Culture Wars. This near-oxymoron has of late caught the fancy of industry pundits out to describe what’s going on in the TMC universe as players look to strategize their operating stances vis-à-vis their companies, clients and competitors in an ever-changing battle for share.
Over the past several years, particularly in the aftermath of the pandemic, TMCs have sought to strike the balance between travel programs designed to meet prescribed corporate results and those that lean into sometimes looser interpretations business travelers feel they can handle responsibly. The push has been accelerated more recently by attempts to curb trickle-down impact from shifts in the global economy as well as geopolitical events (think oil and airfares).
“We see the so-called ‘TMC culture wars’ less as a binary conflict and more as a period of recalibration,” observes industry veteran Maureen Brady, head of North America for Areka Consulting. “TMCs are under increasing pressure to deliver against hard metrics, cost control, compliance, duty of care, while also responding to travelers who expect greater autonomy, personalization and need to trust they’re getting the best options.”
Brady notes the tension arises when policy frameworks have not evolved at the same pace as traveler expectations or technological capability. “TMCs that are performing best are reframing the conversation away from control versus freedom and toward managed choice, supported by data and clear guardrails,” she says.
“If there’s a ‘culture war’ happening in this industry, I think it’s really a tension between organizations that see culture as a marketing tool and those that see it as an operating principle,” asserts Gabe Rizzi, president of Altour, the corporate travel management company under Internova Travel Group. “We’re firmly in the second camp. The distinction tends to speak for itself over time.”
Allison Breeding, chief marketing officer of Direct Travel, believes a strong culture creates consistency. “For employees, it provides a shared sense of purpose and clarity around how we make decisions and support one another. For clients, it translates into a more reliable experience, stronger partnerships and greater trust,” she says.
Shifting Paradigms
Much of the “ammunition” being supplied to the so-called culture wars derives from attempted – as well as realized – paradigm shifts within travel programs, particularly regarding policy compliance and the core concerns and challenges inherent in managing corporate travel and business travelers.
According to the recently released “Eighth Annual Global Business Travel Survey Report” compiled by SAP Concur in partnership with Wakefield Research, 48 percent of travelers have bent or broken policy while on a business trip. Indeed, the report states: “Policy alone does not drive compliance: Culture and communication are also vital components. When travelers don’t understand or see the changes their organization is making, and when organizations don’t take the time to understand their travelers, no level of enforcement will close the distance between intent and behavior.”
This gap is driving cultural changes both among TMCs and the corporate programs they serve, says Abi Cummings, a consultant with London-based Festive Road, a global consulting and outsourcing agency. “What we’re seeing is TMCs moving – at varying speeds – from policy enforcers to strategic partners and program enablers. Their role is increasingly focused on understanding client and traveler pain points, then using technology, data and process design to guide travelers toward the right outcomes rather than forcing compliance through rigid rules.”
Cummings explains the “healthiest” travel programs are purpose-led, and enable organizational objectives and affirm the value of each trip, while they “embed clear governance” throughout the traveler journey, helping determine where flexibility creates value and where standardization remains necessary. “When done well, travelers naturally engage with the program while organizations continue to meet their objectives around duty of care, sustainability, compliance and budget management,” says Cummings.
Charting the Challenges
“We don’t necessarily view culture and compliance as opposing forces,” says Direct Travel’s Breeding, noting the most effective travel programs create alignment between organizational goals and traveler needs. “When employees understand why policies exist and how they support broader business objectives, compliance becomes much easier to achieve.”
The challenge is finding the balance between governance and flexibility. “Organizations need visibility, consistency and control, but travelers also expect convenience and a positive experience,” she says. “The best programs recognize that those objectives can co-exist.”
Cummings agrees “the challenge is real,” but sees it less as a “culture war” and more as a rebalancing exercise that all TMCs are navigating as the industry continues to evolve. “Traditionally, corporate travel programs were built around control, compliance and cost containment, with less focus on traveler experience and behavior,” she says. “Today, travelers and bookers expect greater autonomy, flexibility and consumer-grade experiences that mirror what they encounter in their personal lives. The question is no longer whether organizations should prioritize control or traveler experience, but how they successfully deliver both.”
According to Rizzi, there is “a definitive balance that must be struck” between what’s in and out of compliance and how that either supports or detracts from a client’s employee culture.
“The challenge I see most often is when policy becomes a substitute for judgment,” he cautions. “When travelers and travel managers stop thinking critically because the policy tells them what to do, you lose something important. What culture can do is restore that judgment and help people understand the intent behind the policy, not just the letter of it, so they can make smart decisions in the gray areas. That’s where the work happens. The challenge doesn’t go away, but culture gives you a much better way to navigate it.”
That said, Fox World Travel’s chief culture officer, Audra D. Mead suggests the greatest challenge is for organizations to remember that policies are designed to support people, not the other way around. “This is where friction often arises. While organizations naturally want policy compliance, consistency and an acceptable level of cost control, associates are looking for flexibility and experiences that acknowledge they are individuals with varying needs and circumstances. Friction occurs when policies are so rigid that they damage associate trust,” she says.
Evaluating Cultural Alignment
One has to wonder, then, how easy it is to mesh a corporate culture with travel policies that are tightly managed as opposed to those with a range of flex.
Neither approach is inherently easier, according to Dale Eastlund, a senior consultant at GoldSpring Consulting. “Success depends on alignment with leadership and how the company naturally operates. If leadership values structure, a tightly managed policy fits; if they value autonomy, a flexible policy fits,” he explains. Eastlund suggests a practical way to achieve alignment is to: (1) run leadership alignment workshops to set risk tolerance and objectives, (2) convert intent into enforceable rules and exception paths, and (3) operationalize via technology, reporting and training. “When culture and policy diverge, phased pilots and measurement help bridge the gap,” he adds.
Tightly managed policies work well in organizations where consistency, risk mitigation and centralized decision-making are part of the DNA, says Areka’s Brady. “More flexible policies can be equally effective in cultures that emphasize individual/department accountability, provided expectations are clearly articulated. Challenges emerge when there is a mismatch,” she warns.
“I’ve seen both work and both fail,” says Rizzi. “The policy structure is almost secondary to the question of whether the organization trusts its people. Tightly managed programs can absolutely co-exist with a strong culture if the people inside the organization understand why those guardrails exist and believe they’re fair and employee centric. Flexible programs can fall apart culturally if there’s no shared sense of responsibility to go with the freedom flexibility provides.”
Mead agrees that the “most-effective” travel programs balance accountability with empathy and/or understanding. “When associates understand the ‘why’ behind the policies, and when organizations remain open to being reasonably flexible, compliance becomes less about enforcement and more about shared responsibility. This is where corporate culture goals are balanced because associates have become part of the conversation,” says Mead.
What About the Basics?
Addressing the core concerns in managing corporate travel – policy compliance, costs (T&E), traveler health and duty of care, (e.g., travel insurance, destination alerts), sourcing, tech usage and streamlining, vendor negotiations, etc. – is key in mitigating culture skirmishes.
“It used to be that many of these areas within a travel program were managed in silos,” says Cummings. “Travel managers and teams didn’t always step back and look at the bigger picture, and when they did, connecting all the moving parts often felt complex. Today, organizations can take a much more panoramic view of their travel program, making it easier to identify efficiencies, unlock value and improve outcomes across multiple areas at once.”
For example, she suggests intuitive, consumer-grade booking technology drives adoption because travelers want to use it, which in turn improves compliance and traveler satisfaction.
“We advise TMCs to treat these concerns as an integrated ecosystem rather than discrete issues,” says Areka’s Brady. “Technology and data play a critical role, enabling real-time visibility, proactive risk management and more nuanced policy enforcement. The goal is to embed travel management into corporate culture, not position it as an external constraint.”
Rizzi says Altour does approach the components as a single system, not a set of competing priorities. “Cost discipline and traveler wellbeing aren’t opposites, and a program that burns out your travelers or ignores their safety is going to cost you a lot more in the long run,” he stresses. “What culture gives you is a common language for navigating these tradeoffs. When the values are clear, you don’t need a policy for every scenario. People know that responsible cost management doesn’t mean cutting corners on safety. They know that investing in better technology isn’t a luxury, it’s how you serve people well at scale. It’s not being tech dependent but rather tech enabled. When those things are internalized, you spend a lot less time resolving conflicts between priorities and a lot more time executing against them,” he notes.
“At the end of the day, it’s about integration. When you have the right culture in place, those priorities end up reinforcing each other,” says Rizzi.
“Our role is to help organizations simplify complexity while delivering the visibility, support and traveler experience they need to succeed. That means combining technology, data and expert support to make travel easier to manage while maintaining the controls and safeguards organizations require,” notes Direct Travel’s Breeding. “[We] can manage costs, fulfill duty-of-care responsibilities and maintain visibility into their programs. Travelers need confidence that they can travel safely, efficiently and productively. When done well, travelers experience less friction, and organizations gain greater confidence in their travel programs.”
Business travel has always involved balancing multiple priorities, but today’s environment requires organizations to do so with greater intentionality, says Mead. “We view these priorities as interconnected responsibilities. Being good stewards of the company’s money matters because sustainable travel programs are essential. Duty of care matters because travelers deserve to feel supported and protected. Technology matters because it should simplify the experience rather than complicate it.
“Our role in designing our own program as well as helping our customers design theirs is to have one that delivers on all of these objectives while keeping the traveler at the center of decision-making. When our associates trust that we are considering both business needs and personal well-being, adoption increases and our travel program is more effective overall,” says Mead.
Balancing executive leadership goals with travel management execution results in the best-managed travel programs, suggests GoldSpring’s Eastlund. “Practically, balance comes from making tradeoffs explicit and measurable: Prioritize outcomes (cost, safety, traveler satisfaction), instrument bookings and expenses to monitor compliance and exceptions, and use a risk tolerance matrix to guide sourcing and supplier selection. TMCs should provide dashboards, scenario modeling and procurement guidance so leadership can see the real impact of policy changes and negotiate contracts that preserve both flexibility and duty of care,” he says.
Marking Guideposts
Brady says Areka looks to several guideposts to help evaluate cultural alignment for TMCs. “We look at corporate/firm objectives, leadership mindset, decision-making practices, tolerance for risk, communication norms and how accountability is reinforced across the organization. We also assess how technology is used. Is it used as extension of the employee to enable insight and empowerment or simply enforce compliance? Cultural alignment becomes clear when policy intent, traveler behavior and operational execution reinforce one another,” she says.
GoldSpring goes down two tracks in its evaluation, according to senior consultant Patrick Maas. “We use a proprietary ‘cultural assessment’ tool when clients prefer structured and detailed analysis of potential suppliers,” he notes, while more informal discussions use a set of five guideposts to evaluate whether behavior and data align with policy. These include behavioral alignment (booking and expense data vs. policy); leadership signals (communications and approval patterns); traveler sentiment (net promoter scores and qualitative feedback); operational capability (service-level agreements, tech integrations, reporting cadence); and risk posture (duty of care and incident response). “These indicators identify gaps and prioritize remediation,” says Maas.
Festive Road’s approach is structured but pragmatic, says Cummings. It looks to define the role of travel in the organization, the balance of priorities (weighing cost/value), customer (experience), and care (safety, sustainability) as guiding principles. It relies on the lived experience (understanding how travelers actually behave versus what policy/program assumes), and partner alignment – selecting TMCs based on shared vision, values and strategic fit to ensure future supplier roadmaps align with the client’s long-term travel program objectives, rather than focusing solely on current capabilities.
“These create a structured lens to assess whether a program, and its partners, fit the organization’s culture,” says Cummings.
Moving Forward
Ultimately, says Brady, “what is being described as a ‘culture war’ is, in our view, really about TMCs finding their footing in a new model for delivering services and value.”
As client expectations evolve, Brady advises, TMCs will need to align their offerings with the way organizations are increasingly viewing their employees and the role of business travel. “The TMCs that succeed will be those that modernize not only policies and tools, but their overall value proposition and partnership with clients,” she notes.
“We don’t see the future as a choice between people and policy, or between flexibility and control” says Breeding. “We believe the opportunity lies in building travel programs that bring those priorities together in a way that feels seamless for travelers and manageable for organizations.”
