Sounding Off: Forget who you know - what is it you want to achieve?

Each Friday, PhocusWire dissects and debates an industry trend or new development covered by PhocusWire that week.

It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. 

Everyone has likely heard this at some point in their professional career. And many - maybe even you - have benefited from it.

Relationships - in our professional and personal lives - absolutely matter, there’s no doubt about that. And often, they breed successful leadership teams and businesses.

But what is the cost of relying too heavily on networks that we know and trust? What are the consequences for travel brands doing that now, as they attempt to build back from a devastating pandemic?

What we know is this: The most diverse companies are now more likely than ever to outperform less diverse peers on profitability.

For travel brands that want to regain the ground they’ve lost, it’s critical that they’re intentional about making their businesses more diverse.

The problem is: It can be hard. It can be even harder for those travel brands spread impossibly thin.

But Ginny Clarke sums it up perfectly: “Knowing someone doesn’t suggest that you’re going to get world-class talent.”

Now more than ever, travel brands can’t settle for an easy, comfortable solution. There’s a massive opportunity to build back teams – particularly at the leadership level – that can position a company for a successful recovery.

Clarke speaks to the importance of focusing on “competencies” over “experience” when it comes to hiring. People are more comfortable looking at a candidate’s experience, she says, but possessing specific competencies at the leadership level is absolutely essential.

As travel brands build back, they need to assess what competencies are necessary to get them to where they want to be. Hiring an industry pal that has been in his or her respective field for a decade matters far less than finding a leader who’s a strong decision maker, for example.

For an industry that encompasses the globe, travel can feel particularly insular. Breaking the who-you-know cycle can help change that – and set businesses up for success.