The Waning Days of the Road Warrior

Why the current slowdown in business travel may not end when the economy recovers

For years, Irv Rothman, CEO of Hewlett-Packard’s (HPQ) Financial Services division, traveled at least once a quarter


Whenever there’s an economic downturn, corporations slash their travel budgets. The International Air Transport Assn. is already reporting that business and first-class travel have experienced the biggest plunge in five years. Typically, when the economy snaps back, so do the business trips.

This time, though, certain types of corporate jaunts may be dead for good. Across the U.S., companies as varied as Advanced Micro Devices, Xerox, Cisco Systems, AstraZeneca, and Adecco are cutting internal business travel (grinding from corporate office to office) by as much as 50%.

That’s not to say all business travel is going extinct. Globalization has expanded workplace networks exponentially. We all need to collaborate with