Better Together. Risk Management needs a transdisciplinary Approach

A recent research conducted in Spain by GEBTA with the collaboration of Aon and Healix shows that companies mainly fail with regard to their Duty of Care responsibilities, when it comes to business travel.

According to the report, one of the main reasons for this is that corporations often lack a transdiciplinary approach of travel.

It is a fact that procurement, supplier managers and financial departments play the leading role in business travel. Their contribution to optimization and cost savings has to be considered a success and certainly  their influence in travel is here to stay

However, as David Noble, Group CEO of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply recently stated, procurement teams need to work more collaboratively with other business functions.

And when it comes to Risk Management, Human Resources Departments have to be taken into account. This is precisely one of the main evidences that results from GEBTA's research. Lack of collaboration or insufficient communication lead to duplicities or inadequate insurance coverage, low information levels of risk management policies within the companies and consequently low adoption rates.

The scope of our study is limited to Spain (all range of companies, from multinationals to SME), but it might well be that most of the findings could be equally applicable to other countries.

Duty of Care and Risk Management in travel entail huge responsibilities and may imply significant consequences for a company and are to complex to consider it as an ownership area. On the contrary, procurement and supplier departments will increasingly need to count on sound partners and work with a more transdiciplinary approach.

HR services are certainly going to play  a role but companies shouldn't walk alone in this field. Technology, expert TMCs and Suppliers are to be strategic partners too, in order to provide adequate coverage and assistance to travelers, wherever they might be at any time.

So let's get started!


Marcel Forns (c) GEBTA 2016