We slipped Travelport Locomote’s Head of Customer Experience and Portfolio Delivery , Blake Hedger, a truth serum and asked him to reveal all…
The challenge for the industry is…
- Balancing ever demanding traveller and booker expectations with corporate policy requirements.
- Creating personalised, contextual high quality technology interactions within a corporate travel environment.
- Real time access to increasingly fragmented content
The things I like about my job…
- Solving customer pain points. I’m also a regular corporate traveller, I want to fix the annoying stuff.
- Taking corporate travel challenges and customer requirements and transforming them into world class technology solutions.
And the frustrations are … So many opportunities, not enough time.
If I didn’t work in travel I would be… I always fancied sports journalism. I’m passionate about sport and travel – I thought that might satisfy both.
Favourite airline? Singapore Airlines, Qantas and Emirates are my favourites. I also think Scoot is a great business model. Given I work in the industry, I reserve the right to change that answer in the future if need be!
My proudest moment was… Hands down both my kids.
The naughtiest thing I ever did was… In the early days of the Hong Kong 7’s I traded a couple of beers for an official photographers vest and watched half a dozen games standing on the sideline, taking photos with a disposable Kodak camera, looking somewhat out of place with the professional photographers standing next to me.
I try to relax by… Weekends away with the family, the odd Fridaynight in a pub.
The last time I feared for my life was… I got stuck in the middle of a very large political protest in Dhaka. Shots were fired all over the place, I was lucky to get out.
If I can, I always try to avoid… The middle seat in the back row of economy class…. Or the seat next to the toilet.
I really wish I had… More time.
The best advice I’ve ever received was… Always prioritise your work….and then do what the boss asked for first….
I don’t understand why people… Sometimes get frustrated booking corporate travel.
My greatest weakness is… Probably not being self aware enough to know what my greatest weakness is…
And my greatest strength is… See above…
If I won a $1 million lottery (aside from travelling), I would… Help out some friends and family less fortunate.
If I was prime minister I would… Make decisions for the benefit of the country, rather than for the benefit of myself to be re-elected. Agree with the opposition when they had a good idea.
If I could be someone else for one day I would be a… Steve Smith Australian Cricket Captain during an Ashes Test Match.
I’ve always wanted to travel to… Iceland, I went last year.
My favourite holiday was… I took a large chunk of 2016 off to travel with my family around the world. It was a challenge with two young kids, but amazing and I’m so glad we did it.
