Behind CWT’s Effort to Go Digital-First
Photo Credit: A stock photo of a businessman talking on his phone in an airport. Unsplash / VanveenJF
Skift Take
The future isn't here yet, but at least big travel management companies like CWT have come to realize the importance of improving the experience of actual travelers instead of focusing on travel managers alone.
When Carlson Wagonlit Travel announced last month it would officially rebrand as CWT to better reflect its new focus on technology, a fresh question was posed to the world of corporate travel and this cynical journalist: What exactly has CWT been doing differently over the last few years?
Andrew Jordan, CWT's chief product and technology officer, says internal strategic shifts and a wider investment in building out the company's technology platform has been the most important factor in the travel management company's recent transition.
Jordan, CEO Kurt Ekert, and other executives pushed to shift the culture of the company beginning in 2016. This involved encouraging better teamwork across different divisions of the company and creating a new department called "Traveler Experience" to put a stronger focus on the user experience of actual travelers.
The company also staffed up its data operations, employing more than 200 to work on building better algorithms surrounding digital
