Being Seduced Away from Airtours

I never looked for another job while I was at Airtours because I truly loved the business, but as a high-profile sales and commercial role, I often crossed paths with prospective employers. One was Mike Batt, a charming Welshman running Alamo in America after being headhunted from British Airways, where he had been marketing director.

My work on the creation of Sanford Airport and Airtours’ Florida car-hire arrangements brought us together, aided by the hospitality extended to a major customer. In those days nobody seemed particularly concerned about corporate hospitality rules and as our Finance Director, Chris Motts, put it: “If you accept everything, you’re clearly not being biased, so make the most of it.”

I therefore accepted and enjoyed Disney golf events in Florida and Euro Disney, alongside ridiculously luxurious American weekends, courtesy of Alamo. Mike and I got to know each other well, though we both understood that moving into car rental would be too narrow for me.

Things became more interesting when Carlson Companies recruited him. This huge American family-owned group had interests spanning Radisson hotels, Seven Seas cruises, TGI Fridays and the business travel division Carlson Wagonlit Travel, alongside its American leisure agency operations. Mike looked at Airtours’ vertically integrated model and decided Carlson should replicate it in Europe.

He assembled a UK operation involving AT Mays and Worldchoice Consortia, then acquired Inspirations and Caledonian Airways for what I remember as a bargain £17 million. With distribution, tour operating and an airline coming together, he needed people who understood how to make the whole thing work.

Over dinner, Mike explained that I was his chosen man to run the new business, alongside Rick Conley, who would run Caledonian. It was flattering, but flattery became rather less persuasive once I reviewed my Airtours Long Term Incentive Plan, or LTIP.

In another 14 months, I was due a share-option grant worth £1.2 million, and I therefore told Mike that, however attractive the opportunity, I couldn’t possibly walk away from that sort of money. He laughed and pointed out that Carlson had spent £40 million assembling a group for me to run, so did I really think Marilyn Carlson would baulk at another £1.2 million to secure the right management?

Even today, I wonder how many British businesses would take that approach to a signing-on payment. For me, it brought the opportunity to become independently wealthy and pay off the mortgage at the ripe old age of 32, when my previous definition of being rich had always been taking the maximum out of a cash machine without worrying about the balance.

I agreed to join and started thinking about the strategy, while bringing Seamus into my confidence and preparing him to succeed me. However, the more I considered Inspirations, the clearer it became that my skills alone would not solve its problems.

The business needed a better destination and hotel product, which meant securing somebody who could deliver it. I went back to Mike and asked whether Carlson would find another £1.2 million to recruit Paul Evans, Airtours’ Purchasing Director. There was little point giving me a business to grow without the product expertise to back it up.

Paul quickly said yes and, entirely true to form, tried to take over the negotiations and improve the deal whilst demanding that he become joint Managing Director with me, which I thought was a small price to pay to get him. However, Mike firmly reminded him that it was already a generous offer and that I was still his main man, but Paul insisted Carlson pay our legal costs, as he wanted properly considered employment contracts covering virtually every eventuality, and we later realised how well spent that money was.

However, the biggest surprise came when we resigned. At Airtours, no one was allowed to discuss their LTIP awards, and because Paul and I had identical arrangements, we had assumed the rest of the board had the same terms.

Only then did we discover that we were the “Golden Boys”, receiving awards twice the size of those given to our colleagues. David Crossland had valued us more than we had realised, which helped explain why he saw our departure as such a betrayal.

From our perspective, we were accepting an extraordinary opportunity to build something ourselves, backed by an owner prepared to invest in us. From David’s, two people he had rewarded exceptionally well were walking out together to strengthen a competitor.

Looking back, I can understand why he reacted badly, although at the time we were focused on what came next, the story of my leaving needs a few chapters in its own right, as it really is a humdinger of a story.