Take my poll

As we saw in 2009, too often travel is simply cut across the board to preserve cash flow and profitability - but the ROI of travel reports that were done this year (full disclosure, we underwrote one with NBTA!) shows a direct correlation between incremental sales and travel expenditures. Many might say, No Duh, you have to travel to drive sales, but there is an optimal level of travel to be competitive in each industry and companies should be asking themselves where they stand in terms of competitiveness, especially as companies start hiring again and travel policies and budgets become a key component in employee attraction and retention. Definitely one way to preserve job security in the current environment is to think more strategically about how your role supports the business -- any role that is -- but for travel managers in particular, if they can make the case or the connection that their travel budgets and plans are supporting business goals like sales (and profitability as T&E savings still do drop to the bottom line) that says job security -- and marketability -- in any economy.