Companies to increase spend on travel and entertainment in 2018: AmEx survey

Indian finance executives remain optimistic about the Indian economy and are likely to increase spending on travel and entertainment (T&E), invest in improving administrative process efficiencies and invest on mobile technology and hardware and infrastructure in 2018 to help meet their business priorities.

According to the 11th Edition of the Global Business and Spending Outlook Survey, commissioned by American Express and conducted by Institutional Investor Thought Leadership Studio, 37 percent of the CFOs surveyed that they are likely to spend more on T&E than last year, whereas 50 percent maintained that they are likely to keep the spending same as last year.

The annual cross-industry survey conducted among 870 senior executives across 21 countries with worldwide revenue of more than USD 500 million, states that 33 percent of the Indian CFOs surveyed are likely to spend more on transportation and logistics and 53 percent on hardware and infrastructure while half of the senior financial executives (50 percent) aim to increase spending on mobile technology.

About 40 percent of the CFOs surveyed said that they are likely to invest more than last year in improving administrative process efficiency such as streamlining financial, account payables, or procurement process to help meet business objectives.

“India is leading the way in terms of both business confidence and investments. Efficiency has become the keyword as companies take a back-to-basics approach and focusing on the fundamentals – better serving customers and meeting their needs, developing new products, entering new markets and prioritizing business transformation and innovation,” said Saru Kaushal, Vice President and General Manager, Global Commercial Services, American Express Banking Corp., India.

About 87 percent of the respondents believe that commercial innovations of the so-called “sharing economy”— those used by ride-sharing services like Uber or lodging services such as AirBnB will have a substantial impact on their industry in the next five years with 60 percent executives agreeing that their company’s travel policy allows employees to use sharing economy services for lodging or transportation when traveling on business.

The survey also says that 53 percent senior finance executives see their function as that of a strategic advisor — not as a leader of strategy, nor as a mere supporter of it which in turn speaks of the significant evolution of the role of the finance executive.

Senior financial executives in India plan to increase their companies’ workforce in the year ahead. Nearly all (97 percent) of survey respondents anticipate an uptick in their companies’ headcount in the coming year.

Last year, 20 percent expected headcount to grow by 10 percent or more, this year 26 percent.