "They (the potential employee) have to have five years of this and 10 years of that--and that's precisely the wrong way to go about hiring."

   For today's business traveler, as well as today's consumer, the changing world is changing quickly, wobbly at times but changing.  We seem to be in a period of taking baby steps at times, falling, getting up and trying to figure it out.  But we're growing...now the only question will be, what will be become?