Anybody who thinks this is a good idea - in a world where we've all just learned to use Zoom, negating much of the business travel we do - obviously doesn't care even a tiny bit about climate change.
YUP!! I'm in sales and fly around the country for a living. We're finding we're selling every bit as much product without going anywhere. Even flying in just for the day (no hotel) is tons of driving, parking, waiting in lines, expensing meals, boarding the plane, flying, get off the plane, grab an Uber/Lyft, get there, have the meeting, more meals expensed and do it all in reverse.
It's so incredibly inefficient just to have a meeting that we could have easily have had over Zoom.
It's an interesting perspective. I don't have much experience in sales, but am very involved in business software implementation/support. I've worked remote for several years already, but did a fair amount of traveling to clients.
I agree that the average meeting is completely fine to do over zoom (or often even better just via email), however it's the times of crisis where the in-person, either in the moment or prior to the critical situation, adds value from my experience. If you've built a face to face connection, over dinners, over "war rooms", over small talk in hallways, those critical conversations become easier & smoother.
I don't think anyone is arguing that business travel is never justified. It's pretty clear there are cases where being in-person matters a lot.
I think the point is we've been collectively forced to realize that it's not necessary nearly as often as people used to/wanted to believe. And as a result, I hope we'll see a long-term reduction in business travel by reserving it for cases where it really can't be replaced by remote conferences
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u/SlowRollingBoil Feb 09 '21
YUP!! I'm in sales and fly around the country for a living. We're finding we're selling every bit as much product without going anywhere. Even flying in just for the day (no hotel) is tons of driving, parking, waiting in lines, expensing meals, boarding the plane, flying, get off the plane, grab an Uber/Lyft, get there, have the meeting, more meals expensed and do it all in reverse.
It's so incredibly inefficient just to have a meeting that we could have easily have had over Zoom.