The Book

Contents

Written and published one at a time, in order, exactly as supplied.

Part One — International Leisure Group

My First Lesson in Travel: Data Doesn't Just Predict the Future, It Changes It

Bromley, England A lively head-hunter called Alan, who had spent many an evening getting me drunk on expenses, arranged an interview with Hugh Morgan.

Nobody Ever Teaches You How to Manage People. They Just Make You a Manager.

Bromley, England Nobody ever teaches you how to manage people. They just make you a manager.

Holiday Pricing in the 1990s Wasn't Complicated. It Was Utter Madness.

Bromley, England Like most people, my memory is like a scratched hard drive, with some things remaining in laser focus whilst others become completely opaque.

I Thought I Understood Holiday Pricing. Dave Pearson Proved I Didn't

Lancaster Holidays, England One of the biggest mistakes ambitious young managers make is believing that intelligence alone wins in business. It simply doesn't.

Why Most Travel Group Mergers Destroy Value Instead of Creating It

International Leisure Group, England After spending nearly forty years in the travel industry, I have come to the conclusion that this thinking has destroyed more successful travel brands than almost any other management fad.

Part Two — Around the World

Florida Was My First Lesson in Selling Experiences, Not Holidays

Orlando, Florida, USA Florida taught me something much more important about travel: the most profitable travel businesses don't simply sell holidays.

Florida the first stop on my world tour

Orlando, Florida, USA My time in Florida taught me a lot about what a truly differentiated holiday product Florida delivered.

Melbourne Taught Me That Your Career Is Portable. Most People Never Learn That.

Melbourne, Australia That trip completely changed the way I viewed both travel and people.

Part Three — Joining Airtours

Return of the Prodigal Employee and a Weekend to Remember

Bromley, England The business collapsed and went into administration, sending us down Jasmine Wine Bar to drown our sorrows.

Why I Took a Pay Cut to Join Airtours, and Why It Became One of the Best Decisions of My Career

London, England Never judge an opportunity by the size of today's salary or job title. Judge it by the size of tomorrow's vision.

Part Four — The Airtours Years

My First Week at Airtours: The Mystery of Who Killed Dolly the Sheep

Helmshore, Lancashire, England Faced with this career-defining crisis during my first week, I did what many otherwise sensible people might have done.

My First Airtours Brochure: The Day Data Beat Tradition

Helmshore, Lancashire, England Brochure sales increased by around 20%, while average margins improved by £11 per passenger.

My Biggest Promotion at Airtours Started With One Unexpected Question

Helmshore, Lancashire, England “Please sort the structure out first, then tell me who you want me to report to. I'll happily report to one person, but never two.”

The Most Important Data in a Business Is Often Inside Someone's Head

Helmshore, Lancashire, England Data tells you what is happening, but experienced people often understand why it's happening.

Becoming a Director Taught Me That Politics Isn't Always a Dirty Word

Helmshore, Lancashire, England Good management politics isn't about winning every argument; it's about creating enough tension between competing opinions to stop any one personality taking the business over a cliff.

The Day I Realised I Could No Longer Do Everything Myself

Helmshore, Lancashire, England I had recruited someone because I trusted their ability, yet I was still trying to make them become another version of me.

When Does Moving Too Fast Become Too Much?

Helmshore, Lancashire, England If you keep collecting jobs simply because you can do them, eventually you stop developing a business and start becoming its biggest bottleneck.

The Airtours Lesson That Taught Me 2+2 Often Equals 2.5

Helmshore, Lancashire, England Brand consolidation and cost-cutting rarely lead to 2+2 even equalling 4 — often it's just 2.5, and a complete waste of time.

The Infamous Airtours Commercial Weekenders

Magaluf, Majorca, Spain You could almost have cut us down the middle and found “Airtours Commercial Department” written through us like a stick of Blackpool rock.

Dealing with Complaints: The Airtours Way

Helmshore, Lancashire, England Being brilliant at selling customers a holiday is not much use if, once they have experienced it, they never want to buy another one from you.

Risk Taking at Airtours

Majorca, Spain Sometimes the biggest risk isn't doing something that looks risky. It's being too cautious to recognise when doing something five times bigger makes considerably more commercial sense.

Flying My Parents to Australia for £499

Sydney, Australia Sometimes customers are far more adventurous than businesses give them credit for. You just have to get the price right.

The Airport I Designed Over Breakfast at Denny's

Sanford, Florida, USA I drew my airport on three pieces of A4 paper, which I still have framed at home today.

Swapping Overseas Operations for Sales

Helmshore, Lancashire, England For the first time I could influence the price of a holiday almost from beginning to end.

The International Expansion Years

Toronto, Canada Airtours' flying programme was heavily weighted toward the European summer, so David Crossland went looking for winter business — and I ended up in Canada.

Friendships with Travel Competitors That Last a Lifetime

Orlando, Florida, USA I may have lost 18 golf balls that week in Florida, but I gained a friendship that has lasted more than 30 years.

The Arrival of Peter Rothwell and the Culture Clash That Followed

Helmshore, Lancashire, England David Crossland decided that improving service required more than another initiative or set of targets. He needed to change the leadership.

What Richard Carrick Taught Me About Marketing, Customers and Shiny Shoes

Bolton, England Richard Carrick taught me that none of it matters unless you first understand how customers actually behave — which is often very different from how they claim to behave.

Teletext, Airtours and the Battle to Control the Lates Market

Helmshore, Lancashire, England Teletext looked primitive, but commercially it was revolutionary — it separated selling from the brochure and turned price into an immediate response mechanism.

The £10 Million Saving That Taught Me Being Smart Isn’t Always Clever

Helmshore, Lancashire, England Being smart may win you the deal, but being trusted wins you the relationship.

The Summer I Invented Fluid Pricing and, Unfortunately, the Airport Surcharge

Helmshore, Lancashire, England Sometimes you can solve today's commercial problem without realising you have just created tomorrow's industry.

Bribes, Brochures and the Birth of True Vertical Integration

Woking, England True vertical integration wasn't created by owning each part of the supply chain; it happened only when the people running those businesses trusted each other enough to act as one.

Creating MARS: How Retail Data Changed the Balance of Power

Helmshore, Lancashire, England Vertical integration creates value only when the different parts of a business genuinely work together and share the information that lets the group make better decisions than its competitors.

The Airtours Flight-Only Fraud: Brown Envelopes and Blind Trust

Helmshore, Lancashire, England Trust needs proper supervision, particularly when someone can directly change what customers pay.

Tidying Up the Flight-Only Mess and Meeting My Future Wife

Helmshore, Lancashire, England The young woman whose job you abruptly change may eventually become your wife, ensuring that you never get to write your own history entirely unchallenged.

Being Seduced Away from Airtours

Helmshore, Lancashire, England 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?