Business travel management is a significant part of any business operation. If a business is to be at all successful, it is imperative that the business be willing to travel in an effort to spread the word about the business’s current offerings.
With that said, business management travel services are something that many businesses rely on to ensure that all travel necessities are handled effectively and that all travel endeavours are fulfilled without hassle. When it comes to business travel there are so many components of travel arrangement that must be considered that it is only wise to take on the services offered by a business travel management agency.
In terms of business travel, it is important to choose the right accommodation for travel endeavours. Conferences, meetings, team building events, training courses, sales presentations, PR events, annual general meetings, exhibitions, conventions, and the like require a specific location that will meet the demands of the host of any business event and its attendees. Myriad aspects pertaining to travel will have to be reviewed and decided upon; business travel management agencies make such decisions more clear, decisive and prudent.
When selecting an accommodation, the size of the accommodation and whether or not the accommodation meets the requirements of the business will need to be determined. Is the accommodation large enough for an event? Such a question will need to be considered; team building meetings may not require an accommodation as large as one that would be needed for conferences, conventions, corporate hospitality events, exhibitions, seminars, award ceremonies or parties. Will the accommodation have everything necessary for a business to pull of an event completely trouble free? Again, this is an issue that will need to be held in consideration – whether there are enough outlets to utilise for presentations and equipment, whether there is enough room for necessary equipment and even the menu offered at the venue will need to be considered. All of the latter issues can be easily addressed by an agent that possesses knowledge about various accommodations and the offerings such venues have.
Of course, in addition to choosing the appropriate accommodation, travel arrangements will also be a significant consideration. It makes no difference whether a business is having annual general meetings, awards ceremonies, conferences, conventions, exhibitions, meetings, PR events, product launches, sales presentations, seminars, team building events, training courses or the business is hosting a corporate hospitality event or other parties: if the expected attendees cannot get to the event with relative ease, the number of guests that actually attend will be directly affected. Business and corporate travel needs do not have to induce stress or case a company or corporation a significant amount of concern: business travel management professionals can make air travel, air transfers, limousine services and other forms of transportation available to guests and business people, thereby making the accessibility of any event simple and hassle free.
What about the surrounding area where an event is to be held? Businesses looking to hold an event in a city that they are not quite familiar with can benefit from business travel management services. The surrounding area can be researched and often times business management travel professionals already possess the foreknowledge about various areas that a business or corporation can rely on. With business management travel services, businesses and corporations can easily offer advice to event guests and business professionals about the city, where to shop, and the great local sites and places were recreational pursuits are encouraged.
Finding a venue and making travel arrangements while maintaining a strict budget is a task for anyone – business management travel professionals make it easier for businesses and corporations to keep within the boundaries of a pre-established budget. Business management travel professionals can assist with finding an affordable accommodation, can negotiate pricing for businesses and corporations, can find the very best, reasonable airfare prices, find the best, most affordable cars for hire and even point businesses and corporations to the least expensive train travel and air transfer options.
The most important part of any business event is that the event is successful. A successful event is not only defined by the number of attendees, but also by how smoothly the entire event evolves. If a business or corporation hosts a business event, seminar, conference, training session, or corporate hospitality event and the event is one where all the guests are truly satisfied, such an event ensures the positive outcome and attendance of future events hosted by the business or the corporation in question. Without a doubt, the reliance on business travel management professionals just makes good business sense: the professionalism and knowledge of such a company or agency will ensure the positive outcome of hosted events both in the present day as well as in the company’s future.
7/13/2008
7/12/2008
Cargo and Management Practice
During World War II, US forces took over islands in the Pacific where the residents had never see airplanes, or canned food, or any of the tons of material that a military force needs. The islanders were careful observers, though, and they figured out what the military did to cause the goods to show up.
This is what they saw. The military folks would go up into towers they'd built and talk into a box. Soon the material, or "cargo," would arrive.
When the war ended, the military went away and the cargo stopped coming. But some of the islanders figured that they could make the cargo come back. All they had to do was exactly what the US military people had done.
So they went up in the abandoned towers and talked into the dead radios that were there. Sometimes they "built" radios from wood or other available materials. They did everything just like the military and they waited for cargo to arrive, but it never did.
Those islanders were members of something we call "cargo cults." They were bright, observant people who copied a behavior they believed would bring back the cargo. It seems silly to us, because we understand what airplanes and control towers and radios are.
But it was magic to the cargo cultists and they tried the best they could to make it work. Just like lots of managers do with the practices of other companies.
Everybody, it seems, copies General Electric (GE), often in the area of forced ranking. At GE, managers are required to rank their employees into three groups. Twenty percent should be top performers. Seventy percent are in the middle. And 10 percent bring up the rear.
The idea is that you treat the top 20 percent as stars and they get the lion's share of the bonuses, stock options and rewards and opportunities of all kinds. You work to keep the middle 70 percent engaged. And the bottom 10 percent have to go.
This system works at GE, much to the chagrin of many commentators. Because it works at GE and because GE has been a successful corporation for decades, some businesspeople decide to introduce forced ranking in some form into their organization. They want to get some of that GE magic.
The science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke has said that "Any sufficiently advanced technology will be perceived as magic." When you don't understand what goes behind the success of the forced ranking system at GE, it looks magical, and magic always looks better than hard work.
So companies adopt the forced ranking system without paying attention to any evidence about how it might work in their place. But, alas, there is evidence that forced ranking is more likely to create problems than to magically create profit.
The Novations Group surveyed two hundred human resource professionals who worked at companies with more than 2500 employees and asked them about how forced ranking worked. Half of the companies used some kind of forced ranking system. Respondents to Novations' survey found that forced ranking caused lower productivity, lower levels of employee engagement, and increased distrust of leadership.
If you're going to adopt the practices used by another company, no matter how successful, you need to do some research into why it works there. In GE's case, the answer may involve things you can't replicate overnight.
Forced ranking works at GE because there are two characteristics of the company that support it. First, there is a culture of candor. Unlike most other companies, GE values and rewards candid conversations about performance.
GE also has used an extensive and rigorous evaluation system for years. Combine candid communication with rigorous evaluation and you get evaluations that don’t come as a surprise. In other words, people know when they're not performing and don't fit.
There's one other thing. Despite the rhetoric, GE doesn't automatically fire people who are in the bottom ten percent. There's often the opportunity to improve or try a different assignment before firing becomes the option.
If you want to adopt the practices of another company or industry you have two choices. You can do it like the cargo cults, mimicking behavior and hoping it will get the same result. Or you can do a little due diligence and increase the odds that you'll make the right choice.
Do a little research. Academics, consultants and graduate students are doing research all the time about what works and what doesn't. If you read the Novations' study as part of your due diligence, you'd know that forced ranking isn't the magic it might appear.
Check out the companies where the practice works and a few where it hasn't worked. What are the differences between them? Which companies are like your company?
If you're still not sure about adopting a practice, review the history of how it came to work in companies where it's successful. Tracing that history will often help you see organizational and cultural pre-cursors necessary for success.
In this age of management fads, it's easy to take a cargo cult approach to adopting some new practice. But with a little bit of work and research you can choose wisely which practices you'll adopt and how you'll adapt them to your own company.
This is what they saw. The military folks would go up into towers they'd built and talk into a box. Soon the material, or "cargo," would arrive.
When the war ended, the military went away and the cargo stopped coming. But some of the islanders figured that they could make the cargo come back. All they had to do was exactly what the US military people had done.
So they went up in the abandoned towers and talked into the dead radios that were there. Sometimes they "built" radios from wood or other available materials. They did everything just like the military and they waited for cargo to arrive, but it never did.
Those islanders were members of something we call "cargo cults." They were bright, observant people who copied a behavior they believed would bring back the cargo. It seems silly to us, because we understand what airplanes and control towers and radios are.
But it was magic to the cargo cultists and they tried the best they could to make it work. Just like lots of managers do with the practices of other companies.
Everybody, it seems, copies General Electric (GE), often in the area of forced ranking. At GE, managers are required to rank their employees into three groups. Twenty percent should be top performers. Seventy percent are in the middle. And 10 percent bring up the rear.
The idea is that you treat the top 20 percent as stars and they get the lion's share of the bonuses, stock options and rewards and opportunities of all kinds. You work to keep the middle 70 percent engaged. And the bottom 10 percent have to go.
This system works at GE, much to the chagrin of many commentators. Because it works at GE and because GE has been a successful corporation for decades, some businesspeople decide to introduce forced ranking in some form into their organization. They want to get some of that GE magic.
The science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke has said that "Any sufficiently advanced technology will be perceived as magic." When you don't understand what goes behind the success of the forced ranking system at GE, it looks magical, and magic always looks better than hard work.
So companies adopt the forced ranking system without paying attention to any evidence about how it might work in their place. But, alas, there is evidence that forced ranking is more likely to create problems than to magically create profit.
The Novations Group surveyed two hundred human resource professionals who worked at companies with more than 2500 employees and asked them about how forced ranking worked. Half of the companies used some kind of forced ranking system. Respondents to Novations' survey found that forced ranking caused lower productivity, lower levels of employee engagement, and increased distrust of leadership.
If you're going to adopt the practices used by another company, no matter how successful, you need to do some research into why it works there. In GE's case, the answer may involve things you can't replicate overnight.
Forced ranking works at GE because there are two characteristics of the company that support it. First, there is a culture of candor. Unlike most other companies, GE values and rewards candid conversations about performance.
GE also has used an extensive and rigorous evaluation system for years. Combine candid communication with rigorous evaluation and you get evaluations that don’t come as a surprise. In other words, people know when they're not performing and don't fit.
There's one other thing. Despite the rhetoric, GE doesn't automatically fire people who are in the bottom ten percent. There's often the opportunity to improve or try a different assignment before firing becomes the option.
If you want to adopt the practices of another company or industry you have two choices. You can do it like the cargo cults, mimicking behavior and hoping it will get the same result. Or you can do a little due diligence and increase the odds that you'll make the right choice.
Do a little research. Academics, consultants and graduate students are doing research all the time about what works and what doesn't. If you read the Novations' study as part of your due diligence, you'd know that forced ranking isn't the magic it might appear.
Check out the companies where the practice works and a few where it hasn't worked. What are the differences between them? Which companies are like your company?
If you're still not sure about adopting a practice, review the history of how it came to work in companies where it's successful. Tracing that history will often help you see organizational and cultural pre-cursors necessary for success.
In this age of management fads, it's easy to take a cargo cult approach to adopting some new practice. But with a little bit of work and research you can choose wisely which practices you'll adopt and how you'll adapt them to your own company.
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