Blog homeFirstly a definition, Wikipedia defines a glass ceiling as a situation where:
the advancement of a qualified person within the hierarchy of an organisation is halted at a particular level because of some form of discrimination
Now I am not saying that being labelled “IT” or “web” should be compared to sexual or racial discrimination – but if you look at the structure of many leading UK travel dot coms and large travel companies - the people at the head of these companies are either product or commercial people. Very few IT people head large travel companies (except in a few new dot coms). Very few accountants do either.
Therefore, the question is, is there a natural limit to career progression of an IT person within a travel company? I think there is.
Individuals may have been promoted from the accounting side of the business if that company is in a stable niche that is in “customer retention” mode rather than “gaining market share” mode – or where business efficiency is more important than strategic leadership. (Sorry accountants – but you pretty much are in the same boat as us IT people)
So where do the good IT people go?
Once you have been in charge of IT for a number of years at a travel company – and there is no chance of you taking the next step up – what do you do?
Well you could hope that your company grows (either through acquisition or natural growth) – hence your team becomes larger – and your feel sufficiently satisfied that your position is increasingly rewarding that you will stay in your job.
Maybe you are happy where you are. Nothing wrong with that.
Alternatively, you move. But where?
Many go to larger companies but in the same role – others move to travel technology companies (where being technical puts you at an advantage over the product / commercial people – and where the top jobs often go to technical people)
The future of travel IT jobs
I was speaking to someone at a party the other day – and this guy writes software that buys and sells shares, gold and whatever can be traded - in the City of London – all completely automatically – without human intervention. They just come up with complicated algorithms to determine what scenarios would determine whether to buy or sell – and then they let the computers get on with making the day to day (or minute by minute) decisions. By all accounts the role of a stockbroker (which you would argue was traditionally about people with a product /commercial background) has moved to being lead by IT people. Their company is 90% computer science graduates.
It is much like this in the travel industry of the future. I have seen people say that those who are responsible for online marketing now will be those who are the marketing directors in 10 years time (or sooner). It is unspoken but everyone knows that the IT guys (and ecommerce, if you are large enough to have a dedicated ecommerce team) hold all the cards. However, if IT guys know what is best in this new, web led, world (and this isn’t true in all cases) – then why is there still a glass ceiling for the ultimate job?
As a result, if people end up working for travel technology companies, and travel technology companies are moving to delivering “commodity software” i.e the same to everyone – will these individuals be satisfied?
All of this really puts the Top 50 powerful people in travel (as determined by Travolution) completely in the shadow - as how many of those are IT / ecommerce vs product / commercial? An interesting list for today – but not tomorrow.
Maybe I am talking rubbish (quite possible on a Sunday night after a couple of glasses of wine). Go on – tell me how I am wrong!
As for me? Well I haven’t had a permanent job since 2002 (my last perm job was for an Accor, Hilton and Le Meridien backed hotel distribution company called AndBook – which very few people will remember – where I was responsible for Web Design & Development). I am happy selling software, providing consulting help here and there, and writing this blog (and planning a new blog coming soon!).
If you want to be notified next time something is published sign up for email alerts, subscribe to the RSS feed or say hello via Twitter @alexbainbridge. Thank you for reading!
I think its a very interesting topic, since I’m one of those below the glass ceiling.
Maybe the IT guys don’t reach higher positions because they lack some non-technical skills to make that happen. And probably the ones that have those skills don’t have the patience so they became entrepreneurs.
I’ll try to come back with a few more ideas after a glass of wine