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On April 1, CWT Russia, a part of the Vipservice holding, celebrated its 25th birthday. On the day before their big anniversary, we asked their head Alexei Kushkin about the latest news of the agency: from re-branding to moving to a new office. More about the results and plans of the company as they turn quarter century below.
Alexei, CWT Russia turns 25. What experience has the company accumulated by this impressive date?
– The largest international agency in Russia CWT has been organising business travel and events since 1994. In April of 2017, the global office of CWT signed a strategic contract with Vipservice to make the Russian branch an independent part of the holding. Today, CWT Russia manages offices in three cities: Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Krasnodar, with more than 240 employees in total. The client portfolio of CWT Russia includes more than 200 global companies and their representatives. With many of them, CWT has been working for about 10 years, on average. Annual customer retention rate in 2018 was 97%, customer satisfaction (NPS) – about 80%. This is very impressive in terms of the global market.
CWT Russia joined Vipservice two years ago, and that was when you became the head of the Russian branch. What has this alliance achieved by now?
– I am grateful to the management of the holding to trusting me with this project. It was an important challenge for me. Moreover, I was happy to be a part of such a strong team of professionals in business travel and MICE. In these two years we managed to fully switch to the local IT product Portbilet, optimise internal workflow, and become more efficient and attractive to our customers. It was definitely made possible thanks to active cooperation with the strong aviation and subagent department of Vipservice, the IT and procurements department, and many other divisions of the holding. Today, we see undoubted and consistent growth tendency: in 2018 the business grew by 15% in sales and by 30% in profit.
Soon, we are going to become even closer – in late-April the Moscow office of CWT is moving in together with Vipservice. How is your new home?
– It's a wonderful, spacious, and cosy office with everything to create a healthy work environment. It is modern and stylish, with lots of glass, wood, and most importantly, light. The entire team of CWT Moscow can't wait to start the move.
We know that there were some internal changes in the company. This February, CWT presented a new brand concept. Will you tell us a few words about it?
– We transformed the full name Carlson Wagonlit Travel into the short abbreviation CWT. The identity has also changed: now it's graphite black and orange. Its general message is simplicity and technology. It is still recognisable but more up-to-date, dynamic, noticeable. This is all within our business goals: to make business travels simpler and more advanced while making management more efficient. We apply this radically new approach to all customers and employees.
How did re-branding influence your corporate culture?
– The new brand determined three key values: 1. making travelling simple and comfortable; 2. more choice – more opportunities; 3. moving forward together. In order to help our staff understand them and the contribution they can make to the common goal we are launching a corporate projects based on business learning in the digital library of Vipservice. We have already compiled lists of useful books that talk about our values, for different departments. Members of the project will read these books and use the material to prepare suggestions to increase the efficiency of their work and individual development plans. In turn, we will put the best suggestions into practice and reward their authors. I believe that it will inspire our professionals to move forward and boost the quality of the Product we offer.
In the end of our talk I'd like to congratulate all colleagues on the 25th anniversary of CWT Russia and wish us all to keep growing together!
