The Trouble with Travel

Facing long lines, cost-averse clients, and procurement czars — among other obstacles — consultants cry out for change.

| February 11, 2007

"Many of us still have nostalgic memories of the cocktail hour on the Twentieth Century Limited or the dinner hour on the North Coast Limited," wrote McKinsey & Company partner John G. Neukom in his McKinsey Memoirs: A Personal Perspective. Published privately in 1978, Neukom's memoir fondly recalls his numerous departures aboard "the great American Pullman cars" of the 1930s. In 1936 alone, Neukom noted, he spent 112 nights in Pullman cars and traveled to a total of 33 cities, spending 179 nights away from home.Just what Mrs. Neukom thought of her husband's line of work is never mentioned by the consultant who would spend the next 40 years of his career catching planes, trains, and automobiles.

Travel, it seems, has always been as much a part of the professional lives of consultants as the clients they serve. However, there are clear signs that the profession may finally be headed to rehab for its mobility addiction.

"It may limit flexibility for our consultants, which is something that we'll have to look at because when you go for the lowest-cost fares, you don't always have the best flying times." — Navigant's Howard

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