Top Resources

www.inc.com/innovation
A collection of articles and tools regarding managing creativity and bringing innovative ideas to market.

www.hbr.org
Studies, articles and books covering innovation in-depth, from “innovation value chain” to “mapping your innovation strategy.

Innovation Is the Passport to Success for Travel Beyond

  Craig Beal            Jim Bendt

Travel Beyond is a full-service travel consultancy based in Wayzata, MN, with offices in Tampa, FL, Wisconsin Rapids, WI, Berkley, CA, and Ottawa, Canada. The company specializes in creating rich travel experiences for its clients, including African safari tours, luxury cruises and meaningful intergenerational adventures. The company's owners, Craig Beal and Jim Bendt, share their perspectives on innovation in today's marketplace.

1. You define Travel Beyond as a hybrid travel company. What does that mean? 

Travel Beyond is a travel consultancy and a tour operator for Africa. As a travel consultancy, we offer consulting services for world travel and two domestic locations: Hawaii and Alaska. These are the areas where our personal knowledge allows us to bring consulting value and customized itineraries to our clients. Our high level of knowledge and service allows us to operate like a professional consultancy, such as an attorney or a financial advisor. 

2. How have you changed your business model in response to current market conditions?

We have found that more and more people are turning back to professional consultants to plan their travel. So, we created a work environment and business model that can attract and retain the cream of the consultants in the industry, which will help us attract more of the clients we want.

We now have 20 employees, all of whom are salaried, which we feel fosters internal collaboration and ensures we can offer honest, unbiased advice.

Also, being an early adopter of new technologies, all five or our offices throughout the U.S. and Canada are connected. This allows us to hire people based on experience rather than being limited by available talent within a specific region. We also have coverage for all the major time zones, so we are fully accessible to our clients across the country.

3. What is your most recent innovation?

We have launched two new consulting services that are the first of their kind in the country.

Wanderlist®: Similar to a financial portfolio, Wanderlist® is a travel portfolio that optimizes travelers' goals by taking advantage of market conditions. We start by analyzing our clients’ bucket lists against numerous filters such as price fluctuations, currency exchange rates, frequent flyer mileage, time of year and geographic considerations. The end result is a fully optimized three- to five-year travel plan—or Wanderlist—that can ultimately save thousands of dollars. 

TravelTrustTM: This innovative family trust program allows parents and grandparents to place tax-exempt gifts into a family trust. The trust funds can be used for enriching travel experiences today and in the future.

4. What are some of the techniques you use to leverage social technology in your business?

I am one of the biggest bloggers in the Botswana forums of Trip Advisor and Fodors. I have had more than 2,500 pieces published in the past 36 months under the name SafariCraig. Clients are “checking the boards” before committing to a big expenditure like a safari, and they find my candid advice refreshing and valuable.

We also have a Facebook site, a Twitter account, a YouTube channel, a Vimeo account and a new smart phone app in the works. 

5. What is your internal process for innovation?

We meet informally with our staff once per week and with our management team once per week. We hold an off-site board meeting once per quarter. Opportunities are constantly analyzed and prioritized at these meetings. We value the time of our managers and officers as a cash asset.

6. What do you see happening in the travel industry in the next 5 or 10 years?

In the next five years a career as a professional travel consultant will reappear as a viable consideration for college graduates.

With 6,000 Boomers reaching retirement age every day for the next 15 years, international travel will continue to explode. The bucket lists are long and the destinations are exotic. We believe our consulting niche will continue to prosper since planning a trip to India, Africa or South America requires using someone with inside knowledge.

Comment from Leonard, Street and Deinard: One of the main reasons we enjoy working with Travel Beyond is that they have chosen to separate themselves from “commodity” travel firms by building innovations such as Wanderlist TM and Travel Trust TM into their service model. In addition, they have been early adopters of social media strategies to deliver their message in multiple forums.

Legal Strategies for Innovative Companies

A Prezi Presentation

Our attorneys regularly partner with clients to help them launch innovative ideas. View this Prezi presentation to see legal strategies that support and protect innovation.

People You Should Know

We asked three successful professionals to share their unique perspectives on innovation.

Justin Anderson, Psy.D, consulting psychologist and principal of JSA Advising, LLC.

“My advice for companies trying to launch an innovative idea is to change their approach. Instead of meeting for an hour on a Tuesday morning in the boardroom asking for people to present their ideas, give small groups an afternoon to work how and where they'd like to develop an idea that can help the company. Changing the approach changes the way our brains take in and process information; changing how we think can lead to big ideas.”

Justin works with many multigenerational family businesses and families of wealth who are engaged in transition, immersed with conflict or interested in developing a healthier governance structure. Read more about Justin at www.JSAadvising.com.

Brenda S. Huebsch Bijnagte, CPA and principal at LarsonAllen LLP

“Small businesses need to continually innovate to stay competitive. There is always someone creating the next great idea. When working with these businesses, we help them understand the opportunity, verify a product’s profit potential, recognize risk and exposure, and plan for the future. This could entail everything from knowing the breakeven point to seeking capital for growth to obtaining the tax credits available for research and development of new products.” 

Brenda has almost 15 years’ experience providing traditional assurance and consulting services to manufacturing and retail businesses in a wide variety of industries. You can reach her at 612.376.4677 or bbijnagte@larsonallen.com.

Mark Lauffenburger, COO of The Business Bank

“Our most successful business clients emphasize innovation throughout their organizations. They understand that the marketplace is constantly changing and they reinvent themselves on a continuum, from product strategy and development to production and delivery. These dynamic companies are sought out by both customers and vendors. What we do at The Business Bank is help companies launch innovative ideas by providing financing with repayment matched to the resulting beneficial cash flows.”

Mark Lauffenburger is chief operating officer of The Business Bank in Minnetonka, Minnesota. You can reach him at 952.476.4606 or mlauffenburger@businessbankmn.com.

Spotlight: Private Business Group at Leonard, Street and Deinard

At Leonard, Street and Deinard, we have placed a special emphasis on serving privately held and family businesses since our firm was founded in 1922. Our clients include smaller and newer businesses as well as some of the largest privately held companies in the U.S.

Our business lawyers understand and appreciate the intricacies of running a successful closely held company. We take pride in being both highly skilled legal practitioners and business advisors. Most important, we know how to put our legal and business knowledge to work to help companies like yours both build and sustain a thriving organization.

Clients appreciate our proactive approach, which allows us not only to develop and implement a plan based on the company’s objectives and concerns, but also to recognize potential problems before they become disruptive or expensive.

Working with Leonard, Street and Deinard, you will have access to all the legal specialty areas that your company may need. Many of our privately held and family business clients like their primary partner to serve as a quarterback of sorts. That lawyer can draw upon the experience of lawyers in specialty areas throughout our firm as needed, such as business structuring, finance, federal and state taxation, estate planning, employment law and employee benefits, and environmental law.

Helping You Grow Your Business

Privately held and family business clients routinely use our firm for counsel in areas such as:

• Determining the most advantageous ways to set up your company and your relationships with other owners.
• Helping you with business and tax planning, management and governance issues.
• Identifying the best methods to obtain financing for your business, including IPOs and leveraged recapitalizations.
• Helping you grow your company through new distribution arrangements, licensing, development, joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions.
• Protecting your intellectual property and other company assets through non-compete and trade secret agreements.
• Assisting you in utilizing e-commerce as a tool for your business.
• Determining the best ways to preserve or transition your business and your personal wealth through estate and succession planning.
• Establishing methods to help you attract and retain key employees through stock options, compensation and retirement plans, and benefits.
• Helping you comply with myriad legal and regulatory issues, including employee issues and concerns and product regulation.
• Assisting with disputes that arise during the course of business.

Feedback

Have comments about Perspectives? Suggestions for story ideas? Contact Margaret Cronin at 612.335.1579 or margaret.cronin@leonard.com.