Member Article

London festive focus: Hugo Burge, Momondo Group

With the end of a topsy-turvy year in sight and this year’s festivities about to begin, we’ve asked some of London’s business leaders to reflect on the year gone by and give us an insight into their festive traditions.

In the spotlight today is Hugo Burge, Chief Executive Officer of Momondo Group, to share his thoughts on the year gone by, the year ahead and what’s most likely to get him boogying at this year’s Christmas shindig.

What have been the most notable highlights for your business this year?

I’m incredibly proud that momondo’s DNA Journey project went viral with over 200m views globally. The campaign predicates that an open world is a better world, and in a year when division has become the lingua franca of political and social discourse, it’s a positive message that has really struck a nerve. It encourages people to set aside prejudice towards countries and cultures by showing we’re all the sum of where our ancestors have come from, that we are all ‘from’ somewhere and have more in common with each other than we think.

That idea – that we have a shared, common ancestry whose points of reference are linked by the journeys our forebears travelled, and that appreciating that and perhaps even following in their footsteps or taking new pathways through travel makes people more open minded as a result – is also central to our company culture. With this in mind we extended our DNA campaign internally, giving staff the opportunity to take their own tests with often surprising results – for example, we found out that Pia Vemmelund, our Danish MD of momondo, is actually more British than myself!

It’s been a year of highs and lows, can you tell us some of the biggest challenges your business has faced?

The hardest thing has been staying true to our goals of creating products users love and building high performing teams. We made challenging decisions around bringing teams together to maximise our focus and resources – in particular integrating operations across our two brands, while maintaining the individual strengths of each.

This year though I can say with confidence that we have made great progress on this front, with both Cheapflights and momondo showing strong revenue growth and, perhaps more importantly, significant increases in direct, repeat and mobile users. Ours is a really competitive, dynamic and innovative industry – so for me we have to fight harder, be smart and roll-up our sleeves to make an impact – but our growth this year proves that we are on the right path.

If there’s one lesson you’re going to take away from 2016, what is it and why?

A strong sense of purpose in business creates a culture that makes a difference, helping you to make decisions and ultimately build business success.

Which London business do you most admire right now?

I really like what Julian Metcalfe is doing with Itsu – its strong brand identity and professional management shines through.

What do you think are the biggest challenges facing businesses in the city next year?

Despite the Brexit vote we’re still seeing plenty of businesses setting up shop in the capital, which is a show of confidence and courage in London as a global city where the best talent can flourish. I think our biggest challenge is to retain that talent and remain positive in the face of the current uncertainty. The result is what it is – businesses now need to be bold, continue to invest for the future, and challenge themselves to stay progressive in a shifting climate.

Who’s your business idol, the person you find most inspiring and look up to?

I admire Banksy. First and foremost he is an artist who follows an uncompromising path, message and passion, but clearly he is now more than that – his art has become a business as a result of everything else.

I suspect he would be offended at being called a business person, but he is a business idol of sorts – he understood early on that his talent could be commodified to the extent that people were prepared to cut his works off walls, or buy them for millions of pounds. He really has created something that people love, which at the end of the day, is something we and all businesses should strive to achieve.

Everyone has their Christmas day routine, what’s yours?

I divide the day neatly in two; spending as much time out walking as possible (hopefully in the snow), before relaxing beside an open log fire with family.

And most importantly of all, what’s the cheesy Christmas single that’s most likely to get you on the dancefloor?

That would be classified information. Anything that could make me get onto the dancefloor should be treated as top secret and not leaked under any circumstances!