How would you sum up 2018, and the already busy start to 2019?
Pierre Blin - 2018 was a success in terms of customer retention, with a rate that has been rising steadily for three years, but also in terms of acquisitions: we implemented around fifty new customers last year. That's good, very good indeed! So we're very satisfied with this year, and we're continuing in the same vein with the organisational change announced in January.
So why the change in organisational structure?
P. B. - In itself, this is no great news. Just another step in the transformation that began in April 2016 with the arrival of our new CEO, Kurt Ekert. We are definitely moving from a organisation by country to a functional organisation. In each country, the function managers now report to regional managers. This is the final stage in an organisational change that began more than two years ago. This was done gradually, across all functions, the last one to be affected being sales. It was the final stage, and we were prepared for it.
In practical terms, how does this new governance system work?
P. B. - There has been an Executive Committee in France for several years, which continues to
working together, under the name Market Management TeamIn other words, a 'Comex'. But now the hierarchical link is no longer at national level, but at European level. This has been successfully tested in the Nordic countries over the last two years.
How do your customers perceive this development?
P. B. - Their reaction is positive. They're not surprised because this is an increasingly common way of organising. The majority of our customers are already organised in this way. So they simply note that CWT mirrors their own organisation. They know the benefits of such an approach, and therefore understand the advantages they can gain from it. Other players in the business travel industry have taken the same path, or will do so in the future.
information that we have not yet commented on, but which is false
The internal reaction is clearly more mixed...
Pierre Blin - A lot of things have been written here and there, information that we haven't commented on so far but which is false. What matters to us is that there has been no negative reaction from our customers. Every day, our sales staff explain to travel managers and buyers the whys and wherefores of our new organisation.
Do you understand that the announcement of the departure of the Managing Director for France, Brigitte Nisio, and four other managers, may have seemed sudden?
P. B. - The fact that five country managers are no longer part of the organisation may indeed seem like big news. But this new organisation is understood and does not really raise any questions.
Don't you regret the way this "big news" was communicated internally?
Pierre Blin - There were a lot of emotion in this announcement because these were people who were at the head of national markets, who were close to the teams. Different people have different emotional reactions. This is normal, and the opposite would have been surprising. It's the role of management to manage this. And in fact, over and above the internal communication that took place, there was a huge amount of education at all levels, and the managers played an important role in providing support.
On the contrary, some say it was an unexpected announcement...
P. B. - I can tell you that this is not true. Everyone was informed, and the union representatives were in fact informed before the official announcement was made internally and then externally.
The second press release seems to indicate that management in France was responsible for "preparing the ground" for this reorganisation. It's hard to believe that Brigitte Nisio was given the task of facilitating the disappearance of this position when she was appointed...
P. B. - However, this is the final stage in a gradual transformation. So there are no big surprises internally about this reorganisation.
Do you understand that this "reorganisation" could be seen as a punishment for the managers concerned?
P. B. - It's never pleasant to no longer be part of the organisation, especially when you've been a driving force behind it. But this is what has been expected and prepared for months.
there is no strike at CWT today
What about the strike that has been mooted for some time at CWT France?
P. B. - There is a social agenda with the authorities, discussions, and a meeting was held a few days ago. I'm not going to reveal the content of these meetings. What I can say is thatthere is no strike today at CWTAnd if one union took a position a few days ago, it was the voice of one person, within one union. It is in no way the position of all the trade unions. I don't have a crystal ball and I can't tell you how the discussions are going to go, but the fact is that today there is no strike at CWT. We also need to put this issue in the context of a transformation of the company, and more generally of a particular social context in France with the yellow waistcoats movement... Some of the demands are rooted in the promises made by the government in its management of these crises. Whether at managerial or HR level, the organisation of CWT France has always attached great importance to the human aspect. The unions play a full role in facilitating social dialogue. But we should also remember, for example, that since last year we have introduced a quarterly bonus system called "Focus for growth. This initiative, which is continuing this year, concerns all the Group's employees: everyone is 'incentivised' every quarter on the basis of a number of performance indicators. This represents between 0 and 2% of the average annual base salary, across all functions. This is unprecedented at CWT.
Does a TMC like CWT today have the resources to compete with American Express GBT and its investment capacity?
Pierre Blin - Competing is what we do every day, and we do it very well. You mentioned investment: we invest a lot in technological innovation. Our value proposition on the market today is completely different from that of our competitors, and in particular from the one you mentioned, because of the value that our new products and services bring, and because of a strategic positioning that sets us apart. They have chosen toacquire OBT technology (Online Booking Tool), our focus is on mobility and our application. Our value proposition is strong and differentiated, and today that's one of our strengths. We're very comfortable with our competitive situation, in France and elsewhere.
What areas of innovation is CWT particularly investing in?
P. B. - Since 2016, our strategy has been to transform the user experience through an entirely new digital environment. This strategy has been decided at both global and regional level. This new organisation should also enable us to move faster in terms of our ability to offer our customers new products. We are working closely with the world of start-ups in each region, particularly Sillicon Valley, Israel and of course Paris. We identify start-ups that can help us launch new products and services. This is already in place, and has been developing well over the past two years.
Have there already been any concrete applications for your customers?
P. B. - The latest is an innovation for travellers. Via the My CWT tool, they can not only book a hotel for over a year, but also.., for three months, a plane ticket. Last year we also launched CWT Price Trackinga pricing optimisation tool that enables us tooptimise the price of a plane ticket up to the day before departureThis is a way of countering airline yield management. To achieve this, our innovation team has identified a start-up in the Sillicon Valley, namely Yaptawhich enabled us to launch this service on a massive scale last year.
Yapta also works with some of your competitors...
P. B. - It's true: we don't have an exclusive contract with YaptaBut we were the first to do it, and we did it internationally. We developed it fairly quickly in around thirty countries, but what we want now is to be able to go faster. Our new organisation should enable us to be much more agile in this respect, to respond more quickly to customer needs, and over a vast geographical area.
What are your next steps in terms of innovation?
Pierre Blin - The ecosystem My CWT will bring together more and more functions. Further announcements will be made in the coming months. In particular, we are working on the possibility of interacting with a travel advisor directly from the application. Initially, a chatbot provides automatic responses, then redirects users to physical teams for anything they can't handle. We're already talking to some start-ups and pilots have been set up. We will probably be making some official announcements in the coming weeks. The 3.0 strategy announced in 2016 is well under way.
Today, aren't customers comparing TMCs primarily on the basis of price?
P. B. - There is real pressure on prices in general in the business travel market and exacerbated on the French market. But you can't get by on price alone. That's precisely the purpose of this CWT 3.0 strategyThis is a result of the evolution of our value proposition and our strategic positioning: to position ourselves more on a differentiated experience, not only for the traveller, but also on optimising expenditure and providing support in terms of innovative products and services that create new levers for managing savings. We are on an ultra-competitive marketWe're not the cheapest, and we never will be. That's not our objective, but it may be that of some of our competitors. The price component is indeed a component of the negotiation, and that's normal. But we know that in the minds of our customers the difference isn't made solely on price.
