George Butterfield of luxury adventure travel firm Butterfield & Robinson.
George Butterfield was in law school when he first figured out how to turn his hobby---travel-into a business. Broke and wanting to go to Europe, he and his wife, Martha, and her brother Sidney Robinson put together a package tour of the continent, pitched it to everyone they knew, and managed to find 40 students to take a "grand tour." That was 1966, and Butterfield & Robinson was born. Four years later, Butterfield abandoned his life as a lawyer to run the fledgling travel firm full-time, with his wife and brother-in-law as partners. The Toronto-based business blossomed into one of North America's best-known specialty travel companies, acclaimed for its high-end cycling tours. This fall, after the recession dampened many people's enthusiasm for travel, Butterfield & Robinson announced it was bringing in a new partner. Erik Blachford, the former CEO of Expedia, has taken a 50% stake in the firm and will assume day-to-day control of operations, including 40 full-time staff and 150 guide leaders around the world.
Does bringing in a new partner mean you're retiring?
The idea of retiring doesn't appeal to me much. My work is shifting from being responsible for this company and all of its decisions to backing off from that and moving into some charitable work, particularly around the environment. Not being totally responsible for the business appeals to me a lot-and having a younger person come in who I think is a little bit more in tune with what people want. I'm 70. I think I'm still with it but I have to be realistic.
How did Butterfield & Robinson make the leap in the 1980s from student tours to adult biking tours?
Lots of parents asked us: Why don't we do something for them? We tried the idea in 1970 of bicycling in Europe from inn to inn, staying at grand places, but we got no response. Then we tried again 10 years later. It went, as they say, bananas.
What do you attribute that to?
Timing. I think the world had changed. Maybe bicycle technology had moved forward. Maybe we marketed it a little better.
How did you develop your reputation for luxury adventure travel?
The trips are on the higher price side of things, but they're not really over the top. But that reputation has been from the beginning. And getting it right has some costs involved. For example, when we are on a bicycle trip, we usually try to pre-trip the trip because it's amazing how quickly a construction crew moves in and the road instructions you wrote one week don't work the next.
What advice would you give someone who's starting a travel business?
Do this because you love it. And indeed it's a pretty privileged way to live.
You're dealing with people who are always on the up-so joyous. But don't do it because you want to make tons of money, because you won't.
Do you have advice specific to running a high-end business?
It's pretty simple. Just get it right. People don't want to be treated like they're just one of thousands and thousands. You want everything to be special. And an awful lot of group travel is pretty routine, pretty predictable.
You're also a family business.
I believe in family businesses. I think family businesses work well. I think you trust family and you don't have all the issues you have with outsiders.
I believe in nepotism. I think it's great to have family come in and be part of your business.
But your new partner isn't family?
Erik Blachford is an extraordinary guy. We're close friends. Having been president of Expedia, he knows something about running a company. It's pretty nice to have someone who really understands the business in a profound way, plus gets the culture of this place, having once been a guide-he ran the student tours for a number of years.
It's a really good solution to succession.
Any regrets? Are you sorry you left law?
No. I think in life you have to assess your strengths and weaknesses. I am in awe of some really great lawyers and the way they think. My brain never really thought that way. I feel I'm experimental with things and more comfortable in a world that's not so rigidly defined.