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Article Excerpt
American Express Business Travel senior vice president and general manager of North America Andrew McGraw recently spoke with Business Travel News editors Jennifer Merritt and David Meyer to discuss competition and the travel management company's latest technology and customer-service enhancements, coming attractions, industry trends and predictions for 2006.
BTN: Has American Express felt any effects from recent realignments among mega agencies?
Andrew McGraw: I don't know if one's cause and one's effect. All I know is that we had a good first two months of the year in signing new business. We've gotten quite a few phone calls of interest relative to the global network or changes that are taking place today. It's going to be interesting to watch. If you look at what's happening in the industry, it's due to the fact that the previous organizational structures were composed of various partnerships with perhaps different objectives, different visions, maybe conflicting agendas, and in some cases the harsh confrontation of making the profitability model work. All these companies are going to go through a period of significant change. We're set today in our global footprint and our global network doesn't require us at this point to acquire any more competitors. We're in a good position to service customers around the world and to continue to invest in things that will differentiate us, innovations, things that will continue to improve productivity, and all of the other procurement and efficiency and process improvements that will take place offline and online, it's going to be interesting. We're in a good place from a strategic standpoint and the jury's out, as they say.
BTN: If growth won't involve acquisitions, would it involve only organic growth and winning accounts?
McGraw: Never say never. There may just be a reason why it makes sense for us to do something, but we're not looking to, don't have any intention to, and we just want to focus on continuing to improve and invest on the capabilities that we have today and continue to serve our clients and grow organically.
BTN: Eclipse is a good example of negotiating on behalf of clients for specific travel services. Is that an area...
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