We work
to win your heart
When during the interview Galina Polishchuk said that she wanted to leave the business travel industry altogether, I confess that I felt confused: in my opinion, Russian business travel cannot be imagined without Galia. She is not just an authoritative expert in the field of travel procurement and MICE, a professional who is respected, loved, and popular. Galia's phenomenon is that her outlook always is a little wider than a particular business. She is worried for the Russian travel community as a whole.
Galia remained in it fortunately for our industry. The business proposal from the Vipservice holding turned out to be so "appropriate for the moment" that, by our heroine's own admission, she could not resist.
“We work to win your heart” - this is how the Vipservice holding defines its mission. As we can judge by our interview with Galina Polishchuk, the choice of this company came to her liking.
What will become an indicator of effective work in the corporate segment for Galina, when is the market recovery to be expected, why it is so important not to miss the moment of peak of her business and what do golden weights have to do with it, Galia spoke with BBT Russia.
- Galia, you had come to the corporate business of the Vipservice holding as a director in January, already in April you became a commercial director, and a month ago we learned about your new appointment at the company - now you are a managing director and you are in charge of the entire corporate block! Why did you choose Vipservice?
- When I thought about an area which I would like to develop further professionally in, I came to the conclusion that I want to work in a company that is connected with digital and development of digital solutions. I really wanted to deal with new business models, develop customer service with a meaning that helps the business to win love of customers and respect of partners.
At the moment, there were even thoughts of leaving the industry. Honestly saying, I did not consider the travel industry in the perspective of my development. How did it happen that I have stayed?
The proposal for cooperation with the Vipservice holding corporate business 100% coincided with my vision of myself. I really liked how the acquaintance had passed: I was told openly about products and IT services, they showed how they work, what analytics tools are used by employees and for clients. A whole new world! And it coincided with my inner values and aspirations.
I have been in the industry for a very long time - 25 years, and, of course, I knew about the corporate business of Vipservice. At the same time, it became an incredible discovery for me. An office, a team, well-organized business processes, dynamics and, of course, scale. This includes TMC for large customers with classic business travel services for Russian and global clients, Executive Desk service, strategic consulting in the field of business travel and its own IT development center. In addition, in the corporate business there is a separate service for medium and small businesses, “Unmanaged Travel” TMC Light Portbilet, which helps to order business trips completely online for those customers who book trips from time to time, and they immediately automatically receive all closing documents in a single window. And, of course, the MICE team, which creates each event with its own flavor, from a small intimate event to cyclic conferences and forums.
The Vipservice holding is a combination of various businesses, there are more than 8 of them today, and all of them are in the field of travel. From online ticket booking for individuals, a hotel chain to its own concierge service, a training center, IT development and even a payment system. All of this, of course, has its advantages for corporate clients and for personal development. It is very important that all businesses are a single ecosystem that works as a well-coordinated mechanism, therefore, in this case, the same synergy of merits and pluses is obtained when 1 + 1 = 3. I, personally, as a creative person, make it immediately clear to me that all these opportunities can be used and a variety of collaborations can be made, come up with something new for clients.
As a Chief Data Officer, I knew 100% value of data culture and analytics for business and corporate customers. Indeed, in fact, TMC is not just about organizing business trips, but also expert advice on how a client can manage a travel budget efficiently, and this requires a well-structured process of working with data.
For both the corporate business and the holding, data-driven management both internally for employees and for customer support is of particular value. That is why the next step was at the beginning my appointment to the position of commercial director, and now the managing director of corporate business. Thus, two strategic directions merged - work with analytics, knowledge of customer needs and ability to build a strong team.
- You mentioned that the Vipservice holding had combined different businesses. What benefits do corporate clients get from it?
- One of the first things that comes to mind is financial stability. And, of course, when the pandemic began, it was a diversified portfolio of nearly a dozen businesses that kept the holding afloat. So, a reliable support inside, allowed the corporate business to 100% fulfill all its obligations, and we did not let a single client down.
In addition, the Vipservice holding has its own procurement service, which allows corporate buyers to receive special rates and conclude beneficial trilateral agreements.
Moreover, the Vipservice holding is constantly growing and replenishing the team with new professionals. Due to the renewal, there is a movement forward. And this definitely improves quality of our products and services.
And in 2019, the holding, together with Higher School of Economics, launched a program for training its own management personnel. And for pandemic, Vipservice completely retained the team of top managers, and 15 managers who head various departments of the holding received MBA. They studied for 18 months, remotely, at the working place. Interestingly, some of the theses formed basis of the company's products. Our clients are about to also see benefits of this high-quality training in updated strategy, business processes and services.
The holding also has its own IT development center, so it gives access to the entire landscape of useful services for our clients. For example, the transport aggregator "TicketMe" unites all aviation content, including connection via the NDC protocol, or "HotelStar", an online platform with hotel content. The holding also has its own processing center and theMap payment system. So, quite recently, thanks to this development, our clients from medium and small businesses have received a convenient opportunity to pay for services using a QR code online from any debit card.
Of course, we also have our own IT developments in the corporate business, so this is a mutual partner tandem, our developments have been easily integrated with each other. For example, we have our own automated platform for assessing the quality of customer service, which allows us to track compliance with SLA. We see the entire path of the application from start to finish, and it doesn't matter what channel it came from - mail, messenger or phone. In addition, we have a flexible predictive analytics platform "OKO". By the way, it was with this product that my new acquaintance with the corporate business "Vipservice" began. We will definitely continue to work on its development. This is a modern solution, with the help of which, literally in one click, you can receive various data necessary to control spending of funds, taking into account travel policy, and benchmark reports. The tool has a huge number of filters. In other words, it is a palette of different possibilities, and all information is being updated in real time.
The tool is new, very necessary, and useful. Right now, a project is on its way to connect clients to it.
- What will be an indicator of effective work in your new position for you next year?
- For me, efficiency is like P. Drucker's, “doing the right thing”, that is, it is much more important in business than doing things right. For any business, the performance indicator must be measurable, in numbers - for me, first of all, it is an increase in profitability, and an increase in turnover. But this is a consequence of the fact that our team and I “do the right thing” - we provide great service, bring together the best employees who are passionate about a common cause, who are motivated to make our clients happy. I am a fan of the quality of service, we all are fans. By the way, in 2022 we will have a lot of interesting proposals for our clients. Right now is a year of serious preparation to make them.
It is critical for me that people in the company feel like they are part of the whole and clearly know the business goals. I see how the guys' eyes are burning - they want to win, and we have a certain number of these victories every day. Celebrating them, developing a team is very important for me. Professional training of colleagues and growth of employee productivity helps to be better than the whole company. This is another indicator of effectiveness.
All these areas have been digitized. Their positive dynamics, transferred to the achievement of business goals, is becoming for me a measure of success.
- Galya, did I understand correctly that corporate business survived the pandemic with the least losses?
- It cannot be said that we have already crossed this line or survived this period. Other strains appear, every day we face with new rules for moving around the world. The situation only forces us to be in constant shape and look for ways to remain leaders in difficult times.
Yes, of course, we experienced serious difficulties at the beginning of the pandemic. The entire industry stood up. The corporate business Vipservice courageously overcame these circumstances. And we spent this time with great benefit. For example, we created and launched the OKO system, which I had already mentioned. We also added omnichannel to the order automation system, built dashboards that can be customized for each client and show the effectiveness of work with any request. Moreover, feedback is very important for us: the customer survey is carried out automatically in our application control system - they give an assessment according to the ORDER, not just as a whole "we like or dislike you", but specifically according to the order. When disputable situations suddenly arise, the team leaders immediately contact a customer and find out what support is required. This is a well-structured operational work.
In addition, for our direction of organizing corporate business events, it was a period of powerful creativity, when clients had an opportunity to try new formats of events online and test them using augmented reality tools.
- According to your observations, companies are ready to send employees on business trips and hold events in a new reality?
- We see it in our clients. Personal communication will never lose its relevance, employees will fly. And we absolutely see that desire to go on business trips is very strong, because business needs to be saved.
It is unlikely that you will be able to increase your sales, effectively communicate with customers, and conclude profitable deals on the "remote" ZOOM. Yes, some internal procedural issues can be resolved on it, but story with clients is different. Personal contact is very important.
By the way, the international consulting company Deloitte has created the Why We Fly Matrix, where it clearly shows that it is very important to communicate with clients personally for success of a business. At the same time, experience of the pandemic has shown that use of online is quite sufficient for such classic dock trips as internal meetings of teams and management and trainings
- BBT Russia daily receives different numbers on how much the business travel market has fallen due to the pandemic and when to expect a recovery. Some are expecting it next year, others predict it in 2024. What are your predictions?
- I think that it is too early to expect a complete recovery of the industry. Travel resumes first in low-cost markets, low-cost air travel and relatively lower COVID restrictions. The statistics is pretty straight forward, for example, the latest survey of the Morgan Stanley travel managers showed that online meetings would replace an average of 27% of travel by 2022.
I believe at the beginning of the winter season we will see moderate growth, given the cold and flu season and travelers' fears of potential threats from COVID-19. However, according to the optimistic scenario, by the 4th quarter of 2022, when the coronavirus will have been removed from the emergency agenda, the expected level of travel expenses in different companies would gradually rise to 70-90% in relation to 2019.
- Galia, we have met you in the travel field more than once. But now you seem to be especially energetic and inspired. I dare to suggest that the matter is at the Skolkovo Business School, where last year you completed an educational program for directors and teams on digital transformation of companies. I'm right, aren't I?
- This is really another planet. After Skolkovo, a new life opened up for me. It is a meeting place for leaders of all ages. Leaders are not in terms of position, but leaders by nature, by their nature.
I graduated from my studies exactly when the pandemic began in Russia. Lucky! I went through everything offline. The training lasted six months. As a result, it was necessary to submit work - project or individual. Some of them formed the basis of someone's new businesses. Someone opened startups, someone pumped their current projects.
And plus we traveled to Europe - Holland and Germany, where we visited technology centers, giant companies, including Philips, Deutsche Bahn and a number of others. We were told about innovations, cool cases of digital transformations ... A huge amount of information about digital!
It was thanks to the school in Skolkovo that I realized that collaborations and partner programs are what now a business can develop. It became clear where the market and the world in general were heading.
- If in a nutshell?
- In any business there are the usual patterns of actions and decisions, when a certain algorithm leads to success. And sometimes this very habit is like “golden weights” that prevent you from going forward, thinking outside the box. Likewise, many leaders are sitting on these “golden weights”. Why kettlebells? Because they pull them to the ground. Well, what about? Let's squeeze this business to the maximum without changing anything. But there is a paradox here. To live harmoniously you need renewal. When it comes to its peak, it is important to capture this moment. Yes, the curve can go down because it takes time to change, but you need to start building a new successful story for your business in time.
- To what extent do lessons learned apply to our industry?
- Look, before, it took a lot of effort to prove value of the same online tool. The market was moving towards this, but, as we know, many people were hard to accept the changes. The new format called in polls. What happened in the pandemic? We all sat down at home. And what happened? That an online tool is the only way to organize your processes, see them, and even be able to control travel expenses - whether you work remotely, in an office or somewhere else.
Another excellent example is the joint venture between the Vipservice holding and British The Sincura Group Russia, which we launched almost during the pandemic. This is a concierge club for the most discerning clients, which involves more than just travel. And, imagine, it took off! Because people, not being able to fly, still lived an active business life.
- Galia, you have been called the most positive travel guru in the industry. What’s your inspiration?
- Who (smiling), 100% people. I only charge from people. I love the team, I love when like-minded people get together. And I, myself, am happy to share my energy. I feel a special thrill from communicating with young guys - they think differently, outside the box.
In general, I would like to say: do not be afraid of anything new. Do not be afraid to let this new into life. I very often meet with people who defend the old: "No, it works this way and cannot work otherwise!" And, honestly saying, she herself could fall into such a state. But you need to try, test different hypotheses.
I urge everyone not to stand still, to meet everything new. Do not be afraid of yourself and your desires. Be, not seem to be. And study, study and study 350 more times.
You know, the other day I caught myself thinking that I came exactly where I wanted to come. I was just not afraid of my thoughts and desires. In general, this is the most difficult story - to understand what you want. But as soon as that happens, miracles happen! Suddenly, somehow, the puzzle comes together.
Accidents, no coincidences... No coincidences! Regularities.
Interviewed by Marina Osipova
