OPTIMACONSEILSTravel & Expense Intelligence

Is your business travel budget funding performance or habit?

We help large international companies see what they're missing in how they manage business travel and MICE, and turn those budgets into drivers of cohesion and performance.

Let's talk See the evidence
82%
of business trips with no identifiable purpose
91%
of travel requests approved automatically
24%
of travellers consider their last trip unnecessary
62%
of companies without reliable MICE data

Professional thesis P. Chausson, Mines Paris PSL 2024 (50M tickets, 109 companies, $49bn spend) · t-clara study 2022 · AFTM 2019

The problem

A dual dysfunction that nobody owns

On one side, trips whose value is never questioned. On the other, human connections eroding for lack of investment. In between, a framework that addresses form but never substance.

The travel policy describes how to travel: which cabin class, which hotel, which fare. It never addresses whether the trip is necessary, or what it should achieve.
Common sense is a myth: it depends on culture, education, and individual experience. Each manager approves based on their own criteria. The outcome is unequal and invisible.
MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, events) accounts for roughly a third of travel spend. It is absent from most travel policies and rarely managed by a single function.
Meanwhile, client and managerial relationships erode silently, team offsites are the first budget cut when times get tough, and cohesion weakens across multi-site and hybrid teams.

This analysis is based on 50 million airline tickets and dozens of corporate travel policies from Fortune 500 multinationals.

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Our approach

Four purposes for a clear decision framework

Every business trip should serve at least one of these purposes. The last three are voluntary and should be justified.

1

Obligation

Legal, contractual or operational. The trip is required. But even here, every request for physical presence deserves to be evaluated.

2

Ground truth

See, observe, and sense what no report can convey.

3

Human connection

Build, repair or maintain a relationship with a client, a team, or a partner. This is the heart of our approach.

4

Managerial presence

Be physically present to support, guide, or make a decision. Failing to travel when the situation demands it can also be a risk.

This framework was developed through a research thesis at the RSEDD Master's programme at Mines Paris PSL, based on data from over 100 international companies.

How does this framework apply to your organisation?

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Our conviction

The connection policy: the investment nobody has formalised

Physical presence plays an irreplaceable role in building trust, cohesion and collective performance. This is not a managerial belief. It is a documented fact.

MIT (Pentland)Synchronising informal interactions in a call centre generated millions of dollars in annual savings.
Google (Aristotle)What sets high-performing teams apart is the quality of their interactions, not their composition.
Gallup (2023)+21% productivity, -37% absenteeism, -50% turnover for cohesive teams.
NeuroscienceEye contact, voice, and shared experiences trigger oxytocin, the trust hormone. No screen replicates this mechanism.

The offsite is not a cost. It is the glue of corporate culture. Reallocating wasteful travel towards intentional collective presence is the central lever.

We help companies build their Connection Charter: a strategic document, aligned with ISO 30414, that gives purpose and direction to the travel policy.

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The tool

The Business Travel & MICE Workshop™

A 90-minute participatory workshop that shifts how your leadership team thinks about travel budgets. Inspired by the Climate Fresk, tailored to the specific challenges of business travel.

Collaborative format

Cards to handle, discussions between participants. The group builds its own awareness through dialogue.

Shared diagnostic

In 90 minutes, your leadership team builds a common understanding of the issues and identifies priorities.

Tailored to each audience

C-suite (90 min), approvers and managers (3h), Travel Managers (3h), business travellers (90 min).

A drive to act

Every participant leaves with a clear understanding of the stakes and a first concrete action.

Original educational tool developed by Philippe Chausson. Registration pending with INPI (French IP office).

Organise a Workshop with your leadership team →
About us

Philippe Chausson

Dual expertise: strategy and operations

15 years at CWT (now Amex GBT): 7 years of strategic consulting on expense optimisation for Fortune 500 multinationals, followed by 8 years of operational and strategic management of international travel programmes across all continents.

Author of a research thesis at the RSEDD Master's programme (CSR & Sustainable Development) at Mines Paris PSL, analysing travel patterns across more than 100 international companies.

Optima Conseils is the only consultancy offering a structured framework to turn business travel and MICE into drivers of cohesion, engagement and performance, grounded in data and academic research.
OPTIMACONSEILSTravel & Expense Intelligence

Let's talk

Diagnostic, Workshop, Connection Charter: every organisation is different.
Let's discuss yours.

pc@optima-conseils.com

linkedin.com/in/pchausson