My old firm HRG has just announced its results and I must say I am impressed. It seems they can and have managed without me quite well. And there was me thinking I was indispensable.
We always dared to believe in the seismic change to delivering on value rather than headline price and it seems to have actually worked in that their clients must have realised that a superficially low price has no longevity.
Mind you there may have been a few casualties along the way as their client retention rate is not as high as it was and there seems not too many barnstorming new signings for a global company. I guess my prognosis must be that whilst a strategy of being ‘the customer’s consultant’ is the right way to go and clearly successful it is still work in progress against those that want a quick, traveller visible, upfront buck.
Another thing that is remarkably slower growing than I expected is their high tech range of Spendvision products. I thought profits from this business would be rocketing as it delivers exactly what corporations say they want i.e. the definitive end to end solution. I have seen it and it is damn good but I suspect some corporations do not want an initial cost for the benefit of long term gain. The world seems more about now and not the future when it comes to business travel.
One of the greatest areas for opportunity for them is their government business. They currently have the British Ministry of Defence and Foreign and Commonwealth Office which are mega in size and both about to cut back in expenditure however what they are still fighting for is much of the vast Government business. In my opinion this business has been procured and operated so very badly that HRG, with their track record, could seriously increase their share.
So my message to my old colleagues is well done. But kind of wish you were missing me a little more!