People
Issue No. 42 - August/September 2008
Duncan takes business to extremes
He has scaled Everest twice and climbed the world’s tallest peaks, traversed the Antarctic and followed in heroes footsteps along the Kokoda Track, but Duncan Chessell is no playboy adventurer and doesn’t expect to become one soon.
South Australia’s most accomplished mountaineer runs his own business, Duncan Chessell Expeditions, also known as DCXP, and takes corporate clients to their physical performance limits for reward and team-building. But Duncan, an inspiring speaker and proven leader, finds running his world-spanning small business is no walk in the park.
“The skills you develop with leading larger longer more remote expeditions which require considerable planning, budgeting, marketing, preparation and teamwork have been skills that have transferred across the disciplines fairly well,” Duncan says.
“People often think of expedition leaders as just out there lifting heavy things or walking for days on end,
and while that might be a part of it, in an extreme environment you are constantly weighing up the pros and cons of various decisions much like a business owner or manager would.“
An adventuresome life gives Duncan plenty of cred to make pitches to corporate clients, but he doesn’t relish being his own marketer.
“It is still hard work to gain sponsorship even with a proven track record,” he says. “While we have excelled at implementation and execution of expeditions, promotion and marketing are things I...
