Business travel in a Covid age

Rami Cassis, CEO of Parabellum Investments shares some of his experiences of business travel during the pandemic and gives his tips for a smoother travel experience

Travelling during the pandemic comes with many added complications, none of which are insurmountable, and you also need to get past some of the more confronting experiences. I recall an Emirates flight in the summer where its cabin crew, instead of modelling their usual well-groomed uniforms were clad head-to-toe in full hazmat suits. Like many of my fellow passengers, I was taken aback as I boarded the flight.

The flight-attendants, although super-pleasant and highly-apologetic about the impact to the usual high-quality onboard service, were prevented from accompanying us to our seats, and all food served throughout the journey arrived in pre-packaged boxes.

I have averaged almost a flight a week since the end of March, but it was on that particular Emirates flight in the summer that hammered home to me just how seriously the aviation sector had been impacted by Covid-19. The pandemic could have a long-lasting impact on the airline industry’s bottom line and on the number of passengers that take the first or business class route. A recent survey published by IdeaWorks1 in the US suggests between 19 per cent and 36 per cent of airlines’ business traffic base will not return to the skies. That is not the case for me and although I expect business travel to return, it may not be at the level it was once at.

It is no longer the case that you can simply pitch up to a hotel or airport. Many need a negative Covid test conducted within 48 hours of arrival in a country. Additionally, when you consider various countries have implemented differing quarantine regulations, international travel schedules have become unrecognisable compared to the first quarter of 2020. Indeed, I have been tested for Covid-19 more than 20 times now (they have all been negative despite a number of people close to me having had the virus).

The Covid-19 crisis has certainly hit the airlines hard – according to the International Air Transport Association’s latest numbers, passenger numbers were down 70% in 20202. Lufthansa, which I used last year has been burning cash at a rate of $590m a month, while Emirates another airline I flew on regularly given my Dubai base, posted a $3.4bn loss of the first half of 2020.

I can certainly testify how eerie it has been walking through deserted airports, which would otherwise be heaving of passengers. On many occasions, there has often been more airport staff than travellers, and rules for departure and arrivals differ from country to country and time to time. I recall vividly on arrival in Frankfurt being asked quite a few questions by customs officials – usually there’s barely any eye contact let alone a conversation given I have a French passport, so EU travel is a given.

There have been pictures posted on social media by travellers enjoying the freedom of being on an empty plane, but I often found it a gloomy experience. I remember being just was one of just three passengers on a BA flight to Nice in France. On a practical level it was mildly pleasant, but it was also depressing in manifesting the impact of the pandemic, and how the associated government decisions impacted our most basic and individual freedoms. Freedoms that we all previously took for granted. Naturally, some airlines and airports have handled the situation better than others. That said, it’s worth mentioning that at all times I have felt perfectly safe.

For instance, British Airways, irrespective of class of travel, has had the annoying habit of boarding people from the back of the plane first, eventually working their way to the front. Meanwhile, Turkish Airlines had the even more annoying practice of banning any normal-sized cabin luggage. Smart bags that would otherwise easily qualify to be kept in the cabin had to be checked in – so risk being damaged in the hold.

In my experience, I would maintain that the best and most organised airports remain Dubai, Singapore and now also Istanbul. Not necessarily in that order but all three are exceptionally well maintained with Istanbul being the newest. On the other hand, Charles de Gaulle is probably one of the worst airports because it is not well maintained, has long queues and is somewhat spread out.

And with regards to lounges, many have little food available irrespective of whether it’s first or business. Emirates closed its first-class lounge in Dubai and merged it with business class, which I felt impact the high levels of service it is famous for (having said that a separate first class area has just reopened in Dubai).

With the number of travellers now getting some way back to normal, I recently spoke with the chief executive of one of my portfolio companies about the cultural business differences. When it comes to Europe, people seem keener to meet in France and in Germany. In the UK, people are generally more cautious, or wish to adhere to government guidelines.

Across all countries, people seem to be adapting to working remotely, but it is clear they all cherish how life was before. Maybe one of the side-effects of the pandemic is making us all realise that basic freedoms and human rights we all took for granted have been temporarily taken away and people react in one of two ways – they are either afraid or furious.

I’m very much in the latter camp and I’m counting down the days until we can carry on with our business lives as we did before – and that includes paid for premium service from our airlines.

COVID BUSINESS CLASS TRAVEL TIPS

get there early or book a VIP service if you don’t mind the extra cost. Previously innocuous tasks, like going through customs, can now be time consuming.

check the airline policy for boarding. Some, like Air France, insist on surgical masks and won’t let you board with a mask in fabric – others like Turkish Airlines have an onerous in-cabin luggage policy that prevents items normally allowed being taken on board.

as a precaution, take a Covid test within 72 hours of flying. Government policies change rapidly, which might introduce stricter measures for arrivals.

choose a mask that’s as least uncomfortable as possible

keep checking your flight – schedules change at the last minute, including cancellations

be aware of your own body temperature. Temperature checks are everywhere, and you are presumed to carry Covid if you have a slightly higher temperature than the norm.

1

2

Reports. (2020, December 01). Retrieved January 21, 2021, from https:// ideaworkscompany.com/reports/

Passenger Recovery Disappoints in October. (n.d.). Retrieved January 21, 2021, from https://www.iata.org/en/pressroom/pr/2020-12-08-01/ Rami Cassis CEO Parabellum Investments

Rami Cassis is the Dubai-based founder and CEO of Parabellum Investments, a family office operating as a global private equity firm focusing on enterprise software, IT & business services firms across multiple industries.

Treasury’s digital revolution:

How corporates can ensure stability in uncertain economic conditions

The digital revolution in treasury may have been under way for some years now, but the past few months have shown there is plenty of room to improve and refine. We talk to Frank Nicolaisen, UniCredit’s Head of Global Transaction Banking, Americas, about how the coronavirus pandemic has intensified the need for corporates to upgrade their treasury infrastructure and what they can do to get started.

Q: The pandemic looks to have added significant impetus to the digital push in treasury. How has the use of financial technology in the treasury space evolved in recent years and where does this fit into the story?

The narrative of innovation around treasury has been building for some time – and for good reason. A host of recent innovations, such as application programming interfaces (APIs) and optical character recognition (OCR), are already live and streamlining treasury processes for corporates of all sizes.

At the core of this is the rise of e-banking – following experiences in the retail sector, corporates have moved away from branch-based or over-the-phone banking to platforms, with many banks, including UniCredit, investing to make this a seamless, fast and more efficient experience. This, in turn, paves the way for other efficiencies, such as virtual accounts – a concept that sees corporates hold a single physical bank account that can be sub-divided into “said virtual accounts, which work much like real ones, with their own budgets, permissions and account numbers, all whilst feeding into the physical parent account. This solution is growing in popularity and is especially beneficial to corporates with multiple banking relationships and complex account structures, minimising the number of physical accounts they need to maintain.

While these technologies have been around for some time, they have seen a spike in adoption during the recent economic downturn, enabling corporates to rationalise accounting processes, cut maintenance costs, increase transparency over funds and efficiently optimise their financial assets from a remote basis.

To take treasury management to the next level, even newer technologies are emerging, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, which promise to bring a raft of benefits, including the streamlining of bureaucratic processes in a safe and secure manner.

Q: What should a successful treasury set-up look like today?

For some time, a digital, real-time treasury set up – with fully-automated routine processing – has been the vision and the gold standard. This has the capability to turn the sheer amount of data that many treasurers handle on a daily basis from an administrative burden to a source of strategic insight.

With the right technology, corporates can automate a huge range of previously time-consuming administrative tasks, such as opening, closing and managing accounts, generating cash-flow forecasts, executing routine payments; reconciling incoming payment flows, calculating FX exposures and even executing FX conversions. All of this frees team members to focus on more valueadding tasks, while reducing human error in the workflow. At the same time, the data captured in these digital systems can also be reviewed and mined for valuable insights, helping treasurers further refine their processes.

Implementing such a system, of course, will be easier for some businesses than others. Young companies, for instance, will not have to overhaul any legacy infrastructure, and can simply implement a new, modern system. Older or larger companies, on the other hand, will likely be less agile, and have to undertake the more time-consuming process of updating existing systems, while managing operational risks during the transition.

Nevertheless, establishing a robust digital set-up remains central to most treasurers’ strategic vision. Once complete, this switch-over promises benefits to corporates of all kinds – and an opportunity to future proof their business against economic shocks, the likes of which we’ve seen over the last year.

Q: How can corporates yet to initiate the transition to digital treasury get started?

The first step is to investigate the process. Treasurers can speak to their banks and other potential partners, asking questions such as: What are the stakes? What can be achieved? What treasury set-up best suits my business? What benefits is the transition likely to bring in the long-term?

This conversation typically begins either when a treasurer notices the benefits the transition has brought to other businesses, or when triggered by an urgent business need. But it doesn’t necessarily need to be prompted in this way. Starting the conversation now means treasurers are forearmed should necessity arise.

Q: How will you leverage your position as UniCredit’s Head of GTB Americas to deliver these treasury solutions to corporates?

Broadly speaking, my mandate is to continue to develop the Group’s unique, digital Global Transaction Banking (GTB) offer – helping US multinational clients thrive in Europe, and European clients access the US markets. As part of this, I’m looking to facilitate the delivery of UniCredit’s proprietary GTB solutions from our core European markets to businesses operating in the Americas. Having previously played a key role in the expansion of UniCredit’s Tech Team in Germany – which focused on serving fast-growing technology companies – I am hoping to draw on this experience to oversee the first step in this process: the roll-out of the bank’s global e-banking portal. Once complete, this innovation promises to vastly improve the banking experience for our corporate clients in the US.

It’s one of a number of digital tools corporates can leverage to help them through the many challenges of the current environment. Over the next few years, I think we’ll see adoption continue to climb across the board and I’m looking forward to playing a part in it. Frank Nicolaisen Head of GTB Americas UniCredit