With a $25 billion market cap and counting, how does Priceline do it?
There's no giving away any state secrets here to say that the ingredients include having a great management, allowing the various brands to be entrepreneurial and to operate independently, amassing a slush fund to buy a gargantuan amount of keywords around the world -- and being committed to an unrelenting focus.
And, you know from taking in Priceline CEO Jeffery Boyd yesterday at the PhoCusWright conference in Hollywood, Fla., that he and the company are aligned in their lack of trendiness.
Unlike other Internet or Silicon Valley darlings, Boyd wears suits in public appearances, not jeans, and Priceline does transactions, not "social travel."
The company is headquartered in decidedly mainstream Norwalk, Conn., although Kayak is nearby, too.
Priceline's focus on focus and willingness to take a pass on the latest travel-business trends was apparent as PhoCusWright chairman Philip Wolf asked Boyd why Priceline doesn't incorporate more "travel inspiration" on its sites.
If Priceline started to dedicate resources to enable travelers to "dream," Boyd said, "we would turn off the ones who come to book."
The online travel agency has been successful delivering consumers to its sites who are ready to book, and then giving them whatever tools they need to consummate the booking, Boyd said.
Not getting nightmarish, he wasn't advising all travel sites to discard travel inspiration, but was arguing that companies have varied needs and strategies.
Expanding on the focus theme, Boyd said not being owned by a global distribution system (GDS) enables Priceline to maintain its focus on growing its hotel business.
And, in another go-against-the-grain move, Priceline has opted not to place its brands -- Priceline.com, Booking.com, Agoda and TravelJigsaw -- on a global technology platform, citing the possible distraction and the risk to growth.
In contrast, Expedia Inc. and Orbitz Worldwide are engaged in multi-year projects to push their disparate brands onto global tech platforms.
All of this does not mean that Priceline won't go with the flow when it is advantageous. The company has embraced mobile apps, and Boyd recounted some surprising mobile booking patterns that occurred during a recent unseasonal snow storm.
Another part of the secret sauce is hiring executives who are entrepreneurial, keeping them motivated and giving them the independence and power to go ahead and do their thing to grow the business, Boyd said.
Brands like Booking.com, Agoda, TravelJigsaw and Priceline.com are managed independently, Boyd said.
"They control their own destiny," he said, to "a large degree."
In the last few years, the North American online travel industry has discovered Latin America, and there is a race to dominate.
Can Africa be that far behind?
Boyd said Priceline is eager to expand its footprint in Latin America, adding "I wouldn't exclude" the idea of an acquisition in Latin America if Priceline found the right fit.
And, all that would be very, well, cool.