Bertrand Saillet of FCM Travel Solutions and FCTG Asia wins Executive of the Year - Business Services at the SBR Management Excellence Awards 2018

Saillet's vision and strategy resulted in significant growth for FCM Travel Solutions and FCTG Asia.

Bertrand Saillet joined the business three years ago at a time when the Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) brands, including FCM, were facing a multitude of challenges - most notably, the economic crisis and the shrinking marine and oil industry business taking place globally.

Under his leadership, Saillet, as the general manager for FCM Singapore, focused on driving business and digital transformation. This saw the business reporting a 540% revenue increase in Asia at the end of FY2017. The company also saw a 25% increase in customer acquisition across the region. Under his leadership, employee turnover dropped by 15%.

The overall successful transformation of FCTG was achieved through Saillet's vision and strategy encompassing the business, infrastructure, and people. In Singapore, Saillet drove FCTG’s business transformation journey through the integration of all brands. This included the integration of consumer and corporate business lines, consolidation of the product portfolio, and most importantly, building a consistent and strong corporate culture.

Another one of Saillet's key focus is people. He developed a framework to empower the business and teams. This included a clearly defined business strategy, simplified operational systems and processes (a key company philosophy known as One-Best-Way) and a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. With technology implemented, employees are now able to focus on client servicing and delivering better customer experiences — the heart of the business.

FCM Travel Solutions has also introduced and led the way with technological innovations to better serve the corporate travel sector under Saillet’s leadership. The company launched their next-generation technology suite, FCM Connect, that provides a single gateway to connect customers to all of FCM’s leading digital tools, as well as Smart Assistant for Mobile (SAM), FCM’s AI chatbot travel assistant.

Moreover, he established centres of excellence for various functions in order to cross-leverage core competencies across the region. Boasting great financial growth, innovation, and employee satisfaction, the Singapore office is recognised globally for its successful trajectory. The transformation model that Saillet applied in Singapore is now successfully replicated across the Hong Kong, Malaysia & China businesses.

The Singapore Business Review Management Excellence Awards was held on November 22, 2018 at the Conrad Centennial Singapore. The award honours the country's most outstanding business leaders, including trailblazing individuals and teams whose initiatives have brought tangible business gains for their company's operations.

The 2018 nominees were judged by a panel consisting of Henry Tan, Managing Director at NEXIA TS; David Chew, Executive Director, Risk Advisory Deloitte Southeast Asia, Lim Wei Wei, Partner, Practice Leader, Governance, and Risk at Baker Tilly TFW; Pardeep Singh Khosa, Director of Dispute Resolution at Drew & Napier; and Yang Eu Jin, Partner and Co Head of Capital Markets Practice at RHTLaw Taylor Wessing LLP.

If you would like to join the 2019 awards and be awarded as one of the most outstanding management executives of Singapore, please email [email protected].