Your First 90 Days in a Senior Travel Role: Prioritising People, Product, and Profit 🚀

Congratulations! Stepping into a senior leadership role in the travel industry—whether in Strategy, Commercial, or Product—is a significant achievement. You are now positioned to make a profound impact on the direction of your company and the wider sector.

However, the pressure to deliver results immediately can be immense. Based on my experience moving through diverse senior roles, the critical mistake new leaders make is jumping straight into fixing problems before fully understanding the landscape.

Your first 90 days are a delicate balancing act. You must quickly establish influence and define priorities by focusing on three essential pillars: People, Product, and Profit.

Phase 1: Prioritising People (Days 1–30)

Your initial focus should be on building trust and gathering intelligence. Strategy is useless if your team isn't on board, and great Product ideas often die in the execution if Operations isn't consulted.

Action Steps:

1. The Listening Tour (Internal): Schedule one-on-one meetings with every direct report and key cross-functional leader (especially from Operations, Sales, and IT). Don't offer solutions; just listen. Ask: "What works well here?" and "What is the single biggest bottleneck preventing our success?" This helps you map processes and identify where the real friction lies.

2. External Sounding Board: Connect with three to five trusted peers or Partners outside the company. Ask for their unvarnished view of the company’s strengths and weaknesses. This is vital for validating your internal assessments against the market's perception.

3. Identify the Talent: Quickly identify the high-potential leaders and the critical Resilience anchors in your team. Your first people priority is ensuring these key individuals feel seen, supported, and are actively engaged in your future vision.

Phase 2: Prioritising Product (Days 31–60)

With a clear understanding of the how (the people and processes), you can now assess the what (the product and its alignment with the market).

Action Steps:

1. Audit the Customer Journey: Become your own customer. Book a trip, call the support line, try to change a booking. My time in Operations taught me that reality rarely matches the PowerPoints. This provides irrefutable evidence for areas needing improvement in the Product lifecycle.

2. Tech Stack Reality Check: Meet with your technology leaders to understand the limitations of the Tech Stack. Where are you relying on legacy GDS connections, and where can new APIs unlock innovation? Strategy must be tethered to technological reality.

3. Find the Quick Win: Identify one highly visible, high-friction problem (often an operational or customer service issue) that can be solved quickly and relatively easily. Executing this early win establishes momentum and demonstrates to your team that you are a pragmatic, decisive leader.

Phase 3: Prioritising Profit (Days 61–90)

By now, you should have enough data to move from assessment to action, focusing on tangible commercial results and long-term Strategy.

Action Steps:

1. Define the Commercial North Star: Clearly articulate the one metric or outcome that defines success for your tenure. Is it boosting direct sales conversion? Lowering Sourcing costs? Improving customer lifetime value? This clarity guides all subsequent decisions.

2. The Strategic Roadmap: Present a simplified 12-month roadmap focused on 3–5 strategic initiatives. This roadmap should directly address the bottlenecks identified in Phase 1 and the opportunities found in Phase 2. Ensure it’s framed as a partnership plan—you need buy-in from all stakeholders.

3. Set the Standard for Partnership: Demonstrate your commitment to building real Partnerships with Purpose. Whether negotiating a new contract or engaging with a supplier, make it clear that your leadership style prioritises mutual value, trust, and long-term collaboration over short-term gains.

Your first 90 days are not a sprint; they are the foundation-laying phase. By prioritising people first, assessing the product second, and then strategically planning for profit, you will quickly establish the credibility and influence necessary to lead the travel industry into its next chapter.