He knew, however, that his company had recently signed an agreement to increase his product’s distribution and visibility there. He hopes to do the same in India-where there is already a long tradition of post-meal teeth cleansing by chewing fennel seeds after meals. In Australia, he saw that the drugstore chain market is dominated by three big chains-providing tremendous distribution opportunity for a quality product. He even signed up TCS Expeditions as a customer; the travel company will start distributing Plackers to passengers with their meals.
Increasing awareness about the world in an age of growing globalization is essential, says Dixon Doll, the co-founder and general partner of Silicon Valley‘s DCM venture capital firm, who traveled with his wife, Carol. “I firmly believe people need to get out there and see the world and not be sitting on
Sand Hill Road,” says Doll. “Globalization has happened in our business, whether venture capital has wanted it to or not. One of the things VCs are going to have to do to be successful is see the world.”There are other business reasons for taking this type of trip. For Bill Ungerman, CFO and co-founder of Coastal Pacific Food Distributors in Stockton, Calif., it was a chance to start thinking about succession planning. He left a number of responsibilities to his deputies back home to see how the office would function in his absence-and perhaps prepare for his eventual retirement. Ungerman is a history buff-the true reason for the trip-but the trip with his wife Laura also served an important business purpose.
“It’s an opportunity to see how things will run without you,” he says. “Trips like this are a way of finding out how vulnerable or successful you are in that area. What you want is to get yourself to a point of being irrelevant to the business.”
Or one foot on a jetway, seeing the world. The trip brought Ungerman to the realization that he has to make a decision to be fully involved, or to retire.
But business reasons aside, he says: “Overall we had an experience we’ll never forget, and we loved every minute of it.”
Private Jet Expeditions Abercrombie & Kent abercrombiekent.com The highest-priced luxury travel, with fewest passengers Passengers: 50 Cost: $97,970 per person ($9,680 single supplement) National Geographic nationalgeographicexpeditions.com Organizes Around-the-World through TCS Expeditions; offers various other trips Passengers: 74 Cost: $55,950 per person ($4,200 single supplement) Starquest Expeditions starquestexpeditions.com Set up by TCS’s original founder; now a sister company of TCS Expeditions Passengers: 88 Cost: $57,380 per person ($7,430 single supplement) TCS Expeditions tcsexpeditions.com Market leader and sister company of Travcoa, Starquest Organizes with: Travcoa, National Geographic, World Wildlife Fund, alumni groups Passengers: 74 Cost: $55,950 per person ($4,200 single supplement) World Wildlife Fund worldwildlife.org/travel Organizes Around-the-World through TCS; offers various other trips Passengers: 74 Cost: $64,950 per person (April 2009 only) ($3,100 single supplement)
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