India’s Tata Is Bucking Trends for Consulting Firms on Travel Spending
Photo Credit: Consultants are more likely to be on the road to "foster relationships and successfully serve their customers and teams," according to the Global Business Travel Association's Suzanne Neufang. Unsplash / Headway
Skift Take
Consulting firms were supposed to be the ones cutting back on travel, mostly to reduce carbon emissions. But not if that gets in the way of doing business it seems.
Corporate travel at global giant Tata Consultancy Services is on track to return to 2019 levels, despite predictions that the professional services sector would never recover due to company pledges to reduce carbon footprints.
But the company, with its 600,000-plus employees spread across 55 countries, saw an almost five-fold increase in spending on travel for its most recent quarter compared to a year ago.
The figures don't align with predictions that international consulting firms would be forced to curb flying as rivals including EY and Bain target drastic emission cuts linked to business travel.
Sharp Increase
Tata Consultancy Services, which is part of India's largest multinational business, the Tata group, spent $33 million on travel related to selling, general and administrative expenses during the three months to Dec. 31, 2022, which equates to its 2023 third quarter, it revealed this week. I
