Podcast: The intrapreneurial travel manager

Travel managers must adopt an intrapreneurial mindset to drive meaningful change for their travel programs and travelers.

For the 16th episode of The Travel Is a Human Emotion Podcast, Spotnana SVP of Marketing Justin Schuster spoke with Greeley Koch, Managing Director at 490 Consulting and an adjunct professor at NYU’s Tisch Center of Hospitality. 

Koch, a long-time travel industry leader, detailed why an intrapreneurial mindset has become a new superpower for travel managers, how to cultivate the skills required, and why this approach is critical for improving traveler experiences.

Defining the intrapreneurial mindset

Koch described the current state of the industry as a paradox: “There’s so much innovation going on right now, and there’s still so much confusion.”

An “intrapreneur” is someone who acts as an entrepreneur within his or her own company. 

Koch explained why he has spent time over the past several months hosting discussions and education sessions on the concept after seeing a disconnect: “On the supply side, there was frustration with new things not being adopted. When I talk to travel buyers, I hear frustrations from them because they’ve got all these [new innovations] flying at them, yet they are still working on getting their program running for today.” 

He noticed that the most successful travel managers “were acting as entrepreneurs within their company. Hence the term intrapreneurs.”

Cultivating this mindset requires a specific set of skills. Koch advises that the first is “to really stay focused on the purpose, what you’re really trying to accomplish,” avoiding the common trap of getting bogged down in procedural hurdles. 

This focus must be paired with a willingness to take calculated risks. “You can do pilots and test them,” Koch said, suggesting that innovators “do things in a bite-sized chunk and are able to pivot.” Of course, any attempt to drive change will meet resistance, which is why resilience is critical to driving change. 

Finally, none of this is possible without a relentless curiosity. In a landscape of complex new concepts, Koch stressed that “we all need to be curious” and take the time to truly understand what new solutions can enhance our programs.

Embracing failure on the journey to achieving success

An intepreneurial approach requires a cultural shift that supports experimentation. Koch insisted that travel managers “can’t be afraid of failure,” but this is only possible when they have built enough trust to try new things without fear of reprisal.

“The travel manager intrepreneurs that I’ve talked to, they’ve built up enough support within their company that allows them to try things and not be afraid,” he said. “You can’t think about: if I do this and it bombs, am I going to lose my job?”

Looking beyond the corporate buyer, Koch sees this mindset as critical for the entire travel ecosystem, including TMCs. Using the Blockbuster vs. Netflix analogy, he argued that TMCs must evolve beyond transactional models to become journey orchestrators.

“I’ve been very fortunate to work with some very innovative TMCs that are focused on the future,” Koch said. “They recognize that the user experience, the content, the business models, the commercial terms – all these things are changing, and you need to adapt, otherwise you’ll be left behind.”

Connecting innovation to human emotion

“When you go to any party and say you work in the travel industry, nine times out of ten people remember their worst travel story, even though it was years ago. That’s what makes travel so emotional, because it is so personal.”

Becoming an intrapreneur isn’t just about adopting new tech, according to Koch. It’s about fundamentally improving the personal, emotional, and human experience of business travel.