BETHESDA, Md. -- Radius, the global travel company formerly known
as Woodside Travel Trust, had something to say in response to
criticism from a competitor.
In a story published by TWcrossroads on Oct. 16,
Bruce Black, chief executive officer of McCord Travel Management
and chairman of Synergi Global Travel (the global consortium to
which McCord belongs), pointed out that some countries in the
Radius network are represented by more than one travel agency.
Black considered multi-agency representation in one country to
be a weakness, asking which of the 40 U.S. Radius agencies will win
bids when it's time to award a global account to a member in the
U.S.
Black speculated that the largest agencies within Radius --
Navigant, Travel and Transport and Northwestern Travel Management
for example -- are most likely to win accounts, and that bid losers
would become bitter.
Not so, said Bob Booth, senior vice president of marketing at
Radius. According to Booth, when agencies within Radius bid on
global business, the decision is based on a list of established
criteria.
Among other points, Booth mentioned that Radius takes into
account an agency's sales effort in a particular region of the
U.S., the agency's technology offering and whether the agency has
the time and resources available to service the account
properly.
The decision to award a global bid is made by Gregg Cothern,
vice president of business development at Radius, and Booth.
"We sort through bids to make sure that the right shareholder
[agency] matches what a company needs," said Booth. "That company
may not want the largest agency, they may want an agency smaller in
scale.
"We have multiple distribution options," added Booth, "and can
give the same or better service [than competitors] with a whole lot
more leverage."
Booth was referring to the $21 billion sales volume of the
125-plus shareholder agencies within Radius.
In contrast, Synergi's combined sales volume is about $7
billion, according to its Web site. When asked if there might be
overlapping criteria when judging U.S. agencies during the
bid-awarding process, Booth said it would be "unlikely but
possible."
When Radius does have to choose among closely matched agencies,
Booth does not anticipate any hard feelings by the agencies that
aren't awarded a global bid.
In fact, he expects agencies to "be glad Radius won the account
over American Express or Carlson."
Black also said he believed that when multiple agencies from one
country are bidding on an account, competition makes those agencies
less willing to reveal pricing strategies and best practices for
the good of the consortium.
Again, Radius disagreed. Booth said that agencies will be
willing to reveal best practices in order to reap the benefits of
belonging to an organization with $21 billion of negotiating power
behind it.