Case Studies: Grand Circle Corporation

This is the story of a remarkable turnaround: how Pinnacle helped an unprofitable company become the world leader in international travel.

In 1985, New York-based Grand Circle Travel was losing $2M a year off of $23M in revenue. The company, founded by AARP for retired travelers, was now in the hands of Colonial Penn Life Insurance. It was in deep trouble and up for sale.

Today, GCT is part of a family of travel companies that make up Grand Circle Corporation (GCC). GCC is the world leader in international travel, adventure and discovery for Americans over 50. The company scores 89% excellence ratings from travelers, earns more than $700M in annual revenue, employs 2000 associates in 40 offices worldwide and operates programs in 80 countries. Their charitable arm, Alnoba, has donated more than $200M in 70 countries since 1981.

You can lead from anywhere

Boston entrepreneurs Alan and Harriet believed in the power of Grand Circle Travel’s list and the potential for the senior travel market. Eager to test their own ideas on how to build a very different kind of business, bought the struggling company. They learned quickly that it was hemorrhaging cash at a rate of $5,000 a day, had a failed business model and lacked brave leadership.

Both Alan and Harriet hold a bedrock belief that you can lead from anywhere and that strong leaders make stronger companies and communities. From the start, they knew that developing a culture of leaders would be key to their success. With their good friend Bob Weiler, they created Pinnacle Leadership and Team Development. Our first mission? Turn GCC into a global leader. Here’s a few examples of what Pinnacle did to make that happen.

Create a winning corporate culture that puts people first – vision, mission and values

The ink was barely dry on the contract when Pinnacle started the hard work of turning the GCC dream into reality. Alan and Harriet knew they had to right the ship and start making money fast. While it would have been easier to focus on just the money, they instinctively knew that the smarter and tougher job was to put the foundation under their dream by defining what kind of company they wanted to be and where they wanted to go.

They also knew they needed help from outside the family and company for crafting a vision, mission and values is very personal and often messy, hard work. Pinnacle carefully guided the senior leadership team through the emotion and noise to make decisions, define what was non-negotiable, and put stakes in the ground. Most importantly they demanded that each leader commit out loud and in person to exemplify and lead the culture. They helped turn words into action for all associates.

To this day GCC’s vision, mission and values remain intact and continue to guide the company through successes and storms.

Building strong small teams who get results

Pinnacle has an arsenal of tools. For GCC, one of the most effective was to work with small teams using the offsite model.

Pinnacle and the Lewises are big proponents of experiential learning, using nature as a classroom and getting teams offsite to disconnect from the tether of the office so they can really focus on the team and the assignment at hand. GCC uses offsites a lot – when a new leader comes aboard, as part of the annual planning process, when launching a new company initiative, and of course in times of crisis.

In as short as two days Pinnacle is able to get at the hot issues, align teams and drive action and results. However, the offsite is only 20% of the process. Pinnacle is razor-focused on getting teams prepared (40%) and can be relentless in the essential follow up (40%). While some companies may resist taking time away, Alan and Harriet find it is time well spent. Some of the best decisions, best plans and best examples of leadership come from offsites.

Expert at thriving in change and leading through turbulence

Good companies can become great and great companies can extend their lead in the heat of crisis. Rarely does a mediocre company rise high in times of challenge. You need to go into the headwinds of turbulence with the trust and alignment of your team, the courage to make tough decisions fast, the wisdom to listen and the guts to lead. You don’t get all that overnight in a storm. You get it from years of diligent work.

In times of difficulty, Pinnacle goes into overdrive for GCC. They literally embed themselves deep in the organization. They work with the senior team to get a plan fast and then get super tight alignment at all levels. They push for rapid deployment, small team offsites, and to open wide all channels of communication and feedback.

Most important, when it seems like the waves are crashing all about, Pinnacle lifts the company to keep scanning the horizon for the opportunities that the roiling sea of change inevitably brings. On 9-12-01, Pinnacle hung a big sign in Grand Circle’s lobby. It read:

“In the middle of adversity there is always opportunity. ” – Einstein

Pinnacle’s leadership training program, carefully honed during the past 30 years, is one of the key reasons that Grand Circle always emerges stronger when faced with challenges such as 9/11, financial market disruptions, natural disasters, currency fluctuations, and other unforeseen events.

To learn more read the Leading through Turbulence book.

Extreme Competitive Advantages

Over the years, Pinnacle also taught GCC to always know where it excels and how to position itself 3-5 years ahead of the competition.

GCC calls these Extreme Competitive Advantages (ECA). Pinnacle works with the senior team to constantly measure results, reassess and update them over the years. For GCC some pieces always remain. If you want to go long put your people first and measure success by excellence over profit. Always start at the top with your top people, top product and top vendors and go hard at what you do best. Knowing your Extreme Competitive Advantages, aligning the organization to them and building a team of leaders to own each of them will secure your leadership position. There is a lot of nuts and bolt work necessary to ingrain them into the organization and that is exactly what Pinnacle does.

“When you let teams come up with the hot issues, they are almost always right on target.

I firmly believe the brainpower is in the organization; issues and solutions will rise if you let them. That process is far more effective than sending the issues down from on high. By asking teams to identify hot issues and allowing them to raise what has been non-discussable, you give them ownership. The resulting recommendations are always far better than those you would get from your top executive team.

Those closest know best, but it takes a strong leader to let go, to trust the people and the process and to be open to whatever comes up.”

-Alan Lewis