Snapshot Vs. Full Length Motion Picture

I recently wrote a letter to our clients about the importance of auditing continuously that I’d like to share as a blog entry.

"Often times I am asked by clients, “How long should we audit for?” This question holds an answer I am truly passionate about and I would like to convey my thoughts to all of you.

Think of your travel program as any other program within your business that is ongoing, expensive, and always evolving. Any program with these qualities, including a travel program, should be evaluated continuously. Travel is frequently the third highest expense in corporate business behind wages and cost of goods sold; the time put into employee review and supplier research, should be similar to the time dedicated to travel program evaluation.

Frequently we have clients who begin an audit due to a specific concern or issue such as, “Our average fares were above industry averages last month,” or “Our employees are complaining they can find lower fares on the internet,” or “We just changed TMC’s and we want to evaluate our new TMC’s performance.” These are all good reasons to BEGIN an audit, however, a useful corporate travel audit should not be based or timed around one specific issue or concern. Like any other successful program within a company, a travel program should be continuously evaluated as a responsible business practice and to obtain the most accurate data possible.
It is deceptive and impractical to audit for one or three months and claim you have truly evaluated your TMC. By auditing for a specific, short period of time you get an unfocused snap shot view of how your agency is doing in that moment. Everyday behind the scenes things are changing at travel agencies that you are unaware of – or some TMC’s may even throw additional staffing at a monthly audit to ensure high results. There are new agents on the job, or new management teams in charge of specific locations. Everyday things change in the travel marketplace, airlines are consolidating, and some airlines are becoming unavailable in the GDS; as a travel manager the best way for you to truly evaluate your travel program is by obtaining a full length motion picture of information throughout the year. Without a complete movie of data to investigate, changes to your travel program can’t be made that truly reflect an appropriate assessment.

At Topaz International we encourage you to evaluate your travel program continuously throughout the year. Don’t take a snap shot and try to analyze your program from a moment in time. You may be missing the whole story. Don’t take a few snap shots and try to guess what happened in the middle. Provide yourself with a continuous film of information to fairly and accurately assess your program leading to successful revisions and savings.

We look forward to working with you and developing a relationship in the months to come."

If you have any thoughts on this entry or would like to learn more about our performance measurement solutions, please don’t hesitate to call me at 503-651-4300 ext 317. Or write me an e-mail at jillian.walsh@etopaz.com.


All my best,
Jillian Walsh
Manager of Marketing and Business Development
Topaz International

Basketball, Business, & Life

Recently I’ve had the opportunity to assistant coach a girl’s varsity basketball team. The high school I coach at just happens to also be the high school I graduated from. I frequently have flash backs of my high school basketball days. It is weird coaching in the same gym I used to practice and play at. Before I started coaching I wondered how much I would miss playing. I’ve realized that coaching is just as addicting as playing. At times I wonder if I’m just as passionate about it as I was about playing. I find myself constantly thinking about the team and our games at all hours. I have come to the conclusion that I would’ve been a much better player had I coached before playing. It is amazing what you see watching and analyzing basketball players that you don’t see when you’re actually the one playing.

Throughout my experience so far I’ve also realized how much growing up as an athlete (especially as a basketball player) has helped shape me as a person. So much about the game and sports in general is relatable to life and business. The other coaches and I are constantly trying to help our team see this connection. In true marketing fashion I’ll call this connection the “5 p’s;” Practice, Passion, Pride, Preparation, and Perseverance.

Practice: We’ve all heard, “You play how you practice,” and “You practice how you play.” But how many people actually take that to heart? Over the last few weeks I’ve seen that this statement is more than true. You have to come to practice ready to play how you would in a game; when you get into bad habits, such as laziness, not hustling, and not boxing out in practice that DOES carry over into the game. Come to the gym on time, be mentally focused on basketball, physically, give it all you have. Practice is where you show your coach and yourself what you have. It’s also the place you can take chances and not be penalized. Try something new here, get creative, let your coaches and teammates know your ideas and thoughts. Practice is much like what we put in behind the scenes at work. Before any news stories are written, any awards are given out, any financial statements come out….practice is where it begins; the grunt work that leads to the recognition. Put in to practice, what you’d put into the game.

Passion: When a loose ball is on the floor, where are you? Hopefully on the floor too. Are you constantly giving your all and helping your team gain momentum? Are you the type of player that can’t catch their breath during time outs because you’ve been sprinting every second you were in the game? Passion is essential as a player, a coworker, an individual, in everything you do that you want to matter. If you aren’t passionate about something it is not only beneficial to yourself to not be a part of it, but beneficial to your team. Positive energy is contagious, so is negativity. Be the person people want to be around. As a coach, a colleague, and friend I want the person in the game, the one giving the presentation, or the one hanging out with me to be someone passionate, someone who truly cares.

Pride: Be proud of yourself, your team, and what you’re involved in. Show that pride. On game days, wear your jerseys to school, make a great warm up CD, go 100% in warm ups, ask your family and friends to come to your games. At the end of a hard practice or game, be able to be proud of how you played win or lose. The big document you have due tomorrow? The big presentation you have to give in a week? Be proud of it. Having pride in something means you truly feel good about something you’ve done. To feel good about it, you must feel like you gave it the time and effort it deserved, which is a good feeling. Be proud to have the opportunity to represent your school or company and run with it.
Preparation: This comes along with everything you do before the game. The way you practice, how many hours of sleep you got, how healthy you ate. Watching game tapes or scouting other teams, your plays, and your strategy. Preparation is key to any successful outcome. I think we can all agree we frequently do better when we prepare for things in basketball, business or life; whether it is a game, a meeting with our boss, or an important conversation with your significant other or a friend. It’s not always about how long you prepare, but HOW you prepare. How much do you know about your competition?

Perseverance: “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” Simple, but true. When things are looking grim and you’re down by 20 points do you hang your head or do you run you’re hardest and box out even harder? When you have 3 losses and 0 wins, are you going to work harder or assume you’re not going to make the play offs? When you have a bad quarter are you going to assume your business is doomed or make adjustments? In my opinion perseverance is one of the most important lessons I learned from playing basketball. From recreation league basketball to college basketball there were so many times perseverance was necessary. Whether it was losing games, not playing well, coaches and teammates I didn’t get along with…there was ALWAYS something that required perseverance; One of the most important qualities in sports and in life. Always, always, always, persevere. And in the words of the great Jimmy Valvano, “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.”