The travel and tourism industry is known to build economies and create connections between societies around the world, accounting for around 10% of world GDP and over 313 million jobs. However, in this day and age, the travel industry must now adapt to face modern challenges as well as consider several influential factors such as cultural preservation, environmental protection, peace and security, jobs, economic growth and development. Also, sustainability is a critical consideration for all the existing players in the travel industry.
Born 30 years ago out of a partnership of key industry players, Amadeus is one of the stellar companies, powering travel by providing technology solutions which connect travellers to the journeys they want through travel agents, search engines, tour operators, airlines, airports, hotels, cars and railways. Amadeus serves all industry segments, including airlines, travel agencies, hotels, railroads, car rentals, airports and much more. Its solutions allow these companies to sell and market their content, manage their travellers and guests, run business and financial operations and receive travel analytics and consultancy.
This year, Amadeus has been ranked as one of the ‘World’s Top 10 Largest Software Companies’ by Forbes. The leading travel technology solution provider also invests hundreds of millions every year to develop and acquire new technologies, along with actively undertaking sustainability and social responsibilities. For instance, Amadeus’ CSR uses travel as a channel to increase the employability of young people in underserved communities through its Knowledge & Skills Transfer program and public-private partnerships to ensure that on-the- job training improves their access to work.
Likewise, Amadeus is an advocate of diversity, thereby operating widely in more than 190 markets as well as employing individuals from over 140 nationalities in its workforce who are multilingual.
Intellectual & Inspirational Leader
Sabine Hansen Peck is the Senior Vice President, People, Culture, Communication & Brand of Amadeus. Sabine has over 20 years of international management experience across the technology, financial services, private equity, aviation and travel industries. She also has specific expertise in aligning a company’s talent agenda with the business strategy and company culture – in particular, the development of talent and pipelines in competitive markets as well as large-scale organizational, cultural and business transformation.
Describing her role, the key strengths of Amadeus and its rich culture, Sabine asserts, “Our competitiveness depends on our ability to continue attracting and retaining the best talent at Amadeus. This is at the core of what my team and I do. We work to make Amadeus a place where each and every one of our people wants to do their best for our customers, every single day. Managing such a diverse, global workforce spanning five generations, with over 16,000 employees in more than 190 countries worldwide, is exciting. I firmly believe that people and culture are the true competitive advantage and the cornerstones of business success and future growth.”
Taking the Long View
There are three significant and impactful things that hold the Amadeus team together. Firstly, its people and culture play a crucial part and really make a difference. Secondly, Sabine and her team strongly believe in building long term partnerships and sticking around, especially if things get tough. And thirdly, the travel software provider prides itself on having a global team of highly skilled professionals with hands-on mentality and a passion for travel and innovation. Through its teams’ attributes, Amadeus has been able to diversify and serve its customer needs, right from its initial role in travel distribution to providing a broad range of travel technology solutions.
Serving the Travel and Tourism Industry’s Who’s Who
Amadeus has served hundreds of airlines, thousands of travel sellers, and provided technology for hotels, casinos, football stadiums and many other segments of the travel and tourism industry. One of the ongoing project which keeps Sabine and her skilled team awake is the acquisition, subject to the deal closing, of TravelClick in the US: a leading global hospitality provider that serves more than 25,000 customers such as Hilton, Marriott, Mandarin and Accor across 176 countries. This major acquisition is expected to position Amadeus as a hospitality leader, providing a broad range of innovative technology to hotels and chains of all sizes across the globe. Further, its ambition is to provide the hospitality industry with the tools they need for growing their businesses, along with delivering a great experience for their guests.
Strategies for Crossing the Future Milestones
The leading software solutions provider is basically a people company that relies on talent. Yet, attracting, developing and retaining the best talents is becoming increasingly difficult in the current world, where demand vastly exceeds supply. So, Sabine and the other decision makers of the company are experimenting with new ways to attract talent, such as hackathons or coding games. They also ensure that employees have the opportunity to innovate and work on cutting-edge technologies like blockchain and artificial intelligence.
Read Full Magazine The 10 Best Travel & Hospitality Companies, 2018.
