In this Zoom Era you might assume that the "final authority" in your law firm will never again pop for a business trip for you. Instead, you will stuck at home or even in the reopened office (Ropes & Gray makes that mandatory in September) where your parameters are quite circumcribed.
Actually, the reverse could play out.
As Bloomberg reports, the hospitality industry is reimaging business travel. Among those envisioning a whole new mindset and strategies is American Express' Evan Konwiser.
Essentially the future of business travel will be embedded in your law firm's organizational culture. Given the acknowledged importance of soft skills, organizations will be leveraging travel primarily as a tool for bonding. Either starting the process or deepening the ties. Success happens through people - and the links among them.
Joe, whose IP practice is based in the brutal winters of Illinois, will be assigned to travel to where the firm's M&A practice is in North Carolina. There he will get to know the M&A front lines, including the staff.
Once the trust is there, the two functions have a platform for creating synergies, including in marketing.
The first step on that could be designing experiences which will accelerate the getting-to-know-each-other. Visits will likely be more structured. Everyone in the loop could go to ocean and man boats which require extreme teamwork for survival.
No fool, Joe recognizes that the twice-a-year trip is a kind of perk. Also, the ability to meet in-person can generate results which help his career. The research on mirror neurons proved out how human beings influence each other, cell by cell. Press the flesh, squeeze out a synergy.
What will also be 2021 business travel is the preoccupation with sun. Joe's morale might have taken a hit if he had been assigned to absorb all the inconvenience of travel to wind up in the dead of winter in upstate New York.
Also part of the future of business travel will be green. That extends from the modes of transportation to how lodging and dining areas operate. No law partner will have to apologize for taking that trip to London, England.
In addition, the pall cast on a trip by red tape will be lifted. From April 2020 through December 2020, business travel in North America had plunded 79%. To turn that around those in the loop are concentrating on how to remove the nuisance factors. However, new musts could be added. Among them could be a COVID-19 Vaccination Passport.
Road warriors, such as in management consulting and sales who complained, had branded business travel as a necessary evil.
However, overall that wasn't the case.
In fact, as you know, elite professional service firms such as in law and public relations put their headquarters in cool metro areas in trophy buildings to attract new clients. Who doesn't welcome a business trip to Manhattan or San Francisco to interview the next law firm or public relations agency.
Yes, for the majority of professionals, traveling, at least on the employer's dime, is a treat. Currently the hospitality industry is adding new kinds of value to that. At the top of the list is helping raise the organization's collective Emotional Intelligence.
Yes, place your paid sponsored content on this blog. Affordable rates. Please contact Jane Genova at janegenova374@gmail.com.
Comments