TORONTO — When G Adventures invited several media outlets to
its headquarters here in September for
its announcement of a partnership with National Geographic, the journalists
took a side trip to the operator’s main offices, aka “Base Camp.”
What we found
was a total upheaval of traditional corporate culture — and perhaps hiding
somewhere among the video games, vintage lunch boxes and unavoidable
playfulness of the space, a few of the secrets behind G Adventures’ success.
Located in a four-story brick building near downtown
Toronto, the unassuming facade gives way to an ambience of optimistic
youthfulness and energy inside. Anyone who watches the HBO series “Silicon
Valley” or has been to or seen images of the now almost cliche offices of many
tech companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple and Etsy, the G
Adventures Base Camp fits the milieu. Foosball table? Check. Free snacks?
Check. Open floor plan? Yep.
Except that G Adventures isn’t a technology company. It’s a
tour operator. And last I checked, going on tours wasn’t necessarily considered
all that cool by people in their 20s, 30s and 40s.
That’s what makes the G Adventures offices interesting:
Somehow the company has managed to make selling tours around the world engaging
for the very demographic it is sending out on a lot of those tours, a much
younger demographic than the baby boomers who are the foundation of much of the
rest of the tour landscape.
Gary Knell, CEO of the National Geographic Society, in G Adventures’ Star Wars-themed meeting room. Photo Credit: Michelle Baran
One has to wonder if somewhere among the funky decor and
pleasant perks, the bearded hipsters and casual work attire, G Adventures has
stumbled on a way to make touring cool for its employees and, in turn, for its
clients.
It’s not that other tour operators’ headquarters don’t
evince signs of fun. They often have contests in the spirit of healthy sales
competition or festive celebrations to keep morale high.
But G Adventures takes it to a whole other level. Upon
entering the lobby, we were greeted by the cheerful and friendly Dave Holmes,
or “Mayor Dave, the mayor of Base Camp.”
“My job is to make sure employees are engaged and happy,”
said Holmes. His official title is, in fact, Mayor Dave, so it’s hard to
determine what his equivalent position would be at a traditional tour operator.
The only clue we got was that his desk was situated in the area deemed the
Talent Agency, formerly known as the Culture Club, elsewhere known as human
resources. (Holmes said that G Adventures declared “death to H.R.” several
years ago and held a funeral for the now reincarnated department.)
Holmes then proceeded to explain some of the guiding
philosophies behind the current non-corporate culture at G Adventures. Eight
years ago, the company established five core values that drive its operations
today.
In Holmes’ words, they are: 1) “We love changing people’s
lives,” 2) “Lead with service; we are a customer-obsessed company,” 3) “Embrace
the bizarre,” 4) “Create happiness and community” and 5) “Do the right thing.”
One of the key ways G Adventures hopes to help its employees
embrace those values, Holmes said, is through freedom. Freedom can manifest
itself in employees working from home some days or in the company giving its
tour leaders (who G Adventures calls CEOs, for chief experience officers) the
freedom to insert spontaneous moments into their tours, moments that can’t be
written into the brochures.
G Adventures employs about 1,800 staff globally, 200 of whom
are based in the Toronto office. The average age of the employees at Base Camp
is 34, and internationally it’s 32, with employees in Toronto ranging in age
from 19 to their 60s.
The company itself is 25 years old, and its founder, Bruce
Poon Tip, is 48. Poon Tip has said G Adventures caters predominantly to
travelers from ages 30 to 50.
On the day we toured the offices, the space was buzzing more
than usual on the heels of G Adventures’ annual company retreat, G Stock, which
is attended by some 200 to 300 employees from around the world. Every
unconventional seating area, couch, pod, bench and even floor space was
occupied by laptop-toting, headphone-wearing workers.
Dave Holmes, aka Mayor Dave, gives reporters a tour of G Adventures’ head offices and makes sure to point out the wall of vintage lunch boxes Photo Credit: Michelle Baran
While it’s hard to judge (based on a couple hours hanging
out a company’s offices) whether G Adventures’ corporate culture is truly a
successful model, we were able to get a visual snapshot of a company that has
clearly found a way to attract a young workforce and create a product that is
resonating with its peers.
As we continued on our tour, Holmes showed us Base Camp’s
themed meeting rooms, all related to something or someone who inspires
adventure or has changed the world: a Steve Jobs room full of Apple
memorabilia, a Star Wars room, a Dr. Seuss room, a Wright Brothers room and a
William Shatner room.
For their final interview, job applicants are brought into a
ball pit (as in a room filled to about knee level in plastic balls) and asked
to spin a wheel on the wall full of questions from the staff.
We peeked in on one
candidate during the tour. After she had spun the wheel, she was asked if she
knew all the words to the theme song for the 1990s TV show “The Fresh Prince of
Bel-Air.” She rapped the entire tune — in Spanish.
Holmes said that by the time applicants get to the final
interview, G Adventures is no longer concerned about their qualifications. The
company wants to know how they respond to quirky questions and scenarios. They
want to know if the person will fit in at G Adventures.
“We don’t hire brilliant jerks,” Mayor Dave declared.