Cendant Mobility weathers economic storms

During this time of uncertainity over the war and the economy, the relocation market, as a whole, is described as being "flat," by Cendant Mobility president and chief executive officer Kevin Kelleher.

Despite the fact that the travel and relocation markets are down, however, Cendant Mobility,

Cendant Mobility, which has headquarters in Danbury, has offices throughout the United States, in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and the United Kingdom. It is considered the premier provider of global mobility management and work force development solutions.

A big reason for Cendant Mobility's ability to hold strong is its global diversity. With more than 2,000 clients worldwide, the company does not have to rely on one market being strong, Kelleher said.

In addition to being diverse in terms of geography, the relocation company is diverse in what it offers to clients.

"The key to success is having multiple approaches," he said, adding that that several elements make Cendant successful. In addition to "global reach," an ability to grow based on the needs of clients and aggressively looking at the marketplace to be a part of every new sales opportunity are significant.

"The biggest secret to that is having a complete comprehensive understanding of the needs of the customer," Kelleher said.

Cendant might work with a company that wants to relocate to look for ways for Cendant to take on more responsibility for the moving process. In doing so, Cendant becomes more valuable to its customer and retains it.

Meeting expectations

One of the companies Cendant Mobility works with - General Electric - has provided a lead to Cendant's success. Cendant has followed the "Six Sigma," a disciplined approach to improving work adopted by GE a little more than two years ago, Kelleher said. The heartbeat of Six Sigma is "DMAIC," (define, measure, analyze, improve and control) said Kelleher.

First, a company must define the needs of a customer, then measure the percentage of need that remains to be fulfilled. Analyzing allows for companies to fulfill the needs, and control means ensuring that everything works, he said.

The challenge, Kelleher said, is to determine what is necessary to meet a customer's expectations 100 percent of the time.

Going back over the past three years, Cendant Mobility has adjusted its manpower based to market conditions. In 2001, Kelleher said, the company "looked at ways to consolidate back-room operations to become more cost effective."

Since then, however, Cendant has been very aggressive in pursuing new employees. He said that nearly 40 percent of new workers this year are "diverse candidates," a necessary ingredient in running a business such as Cendant Mobility with its broad global coverage.

Careful spending

The overall relocation market has been down between 8 percent and 14 percent, but Cendant's volume is down just 4 percent to 6 percent over the past 18 to 24 months, when softness in the market began, Kelleher said. While many blame the terrorist attacks of 9/11 on the economic downturn, the economy and relocation market first started being impacted about nine months prior to September 2001. Corporations have since looked more carefully into spending patterns to find ways to cut back.

"You still have businesses running their business," he said.

Kelleher said the corporate relocation market is flat. "We're not seeing the shortfalls in volume in that market that we realized in '02," he said.

The real estate economy in the United States, as well as in the United Kingdom, has been robust over the last 18 to 24 months. Kelleher said that this portion of business will continue to do well through the middle of the summer when families relocate at a time to allow their children to begin at a new school at the start of the academic year.

Softness has come on the international travel front as a result of concerns over the global outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The Asian market, which was showing a significant opportunity for growth before SARS appeared in China and Hong Kong, has taken a hit, he said.

In addition, the governmental marketplace has been impacted by geopolitical concerns, and the formation of homeland, security has caused a slight softness in the market.

"Now, all of these markets have all but stopped - they're just in limbo," Kelleher said. "What we're seeing is a healthy flat.

"I think that we clearly need a greater clarity on the outcome of war and we need a greater confidence in consumers," Kelleher said.