Expedia Inc.
Expedia, Inc. is the world’s leading online travel company, making available all types of travel and an online and mobile web toolset for both leisure and business travel which delivers the information needed to easily research, plan and book travel. The Expedia, Inc. portfolio of brands includes: Expedia.com®, Hotels.com®, Hotwire®, Egencia™, Expedia Local Expert™, Classic Vacations® and eLong™. Expedia, Inc.’s companies operate more than 50 global points of sale with sites in North America, South America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.
Under the demographic segment, one opportunity for Expedia would fall under geographical distribution. Should Expedia focus delivery of online business and leisure travel in this area, Expedia would have little to no online competition. There has been little focus on the India market due to various reasons, but has become an emerging market as of recent. As CEO, I would capitalize on the opportunity of expanding into India first, as a blueprint as a success or a failure. As a success, this would give great insight to expanding into more rural areas, where the difficulties to deliver would be similar, as a failure it would give insight into areas I would want to veer in a different direction, or rethink delivery based on known challenges.
Under the economy segment, the threats are easily definable. As the economy remains in a world-wide slump, fewer and fewer travelers are choosing to take fewer and fewer vacations. Businesses also are redefining company travel policies and budgets further affecting the online traveler slice of profit. As CEO, certainly rethinking current policies to pay for a trip would be an opportunity to provide the same travel packages, in a more manageable timeframe. In providing alternative means to pay for a trip, this could open up a new market of customer and/or provide an opportunity to offer travel to different income brackets.
Under the political and/or legal segment, as stated in the textbook for this class, the Obama Administration, states that policies might be formed with the intention of reducing the amount of work US companies outsource to firms in other nations. This could affect Information Technology outsourcing firms based on countries such as India. To companies such as Expedia, there are several risks of this type of Administrative action. As the CEO, I would have to determine whether current corporate headquarters, located in the US would continue to be a profitable solution. This type of action would also require Expedia to restructure the current FTE/Vendor formula, and while making more jobs available in the US, this would also diminish available income for travelers outside of the US.
Under the socio cultural segment, with Expedia outsourcing some of its technology development and testing functions to China, issues may arise from state mandated holidays. Certain state-mandated holidays may affect the bottom line or ability to deliver needed product enhancements. As CEO, I would require that the right skill-sets to manage planning and risk mitigation were in place to secure clear, decisive deliverables are understood by the outsourced firm and a plan in place for continued delivery to ensure the deliverable date is met.
For the technological segment at Exedia, there’s always been a well known communication breakdown between technology and the business. This continues to delay new features and functionality on the site that enables Expedia to remain ahead of the market. As CEO, I think it’s imperative to ensure that there is clear alignment and mapping between knowledgeable business product managers who can succinctly communicate the business need to an equally knowledgeable technology product manager who can communicate to technology development teams the need of the business. Where you can bridge the gap between these two areas and successfully ensure that what was asked for or needed is delivered, you can guarantee enhancements to keep you on top of your market.
Under the global segment, Expedia expanding not only to India but to the new emerging markets in South America, provide opportunities both economically and culturally. Both of these markets have vast travel opportunities, but are also currently untapped from a customer perspective. Travelers in these areas think about leisure travel differently than any other place in the world. Indian travelers, are a work-focused people, where traveling to other countries is usually centric to visiting a family member outside their country. Air-hotel packages and excursions are less likely to be sold to an Indian traveler so the profit margin for this type of traveler is smaller than most. In the South American market, the portion of the population with expendable income is much smaller. The focus of travel here is usually business oriented or limited to the leisure travelers who can afford to travel. As CEO, advertising or marketing packages to these very different markets would need to be focused on an economical travel option or payment method to sell both air and hotel packages in order to maintain profitability, as air only margin is low.
Expedia has, for a long time, been a partner with environmental agencies and ever-conscious of its carbon footprint. In addressing the physical environment segment of our textbook, even Expedia has room for improvements. While Expedia currently offers carbon offset bundles you can purchase with your travel, Expedia could certainly do more to advertise how travelers can impact their carbon footprint without having to buy a bundle. As CEO, I would continue to find ways to improve my company’s green footprint by requiring something as simple as adding tips and tricks to a customer’s itinerary outlining ways to reduce their carbon footprint or enhancing car rental to make available more hybrid vehicles in a more economical manner.

References
“Reducing your carbon footprint” http://www.expedia.com/daily/sustainable_travel/going_green/carbon_footprint.asp. http://www.expedia.com/p/info-other/about.htm http://press.expediainc.com/index.php?s=43&item=251