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From taking big gambles to believing in the power of luck, James Thornton, managing director of the Intrepid Group, plots the course of his career to date
The only thing I could do at school was geography. I went to Loughborough University to study it, along with sports science. During the summers I interned at an asset management company. They offered me a role once I finished my degree and I didn’t have any better offers at the time. I had no idea what I wanted to do when I left university.
I quickly realised asset management wasn’t for me. I was making rich people richer and I didn’t find it a rewarding experience. I did it for three years before going on holiday to South America in 2004 to meet a couple of mates who’d finished a round-the-world trip. When I came back I applied to lots of different places [in travel]. And six months later I got the Intrepid interview.
I believe that finding something you’re passionate about is half the task in life. I have two real passions. One is travel and the other is sport, but I wasn’t good enough to play for the England national football team.
I’d never heard of Intrepid before I applied for the job. In fact, I’d never even been on a group trip. I thought: “This sounds like a lot of fun; how about I go and do this for a couple of years and then go back to finance.” Eleven years
later I’m still here.
Taking the Intrepid job was quite a gamble. I took close to a 50% pay cut, though I didn’t have a mortgage or a wife and two kids at the time. It was the best thing I ever did.
Asset management gave me an excellent grounding in financial literacy. It didn’t play much of a role immediately with Intrepid, but it stood me in a really good stead to take on more senior roles.
I started out at Intrepid as an on-the-road sales rep. It’s quite an open culture here and once I got some traction and results opportunities presented themselves and I became hungrier for the next. I have been lucky enough to grow with the business. We probably traded near £35 million a year when I started. Now we’re in excess of £170 million.
When I was 27 I was charged with managing people who were 40 or 50. I thought: “How am I going to make this work?” I learned how to establish credibility, and that really listening to others and asking for their opinion – as well as learning from your failures – is important.
I have surrounded myself with great people. Some people worry they’re going to show you up, but I realised quite quickly that I’m never going to know everything.
A willingness to take opportunities has been critical. I was in the UK for two years before the founders said “come to Melbourne”. I could have said no, but I took the risk. I ended up staying for four years and then got asked to move back to head up the UK and Europe division from London. After 15 months, when my son was three weeks old, I was offered the role of managing director of the Intrepid Group [in Melbourne]. We’d just bought a house in Brighton, but I was like: “Gee, how often does the opportunity to become managing director of the world’s largest provider of adventure travel come up?”
As a leader you’ve got to be prepared to put your neck on the line. Most of the time you’ll get it right but sometimes you’ll get it wrong. Learn from that. It’s an important part of being a good leader. My mentors, both within and outside the industry, have helped me
to develop my leadership.
I thoroughly believe I’ve got to where I am through hard work and luck. It’s about being in the right place at the right time, but I also worked bloody hard. Anyone who gets to the top and doesn’t think there’s a degree of luck involved is naive or perhaps arrogant.
