Looptail: How One Company Changed the World by Reinventing Business

Summary

Can a company be cool, socially responsible and still make money?

Welcome to the Looptail. This is the extraordinary true story of Bruce Poon Tip and how he honed his entrepreneurial instincts to create G Adventures, the world’s most successful adventure travel company. Based in Canada, G Adventures operates in more than 100 countries, on all seven continents, and serves more than 100,000 customers every year. In this unique first-person account, Poon Tip reveals his unusual management secrets that allowed him to keep growing his company, his employees fully engaged and energized, and his customers extremely happy.

It’s all pretty amazing for a guy who started the company in 1990 by maxing out a few of his credit cards to finance the start-up. Poon Tip has worked tirelessly to ensure that his company generates good karma for everyone; that is, that “giving back” in life and in business is all about the cycle of the Looptail. Poon Tip has created an entirely new and refreshing approach to management. For example, there is no traditional CEO at G Adventures—instead, every employee is a CEO, empowered to make instantaneous decisions to help serve clients on the spot. But while there’s no CEO, there is a company Mayor who takes the daily pulse of corporate morale. There’s no HR department, but there is a Talent Agency and company Culture Club.

This is a singularly stunning story of why community, culture and karma matter in business, and how one man’s desire to do the right thing and generate profits can be blended into a win-win for all involved.