Technology development was high on the priority list when Paul Abbott joined Amex GBT as CEO four years ago.
He felt that while the company was strong in travel management services, he also wanted it to be able to offer software services.
Now, he said 77% of its transactions are digital with 66% of those across Amex GBT’s own channels.
A further development over Abbott’s tenure has been addressing the largely unmanaged small- to medium-sized business market. Today, 50% of the company’s revenue and profits come from the SMB market.
Abbott doesn’t claim these developments as personal achievements but rather credits the 20,000-strong team he said has “transformed the company.”
In a wide-ranging discussion in the PhocusWire studio at The Phocuswright Conference, Abbott discussed the company’s goals and challenges for the year ahead as well as what the wider travel management industry is facing.
“There’s a more uncertain political and economic environment over the next 12 to 18 months, and we’re all going to have to navigate that successfully. Secondly, the single biggest challenge we all have to face together is to create a more sustainable future for the industry, and that requires some pretty bold and pretty aggressive change over the next 12 to 24 months.”
