So the business community is supporting calls for a third runway at Heathrow ? Not from where I’m sitting in the software and ICT industry they aren’t. If one thing is clear, when the economy comes out of this recession it will be significantly different, and if we are really looking to build a sustainable economy for the future we need new ways of doing business.
So more of the same is not what we need – a third runway at Heathrow sounds like profligacy in today’s environment, based on more business travel not less, fuelling the chimera of cheap flights.
Do we really need more business travel ? Possibly, but more than anything we need smart travel – travel when its really needed, and an increasing questioning of travel for travel’s sake. The alternatives are increasingly compelling – conference calling, video conferencing, sharing of documents, presentations and plans via collaborative tools are coming of age and are a serious alternative, and provide a vastly more sustainable model, saving time, costs and the environment.
Its interesting to note that many larger technology companies are now aiming to strip out significant elements of their travel budgets by asking the question – do I really need to be there ? and increasingly the answer is no.
Don’t get me wrong of course there are times when you do need to be there in person, to eyeball the customer or colleague, read the body language, and cement relationships but always ? every time you talk, with people you know well ? surely not.
For technology companies you could argue that they should indeed be walking the walk – after all their business is all about communications and many already use video conferencing solutions. But some of these are very expensive and only in the reach of large companies. However there is now a wide range of options from stringing together applications at the budget end such as Skype, Google docs and laptop video cameras, to more sophisticated solutions such as Webex and Sharepoint through to the full blown top of the market teleconferencing solutions, with lots of hosted conference calling facilities in between. You can automatically record the call, have the call moderated if you want, and share documents, depending on the service level you want. Increasingly these are in the reach of everyone, and the more we all use them the more the cost of these tools should reduce.
And what’s in it for you ? Well firstly look at the time you save. A meeting in London takes all day from Scotland and if you’re on the red eye considerably more than a working day – an hour’s conference call takes – well an hour. And money – an open ticket to London, even a budget flight ticket and all the extras or an hour’s phone call ? Even if you are hosting the service there’s no contest. And finally carbon offset ? minimal.
So let’s use the downturn to start using the tools of the future, and look at building new models for the way we do business. Let’s think hard before we inflict another runway on the people of west London and Berkshire, before we open the door to more environmental damage and seriously question the thinking that says “I need to be there”.
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