Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the legal sector had a historic 12 months’ last year, according to Bloomberg Law11, while PwC12 reported the number of M&As across all sectors reset to pre-pandemic levels in the first half of 2022. While those numbers are expected to settle in 2023, the outcome of those M&As – and any subsequent ones that do come next year – often means a company’s culture evolves and, with that, so do travel needs and policies. Resulting in increased responsibility for the travel manager.
“For example, whenever a merger occurs, one of the first things travel managers need be asking is how much more employees will be travelling to that merged organisation, if it’s located in a different destination to that of head office,” Pourkarimi explains. “Questions need to be asked such as ‘what are the cost implications with flights, what routes will we take, have we budgeted for these, do we have caps in place to manage the costs, do we need to get a negotiated discount on that route?
“Do we know what the projections are, do we know about the different legal aspects because of Brexit, do travellers need a visa, have we looked at tax compliance, do we need to train them on cultural aspects too?
“Whoever your travel owner is, have them in board meetings. Don’t look at someone in travel as someone who only puts out fires; they are just as proactive as reactive. And, the more a travel manager is asking those questions, the closer they will be involved at C-suite level.”
