Interview: Is There Room for Experimentation in Corporate Travel?

We recently launched our weekly Corporate Travel Innovation Report, a newsletter focused on the future of corporate travel, the big fault lines of disruption for the travel managers and buyers, the innovators emerging from the sector, and the changing business traveler habits that are upending how corporate travel is packaged, bought and sold. As part of our increased attention to corporate travel, we're sitting down with a handful of industry leaders for our new Corporate Travel CEO Listening Series to discover what the people at the top are concerned with now and where they are looking for inspiration. The tension between responsibility for traveler safety and the need to innovate is palpable in the corporate travel ecosystem. New sharing economy services and other back-end solutions are becoming popular, and it's a challenge for travel managers and buyers to assume the risk of experimenting with something new when so much is at stake. Kurt Knackstedt, current president of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) and founder of corporate travel automation technology provider Troovo, understands the trepidation with which many corporate travel managers and buyers consider change. In his role at ACTE, Knackstedt has seen forward-thinking corporate travel professionals moving towards an approach that allows experimentation in order to provide better service and more choice to business travelers. Knackstedt spoke to Skift from Australia about increasing traveler choice, the importance of corporate travel policy to a company's culture, and what he learned managing mining giant Rio Tinto's travel policy for years. Skift: When you look ahead, what are the major trends you see when it comes to technology affecting corporate travel? Knackstedt: It's going to be interesting. I'd like to see business common sense to drive the travel program in any company within the industry at large, as opposed to a policy driven approach. There's an understanding that corporates have specific responsibilities to their travelers, employees, shareholders, to