In search of higher purpose
CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER AT SOCIETY FOR INCENTIVE TRAVEL EXCELLENCE ( SITE ), PADRAIC GILLIGAN ANALYSES SOME SHIFTING SANDS IN THE INCENTIVE TRAVEL SECTOR
R esearch over the past five years into the reasons why corporations run incentive travel programmes demonstrates a swerve away from hard dollar returns and an increasing focus on soft power .
While the top reasons for having a corporate incentive remain sales , revenues and overall company profitability , it ’ s interesting to note how ‘ softer ’ objectives have climbed the rankings and are now impacting the design for incentive travel . We have seen this repeatedly in the results of the annual Incentive Travel Index , undertaken by SITE Foundation and IRF , in partnership with Oxford Economics .
Profitability is still No . 1 objective for incentive travel The ascent of softer objectives may also be seen via the comments which respondents provide on survey forms : “ Alignment around company culture ”, “ Recognition and generate a sense of purpose ”. Have we finally and totally abandoned “ Return on Investment ” as the ultimate objective for an incentive travel experience , replacing it with limp-wristed nonsense and a clarion call to assemble , join hands and sing Kumbaya ?
No is the obvious answer , especially when you look at the survey results . So Financial Controllers , Procurement Officers and Bean Counters in general can relax in the knowledge that their hegemony in the boardroom is secure , at least for the foreseeable future .
What can be detected , and noted as a ‘ trend ’, however , is the fact that softer objectives are rising significantly in the ranking . Not to the point , perhaps , that board rooms will be overrun by joss sticks and kittens , but enough to report an underlying change in mood , a recalibration , the faint but distinct sound of the beginnings of a counter melody .
Counter melody in business literature But this is not surprising . It ’ s been bubbling under in the corporate world for a while . It was , perhaps , first called out by the management guru Peter Drucker years ago when he intoned his famous ‘ Culture eats strategy for breakfast ’. Pioneers are , by definition , ahead of their times and Drucker ’ s dictum may have fallen initially on poor soil . But it did eventually germinate , and grow and nowadays there ’ s a robustness about it as the culture conversation flourishes .
These days the word ‘ culture ’ appears more and more frequently on the pages of Harvard Business Review , a sure bellwether of what ’ s really happening in the corporate world ; and now another word has joined our business vocabulary : purpose .
Above : Padraic Gilligan
Incentive travel and the search for higher purpose This brings us back to the whole notion of incentives and motivation . What motivates me , increasingly , is not what I do or , indeed , how I do it . It is , rather , why I do it , that is the higher purpose that I find at the core of my work . To use a hackneyed phrase , it ’ s work as a ‘ vocation ’, work that binds me to a deeper sense of meaning , a reason more than money or recognition to get out of bed and spend eight hours in an office .
How is incentive travel connected with higher purpose ? This all brings us back to the research and to what it ’ s telling us about workplaces today . While , on the one hand , we ’ re seeing a focus on profitability , we ’ re also seeing an emerging picture about workplace culture as a massive area of concern for corporations , who are now trying to put their houses in order because employees , particularly millennials and GenZ , are voting with their feet , leaving well paid jobs , not because the competition pays them more or provides a better catered breakfast , but because it offers purposeful , meaningful employment .
It ’ s heartening to note how incentive travel is evolving so as to respond to this shift in emphasis . I recall many years operating a programme in Killarney for an FMCG company where the qualifiers all had standard rooms and the officers all had suites . The officers made the speeches and handed out the awards but rarely mixed with the qualifiers .
We now know that incentive programmes facilitate connections between all attendees . Increasingly , we ’ re seeing this impact on aspects of programme design with , perhaps , place settings being used to connect officers with specific qualifiers . I predict it will lead to smaller , but more frequent programmes , with a shift from quantity to quality as higher purpose increasingly becomes an aspirational outcome of incentive travel . n
ISSUE 122 / CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD / 27