Case Studies
Issue No. 18 - August/September 2004
The Venture Group
Nothing ventured ...
Any active person would think working outdoors, leading city folk on adventure activities in the beautiful Adelaide Hills, would be a dream job.
Andrew Govan not only thought so, but exchanged a teaching career for the risk of running a business in the personal and team development sector. More than a decade of successful effort has taught him a lot about dreams, though, and how to make money out of having fun.
The Venture Group run by Andrew and partner Curtis Eyles is two companies, Wilderness Escapes and Venture Corporate Recharge. Right now, Andrew is in the closing phases of a consolidation effort that makes his company intriguing.
Andrew and Curtis founded Wilderness Escapes in 1991. It was conceived as an eco-tourism firm, with sidelines in disability care and youth leadership, but the ratio has reversed over time. Recognising that his company’s "focus was too broad", Andrew was in the midst of consolidating his operation when unhappy fate threw an opportunity his way.
Venture Corporate Recharge was founded in 1989 and operated as a separate company until the tragic death of a company founder, mountaineer Mark Auricht, on Everest. Andrew and Curtis were invited to buy Venture in 2001. The other principals of Venture had left the firm; only three Venture employees joined the expanded group.
Luckily, those employees were very good. Andrew was impressed with Venture’s structure, which was in some respects more efficient than his own.
His objective since has been to strip both operations down to their profitable cores and reform his labour force both to gain more control of his service offering and to gain flexibility.
"If I was going to do it (take over a business) again, I would not do it at Christmas," says Andrew, who took the tiller of Venture in December 2001. "It was very bad in terms of transition – the day after we bought it, everybody went on holidays."
Andrew says, aligning everyone̵...
