025-27 TTGB INTERVIEW 4/11/08 16:17 Page 26
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Adam White
Managing director,
Bath Business Travel
L50480
company RE Bath Travel is acquiring a 100% stake a44 2007 to date - Bath Travel
in Baxter Hoare, will boost annual revenue to more Group. Managing director,
than £30 million, and propels the company into the top
Bath Business Travel,
25 UK TMCs.
including the groups and
This takeover deal typifies White’s business style, and
MICE, airfares and medical
he has been at the cutting edge of the business travel
repatriation businesses
arena for some time now. Yet he maintains a grounded
a44 2006 - Gardening leave
approach to the job, thanks to his humble beginnings in a44 1996-2005 - Airtours/
the “back shop” of a high street travel agency. MyTravel. Managing director,
In the late 1970s, a young White was inspired to
Business Travel Management
pursue a career in travel while studying in France.
(BTM); also deputy
Meandering through the cafe-lined boulevards of Paris,
Chairman GTMC and Radius
he happened upon a branch of Thomas Cook – then
board member
called Cook’s. “I looked inside and it was a hive of
a44 1979-1996 - The Thomas
activity. There was a real buzz about the place, and it
Cook Group. Various
was at that moment I decided to carve out a career in
operational and purchasing
travel, with the sole objective of getting a transfer to
roles covering leisure,
business travel and
that office,” he said.
foreign exchange
Business fundamentals
Likes: Passionate people,
learning, following Arsenal
White didn’t realise at the time that the English and
French divisions of Cook’s never spoke to each other but,
Dislikes: Unfairness,
undeterred, he retuned to London and landed his first
company politics, people
who hog the middle lane
job with the travel agency.
on empty motorways!
“I spent the first six months performing the most
menial of tasks such as unpacking brochures, stacking
shelves and cleaning the store room,” he recalls. “It
taught me about the business fundamentals of a
travel agency: patience, courtesy and looking from the
bottom up. The overall training provided by Thomas
Cook was fantastic.”
It was so good that nowadays White is one of the
industry’s foremost advocates for staff learning and
education. He actively encourages staff to study for
City & Guilds certificates, offered in conjunction with throughout the UK. White acknowledges the depth of
the Guild of Travel Management Companies. Under his the current financial crisis is profound, but insists there
guidance, earlier this year one of his employees became are positives to be taken from the situation.
the first chairman of the GTMC’s leaders of tomorrow “There are similarities with post-9/11, but this is far
group – GTMC Twenty/20. more serious. Late 2001 to early 2002 was awful, and I
“I know from experience how important learning is for had to make people redundant. But the difficult period
both the individual and the business. During my first was relatively short. This slowdown has far more serious
year with Bath, we spoke to every member of the staff long-term implications. Businesses will batten down the
to evaluate their training needs. Our strategy is to hatches, with all marginal travel ruled out. Concerns over
encourage and support personal development.” the survival of some airlines will provoke a migration to
Finding staff in the south is often a problem, so much cash-rich carriers that are perceived as secure, coupled
so that he is actively looking to forge links with local with an increase in airline failure insurance which will
educational institutions. “It’s not like London, where become standard drill when buying air tickets.”
you’ll have a number of applications for each and every
position,” he says. “Working with local colleges and Ready to pounce
universities to establish lasting relationships will benefit He adds that they have to be prepared for the future.
the future of our business and the local economy.” “Smart companies won’t hunker down so deeply that
But it is the future of the economy at local, national they lose sight of what’s going on. They’ll be watching
and global level which is causing major concern closely to pounce on the new business opportunities that
ttgbusiness.com a79 november 2008
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