The Find: Companies wanting to cut costs could look at the example of British Telecom: by increasing the use of video, web and teleconferencing in lieu of travel, BT is saving $355 million a year.- The Source: The Economist’s Gulliver blog, covering business travel.
The Takeaway: In 2007, the Economist reports, BT’s 107,000 employees took part in 751,000 conferences as part of a company wide effort to increase “agile working.” So what have been the results? CO2 emissions are down as workers travel less and Jon Marsh, of the company’s Agile Working Practice, claims work-life balance has been improved for employees. But perhaps most startling of all is the bottom line: a $355 million a year savings. There are caveats and drawbacks, of course:
Such conferencing is not always suitable and BT employees do of course travel, when it is deemed “fit for purpose”. The process sounds arduous, with all trips needing clearance by managers who assess pre-trip reports.
Still, expenditures on business travel are down 70 percent in the last year, which, you have to admit, is pretty impressive.
The Question: Could your firm benefit from following BT’s example?
