Team Concept Is Route to Success for Tour Company

Noel Irwin Hentschel and her partner, Michael Fitzpatrick, drew on their tourism industry experience when they spotted a marketplace void in the late 1970s: There were no California-based tour companies specializing in providing international travelers with the American experience. They decided to fill the niche and opened a small office at Los Angeles International Airport, employing Hentschel’s sister part time. Since then, their company has grown to 11 domestic and four overseas offices and is responsible for bringing 1 million visitors to the U.S. from 100 countries annually. Hentschel spoke to freelance writer Karen E. Klein from her New York office about how she has managed growth by delegating and communicating.

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Growing a business is a real balancing act. I use a method I call “hands-on delegating,” which sounds like a contradiction, but it means you keep your hands on the part that is important for you to be aware of and you put the rest in the hands of well-trained people that you trust.

The important part, to me, is communicating and being in touch with our key clients, suppliers, partners and staff. The way I keep my ear to the ground is to hold town hall meetings within the company, where I meet with all our team members (we don’t call them employees) in small groups twice a year to get feedback about what’s going on. I take two days in the Los Angeles office and one day in each of the other offices to talk to them in groups of about 12 to 15 at a time. We include everyone, from top management all the way down to the bottom. It’s important to me that they feel this is our company, not just my company, so the growth of the company and their personal growth is all tied together.

When I meet with line-level team members, senior management is not present, so everybody feels they can give input. We take minutes at these meetings, share the key points that came up with the senior management executive committee, make decisions about policy changes and talk about how to improve our company, grow the business and offer the team members opportunities for growth too. The follow-up is handled by a committee made up of team members that meets regularly, so no one feels like they raised issues that were not addressed.

During these meetings, I get a chance to see some rising stars and identify new talent. In a company this big, you may not know everybody really well, but when a person speaks up and comes up with good ideas, I remember them. We’re very big on promoting from within, which leads to our high retention rate. Our vice president of operations started out in the mail room.

In addition to the formal town hall meetings, I also make a point to go around the office and talk to people as time permits, so I stay in touch with them. I’m very hands-on when it comes to strategy and communications. On the operations side, I tend to delegate a lot of important jobs to my key people, and I give them the autonomy to make daily decisions. I have to trust my team to make the right decisions or learn from their mistakes. They have a lot of responsibility, but at the same time they are held accountable.

Even as a company grows, you have to keep up the personalized attention to your employees, your clients and your suppliers. Now, it’s so easy to communicate regularly via e-mail and fax. I put personal notes at the end of routine communications whenever possible. And my partner and I visit clients worldwide on a regular basis, or we bring them to L.A. for special events. When we make them feel welcome and part of the process, they love it. Most of running a business comes down to common sense. I was the eldest of 10 children, so I was used to being a hands-on delegator. With my seven kids, ranging from 8 to 22, I’ve done the same, and it has seemed to work.

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If your business can provide a lesson to other entrepreneurs, contact Karen E. Klein at the Los Angeles Times, 1333 S. Mayflower Ave., Suite 100, Monrovia, CA 91016 or at kklein6349@aol.com. Include your name, address and telephone number.

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AT A GLANCE

* Company: AmericanTours International Inc.

* Owners: Noel Irwin Hentschel and Michael Fitzpatrick

* Nature of business: International tour operator

* Location: ATI Center-LAX, 6053 W. Century Blvd., Los Angeles 90045

* Year founded: 1977

* Employees: 300

* Web site: https://www.americantours.com

* E-mail: noel@americantours.com

* Annual revenue: $150 million