What if Consultants Didn't Travel So Much? Seriously

Living a majority our lives on the road, we consultants are trained that a mint on the pillow, living out of a suitcase, and eating from room service are acceptable parts of life. At first we even embrace it, loving the fact that we're travelling on someone else's dime and thriving on excitement and action of life on
the road. However, this lifestyle can turn into a grind and many professionals begin to pine for the simple things—like sleeping in their own bed each night, building relationships with friends and family in person, and being involved in their communities.

As this trend builds in small- to medium-sized firms across the industry, a mini-revolution of sorts has begun, changing the way consultants view their choice of lifestyle, ultimately to the benefit of both client and consultant. But it's not just a feel-good exercise for firms who are going down this path. This change in perspective is a sound business strategy and is proving to be a viable alternative to the historic path of life on the road. Let me explain a few specific examples of how a new outlook on business travel can impact your business:

Client Integration

High-caliber client service should be the goal of everyone in our industry and when done correctly leads to results that not only meet (or hopefully exceed) the current project needs, but set the table for future and potentially longer engagements. At the core of the successful client engagement is communication and relationship building.
With the model of localized consultants taking on projects near their home base, lines of communication naturally open and increase—leading to enhanced results and meeting or exceeding of client expectations.

Matters of varying time zones, missed or delayed flights, or the weekend rush to get home don't come into play, allowing for more quality on-site time for consultants.
Additionally, while it may sound secondary, you can't put a value on a consultant's ability to chat around the water cooler with a client—connecting on life in the local community, finding common points, building trust and rapport with your clients.

Finally, there are the benefits connecting with clients outside of the office through community involvement such as volunteering on local boards, coaching youth sports, or even having your kids attend the same schools.

Work-Life Balance

"Work-life balance" is a term thrown around quite often in the modern work world, but one that historically has been pretty foreign to our industry. The need for timely deliverables, as well as the customary travel, have often led consultants to sacrifice their own lives for the sake of the project. But again, a handful of firms are taking a step back to look at the bigger picture and impacts of these practices.

By cutting out travel, working in local markets and allowing consultants to go home each night, things are changing. As we all know, burnout is commonplace and leads to increasing turnover rates, which therefore increase human resources expenses (staff time, recruiting, etc.) for firms. A new wave of firms are finding that without the travel component, a huge cause of this burnout can be mitigated, extending tenures and ultimately reducing costs. Seems like a win-win, which more of us in this industry can explore.

The "Greening" of Consulting

The final piece of this model is the environmental impact of air travel. A few years ago this opinion may have categorized me as a "greenie," but now everyone in the business world must consider the green bottom line. But this is not a purely environmental argument; there are certainly economic ties as costs associated with travel continue to rise.

As we've seen of late, airline costs are going nowhere but up, with high fuel prices impacting the price of tickets, as well as extra fees for baggage, food and even pillows. But it isn't too far off to imagining a fee or tax on the actual environmental impact of flying—accounting for the amount of carbon your firm releases by its numerous cross-country flights. This scenario is not such a distant reality with airlines in Europe already being taxed on their carbon emissions, which may ultimately be passed onto high-volume travelers such as consultants. This is one liability that you can prepare for now by looking into alternative business strategies which include less travel and increased use of IT resources.

Being in this industry, we all know that consultants are a unique breed that deftly blends hard work, passion, and unrelenting drive for success. It isn't difficult to see how the determination of those in our field to produce top-notch results has also resulted in a historic imbalance between our work and our outside lives, highlighted by life on the road.

However, the growing trend of consultants working on engaging, local projects, with limited or no travel is catching on—with clients, consultants, and firms recognizing the business advantages to this method. So when asked where the best place to stay is, there are many factors—personal, economic, and environmental—to be considered, all ultimately leading us back to where we want to be… home.

Vikas Kamran is the vice president of Revel Consulting, an IT firm based in Bellevue, Wash.