How Your Fellow Directors Take the Sting Out of Business Travel
from
May/June 2007
by Randy Myers
Let’s face it, the simple challenge of getting there and back has stripped most of the glamour from travel, particularly the two- or three-day round trip often demanded by board meetings. Or has it? Quite a few directors have figured out how to cut back on the hassles and also have some fun during these trips. More than one even talks up the gastronomic delights of airport dining. Others do everything they can to keep their travel merely virtual. Here are some road-warrior tips:
The Sweet, but Elusive, Private-Jet Option
One sure way to avoid the stress of airports, long security lines, and delayed flights is to skip commercial air travel altogether and take a private plane. “Flying by private jet is the most pain-free way to travel,” says J. Terry Strange, 63, a retired managing partner with accounting firm KPMG International and a director of five companies. One of them, Compass Bancshares Inc., a bank holding company in Birmingham, Alabama, sends a Cessna Citation to pick him up on days when there’s a board meeting. Two of the others, auto retailer Group 1 Automotive Inc. and oil and gas company Newfield Exploration Co., are both in Houston, where Strange lives, so he can drive. But when it comes to board meetings at New Jersey Resources Corp., a utility in Wall, New Jersey, he flies commercial. “Pretty uneventful,” he reports, but guess which mode of transportation he prefers.
The Zen of Travel
Wendy Lane, 55, chairman of Lane Holdings Inc., an investment firm in Needham, Massachusetts, makes an effort to build a little pleasure into her business trips. “I always try to see something new when I’m traveling,” says Lane, a director of insurance broker Willis Group Holdings Ltd. in London, Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings in Burlington, North Carolina, and Finnish paper producer UPM-Kymmene Corp. in Helsinki. “There are many things to see in Helsinki; it’s just a stunning city. About three years ago I had an opportunity to visit a Russian Orthodox cathedral that had an art museum showing the work of the famous Finnish painter Albert Edelfeldt. That was probably the only exhibit of that size of his work ever put on.” Lane doesn’t limit herself to cultural attractions, either, making it her practice to enjoy a bit of the outdoors before board meetings, if only in the form of a brief walk. Business also takes her to Miami, where, she says, “I just love the steamy heat. Just being outside really gives you a sense of being part of a global environment.”
While most directors like hotels close to where they’re meeting, Lane prefers to find a favorite in each city she visits regularly, and then stay there no matter where her board gets together. “I tend to fly the same airlines and book the same hotel rooms, creating a sort of home away from home,” she says. “It’s much more relaxing. You know what you’re getting, you get to know the staff, and it increases your likelihood of getting special treatment. For example, I stay at the Loews Regency every time I go to New York. I’ve found that I like the rooms on the 62nd Street side, because they’re quiet.”
Unlike many of her peers, Lane prefers to drive herself to the airport rather than be locked into a schedule with a car service. To ease the parking hassles at her usual departure point, Logan International in Boston, she’s bought a special parking pass that guarantees access to a space in the airport’s dedicated “gold” parking areas even when signs indicate that they’re full. And while many directors like to work while flying, Lane prefers to relax. “I want to arrive with that little bit of space that enables creativity and leaves me more receptive to new ideas,” she explains.
Staying Put...
The surest way to avoid the hassle of travel is to skip it entirely. “In all the boards I’m on, we try to do as many things by teleconference as we can,” says Edward Blechschmidt, 54, acting CEO and director of aluminum producer Novelis Inc. in Atlanta, who serves on four other boards. That makes particular sense for him, since he already has a hefty commute to his job, which is about 800 miles from his home in Villanova, Pennsylvania. He usually flies to work on Mondays and returns on Thursdays. His boards meet in far-spread cities: Birmingham for health-care company HealthSouth Corp.; Buffalo Grove, Illinois, for OptionCare Inc., a provider of in-home infusion therapy; Waltham, Massachusetts, for Lionbridge Technologies Inc., which sells language-translation services; and Livingston, New Jersey, for Columbia Laboratories Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company.
...Or Dodging Hubs
When he must fly, Blechschmidt tries to book direct flights rather than connecting ones, a common enough strategy. What’s not so common is that to save time at the airport, he’ll sometimes shun the carrier that maintains a hub there in favor of an alternative airline. This enables him to avoid the hordes packing the dominant carrier’s terminal. For example, Blechschmidt’s home airport is Philadelphia, a big hub for US Airways. So he often flies Delta Air Lines, whose terminal has a shorter security line. “It’s all about time,” he says. “I want
to be in and out of airports as quickly as possible.”
Airport Fine Dining
Most corporate board members schedule business travel around the calendar and the clock. Charles Elson schedules his around his stomach. “I judge travel, oddly enough, by dinner,” says the director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, who sits on the boards of auto-parts retailer AutoZone Inc. and HealthSouth Corp. For Elson, 47, the airport restaurant scene is just as important as the scheduled departure and arrival times. “If I’m going to be away and stuck somewhere, I’d prefer to be stuck somewhere with a decent meal,” he says. Unlike most directors, who abhor connecting flights, Elson will book one just to enjoy a good cup of soup or slab of ribs. “Traditionally, you would base your travel plans on time and convenience so you could be home in time for dinner,” he says. “But air travel is so undependable today, you might as well forget about being home before dinner and plan on eating a meal in an airport.” Name an airport and Elson can name a good place to eat. Boston’s Logan? The Legal Sea Foods Legal Test Kitchen in Terminal A. Memphis’s International Airport? Corky’s BBQ. Chicago’s O’Hare? The hot-dog stand in the US Airways terminal, next to the newsstand (no gastronomic snob he).
Elson is not alone in his taste for airport eating. Attorney Richard Koppes, 60, of counsel with the law firm Jones Day in San Francisco and a board member of in-home health-care provider Apria Healthcare Group in Lake Forest, California, and drug maker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International in Aliso Viejo, California, likes to visit Anthony’s Restaurant in the central terminal of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, which he travels through often. The restaurant serves its seafood specialties in a dining room that offers views of airport runways and, in the distance, the Olympic Mountains. At San Francisco International, he likes Il Fornaio Caffe del Mondo, a European-style bistro.
