Despite assuming leadership of one of the world’s largest travel brands in the midst of a global pandemic, Expedia Group CEO Peter Kern says there wasn’t much in 2020 that took him by surprise – except “I didn’t have to wear pants to work.”
Speaking at his first Phocuswright Conference since replacing former CEO Mark Okerstrom in April, Kern says he sees the events of this year as “just a conflation of all kinds of issues that you couldn’t predict all happening at once.”
In some ways, Kern says the COVID-19 crisis actually gave Expedia Group “courage” to address structural issues within the company and rebuild its core foundation technically.
In conversation with Phocuswright senior vice president of research and product strategy Charuta Fadnis, Kern also discusses the company’s multi-brand strategy, if there can ever be a fair playing field with Google and how Expedia Group is taking a “practical” approach to its diversity and inclusion efforts.
Watch the full interview below.
Executive Interview: Reinventing the OTA - Peter Kern Expedia - The Phocuswright Conference 2020