BUS12: Sustainable Business Management at Intrepid Travel

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Intrepid Travel's approach to sustainable business management. It examines the company's strategies in human resource management (HRM), leadership styles, and supply chain management within the context of the global tourism industry. The report highlights Intrepid Travel's commitment to sustainability through environmental considerations, employee motivation, and the use of technology. Key aspects discussed include the implementation of HRM practices to manage the workforce effectively, the adoption of transformational leadership to enhance employee performance, and the role of supply chain management in achieving sustainable business outcomes. Furthermore, the report addresses the influence of external factors such as political, social, economic, and technological elements on Intrepid Travel's operations. Recommendations are provided to enhance Intrepid Travel's sustainability efforts, including the use of information technology, food recycling processes, and investments in education. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of sustainable practices for Intrepid Travel's long-term success in the competitive tourism market.

Running head: BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Sustainable Business Management
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Executive Summary
This present report deals with the development of sustainable business through HRM planning,
leadership and supply chain management in the context of Intrepid Travel. However, the HRM is
strong in this organization to manage the workforce and to motivate the employees. They have
implemented both financial and non-financial reward to enhance the performance of the
employees. However, the environmental factors such as political. Social, economic and
technological factor plays an important role in influencing the business of Intrepid Travel. On the
other hand, they follow the transformational leadership style to increase their motivational
technique. Use of information technology, food recycling process and funding in education will
be beneficial for Intrepid Travel to achieve sustainable business in the global tourism industry.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Background information on Intrepid Travel....................................................................................4
Business Planning in the context of Intrepid Travel........................................................................5
Discussion of the Human Resource management in the context of Intrepid Travel.......................7
Leadership style and approach in the context of Intrepid Travel....................................................8
Discussion of the value chain controlling and technology in Intrepid Travel.................................9
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
Sustainability is the main factor for making a business stable. Sustainability in a business
focuses on the long-term outcomes. In order to get competitive advantage a business needs to
gain sustainability in terms of social, environmental and economic sustainability (Pulido-
Fernández et al. 2015). To maximize the profit in the global market it is crucial for a business to
supply environmentally friendly product, which ensures the green business and it replaces the
non-green products from the business. Sustainable business makes an enduring commitment to
the principles of the environment in a business operation. This study deals with the sustainable
business development in the context of Intrepid Travel.
Background information on Intrepid Travel
Intrepid Travel is the largest small group adventure travel organization across the world.
This company was established in 1989 at Melbourne in Australia. They provide travel through
public transport, local food and accommodation. The management of this organization is well
developed and the co-founder of this organization is Geoff Manchester. They focus to develop a
sustainable business in the global market (Pulido-Fernández 2018). This organization follows the
flatter organizational structure to give value to their employees as such kind of organizational
structure makes the employees comfortable to interact with the hierarchy.
Intrepid Travel operates in the global tourism industry includes Asia, North and Latin
America, Europe, Antarctica, and Australia. They aim to expand their business in United
Nations. In the international market, the tourism industry is growing rapidly as the people of the
developing country have a great intention to visit new places. In the context of Australia, the
tourism industry has occupied a good position and it has a major contribution to Australian
economy (Mihalic 2016). According to IBIS report, Intrepid Travel is one of the well known
earning organizations in Australia, which contributes a good value in Australian economy
(Ibisworld.com.au 2018). This is a growing organization with a high profit margin in Australian
tourism industry. Sydney, Brisbane, Queensland, and Melbourne are the major attraction of the
tourism. The wildlife of Australia adds more to the tourist attraction. Many visitors come to
Australia every year. For this reason, Intrepid Travel has a great opportunity to increase the

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profit margin by expanding their tourism business in Australia. Adventure tourism is their main
business goal and Australia’s natural beauty and wildlife provide them to fulfill their business.
In the context of Australia the political and legal condition is suitable as well as stable
(Stead and Stead 2013). Australia is considered as the most popular market for growing MNCs in
the Asia-Pacific region. This growing market under the stable regulatory body will make a
positive business culture for Intrepid Travel. High GDP of Australia ensures its growing
economy among the other developing countries. On the other hand, low price of the commercial
properly leads Intrepid Travel to establish their headquarters in Australia. Despite the growing
economy, economic recession in 2008 due to Brexit leaves a negative impact on Australian
business. Social factor of Australia highlights the growing working class with emerging
education. People like to spend a good life with enjoyment in Australia and their income level is
also good due to growing economy of Australia. This ensures that Intrepid Travel can get an
increased number of visitors in Australia (Clarkson et al. 2017). Moreover, emerging technology
of Australia contributes more to the sustainable development of the travel industry by reducing
their operating cost and increasing the profit in the context of Intrepid Travel.
Travel and tourism business has been growing rapidly in Australian market, which
highlights the high level of competition. A major competition has been seen in achieving the
competitive advantage among the travel organizations in Australian market (Ortiz‐de‐Mandojana
and Bansal 2016). In the context of Intrepid Travel, Globus and Ultimate Travel are the major
competitors of such organization as they operate in the same market segment. Globus focuses on
the low price for their service and Ultimate travel focuses on the high-quality service. In order to
compete with these organizations development of the sustainable business is crucial for Intrepid
Travel.
Business Planning in the context of Intrepid Travel
The vision of Intrepid Travel is to develop the world's most creative and trusted travel
management organization. Their mission focuses on providing support to the travel organizations
and the people to organize a smart travel and to achieve significant benefit from the business.
Such vision and mission of Intrepid Travel can be related to the sustainable business
development as the establishment of a creative business allows them to attract their customers,

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which will increase their profitability. This ensures their economic sustainability. Business value
of Intrepid Travel includes innovation, teamwork and integrity. They try to deliver an excellent
service to their customer through innovation and they focus to fulfill the financial goal, which is
their major strength in business (INTREPIDtravel.com 2018). Hence, achievement of the
financial goal through innovation is associated with the sustainable business as it reduces the cost
along with the customer satisfaction.
Intrepid Travel has adopted various goal setting practices and major plan to achieve a
sustainable business. Their one of the major goal is the employee motivation to enhance the
performance of the employees. However, for any business, it is crucial to achieve competitive
advantages through the employee motivation program (Yüksel 2016). They aim to increase the
awareness among the stakeholders regarding the environmental protection. Therefore, cost
reduction is another major plan to achieve economic sustainability.
Intrepid Travel focuses on the traditional method to give shape their business planning
as well as goal practices. In order to motivate the employees, they have adopted financial and
nom-financial reward program. Therefore, they give performance appraisal to the employees.
Reservation of the employment right by following the Fair Work Act 2009 has been done in the
organization (Legislation.gov.au 2018). By maintaining the principle of this Act Intrepid Travel
is able to maintain the equality in their workplace by giving a similar reward to the employees
who are in the same designation. This enables them to motivate the employees easily and to
achieve long-term profit by increasing the performance of the employees. In order to reduce the
impact of the business operation on the environment, Intrepid Travel has organized
environmental campaign program to increase the awareness of the tourists as well as the
employees towards the environmental protection. On the other hand, they provide a fund for the
protection of wildlife, which ensures their environmentally friendly business. Therefore, they
have adopted modern technology such as by using the online operation they have reduced the
cost of the workforce. However, the automation process such as online ticket booking is helpful
for Intrepid Travel to reduce their operation cost.
Employee motivation by maintaining the workplace equity is beneficial for any business
to get sustainable performance from the employees (Daft and Samson 2014). In the context of
Intrepid Travel, they focus on the motivational program, which is associated with the economic

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sustainability as if employees are motivated they will give the best performance, which will
increase the productivity. Therefore, environmental campaign increases the awareness among
the tourists regarding the importance of the protection of wildlife. On the other hand, the
contribution of Intrepid Travel in wild life protection highlights their environmentally friendly
business. Apart from this reduction of the cost through automation technology is also associated
with the economic sustainability.
Discussion of the Human Resource management in the context of Intrepid Travel
Human resource management or HRM practice is crucial for any organization to manage
the workforce and to develop the competitive strategy to gain the sustainable development in an
organization (Ehnert et al. 2013). Labor shortage and high cost are the two biggest challenges of
the travel industry in Australia. In order to cope with such challenges, the HRM of Intrepid
Travel has developed competitive strategies one of the most important is the recruitment of
highly skilled and technical employees. Intrepid Travel offers full-time job facility to the
employees, which is an effective way to get and retain the skilled employees in their
organization. Intrepid Travel develops the salary ranges by benchmarking the job in the similar
industry. The HR has made an internal research and has developed the salary ranges, which is
critical to ensure that the payment of the employees in Intrepid Travel is competitive in
comparison to other organization. The HRM of Intrepid Travel has introduced low pricing
strategy with high-quality service. However, maximum travel organizations in Australia such as
Globus and Ultimate Travel offer either a low price or high-quality product. Hence, Intrepid
Travel offers high-quality service, which is very pocket-friendly. Low pricing strategy is helpful
to increase the customer number (Schaltegger et al. 2017).
To achieve the competitive advantages in the business identification of the right
candidate is crucial. Effective employees are able to work in the challenging environment and to
gain success (Schaltegger et al. 2017). In the context of Intrepid Travel, they always develop a
clear job detail for each position. This is helpful to reflect on the desired skill and responsibilities
of the candidates for a particular designation. Intrepid Travel has made a well-structured
interview to find and manage the right candidates. They focus on the behavior-based
interviewing technique to choose right candidates for the specific job role.

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In order to establish an effective workforce in an organization involvement of the internal
stakeholders is crucial (Rothenberg et al. 2017). Intrepid Travel provides additional training to
the employees to enhance their skill. However, this helps the employees to find more meaning in
their work and they get more freedom to obtain a new skill. This increases the employee
engagement. On the other hand, Intrepid Travel has created a social culture in the workplace by
organizing volunteer program for the employees. This helps the employees to represent their
organization as a local non-profit organization. Therefore, the social culture helps the employees
to make a good relationship with their colleagues, which enhances their interest in their work.
In order to maintain an effective workforce development of vision, communicating the
vision, implementation of the plan and monitoring is crucial (Schaltegger et al. 2017). Intrepid
Travel has developed a clear goal to achieve the social, economic and environmental
sustainability to gain competitive advantages. They have communicated with this goal by
involving their stakeholders. They have implemented this by enhancing the performance of the
employees and creating awareness regarding the environmental protection among the
stakeholders. Therefore, they have monitored this process by continuous checking and providing
benchmarking.
One of the major sustainable approaches of Intrepid Travel is to the reduction of a
business trip and the use of paper (INTREPIDtravel.com 2018). However, reduction of the
business trip will be helpful to reduce the emission of green house gases and it also reduces the
pollution. Therefore, reduction of paper use is beneficial to protect the tree as well as the natural
resources. Such sustainability approach ensures the establishment of the environmentally
friendly business in the context of Intrepid Travel.
Leadership style and approach in the context of Intrepid Travel
Intrepid Travel has a strong leadership to manage the travel business in Australia and
across the world. Geoff Manchester is the co-founder of this organization. He is supportive,
participative and more visionary. The leaders have more control over the working process as
well as the employees. The leadership is effective in Intrepid Travel to encourage the employees
in their work by making an effective communication with them. Intrepid Travel has followed
transformational leadership style. Transformational leadership is helpful to reveal the

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importance of the change in an organization by creating a vision (Tepper et al. 2017). By
following this type of leadership Intrepid Travel is able to identify the need of the employees and
to motivate them by fulfilling their demand. In the context of Intrepid Travel, by following the
transformational leadership style, the leaders can show more confidence and the positive
attitudes towards the employees. Therefore, the leaders have developed creative work and also
took an important decision during the organizational crisis. They use reward program as a tactic
to empower and motivate the employees.
Intrepid Travel has adopted the power to motivate the employees by following the
transformational leadership style. They have inspired the employees to enhance their current
performance level. The leaders of an organization need to achieve sustainability through their
leadership program (Stead and Stead 2013). In the context of Intrepid Travel, transformational
leadership is beneficial to motivate the employees, which is directly associated with the
enhanced profitability of the business. Hence, this ensures the economic sustainability of the
business.
Discussion of the value chain controlling and technology in Intrepid Travel
Intrepid Travel has divided its business operation into the front office and back office
operation. However, the front office is associated with the dealing with customer query (Job et
al. 2017). As a travel industry Intrepid Travel focuses on the effective front office operation.
They provide quick response to the customers through direct interaction or via online. The back
office operation is done by managing the workforce, accounts, and marketing. Intrepid Travel
gives a concentration in their supply chain management. They give effort in cost reduction and
waste management as these are two vital steps of the tourism industry. They maintain low stock
to reduce the food waste. Therefore, they deal with the local suppliers by involving them in the
supply chain management. As a result, the tourist gets local food, which is the main attraction of
Intrepid Travel. They ensure fresh food for the customers and they retain the food in their
inventory for maximum 24 hours. They follow two-stage strategy in their distribution channel,
which enables them to act as a middle man that is the travel agent to deliver the service to the
customers from the suppliers. Their customer service includes flight booking to lead the
customers towards the destination point. They also provide accommodation to the customers.

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They provide online facility to the customers to book their required service
(INTREPIDtravel.com 2018). They provide, rail, road, and air travel with reasonable rate. They
have the supply chain to produce and distribute local sustainable food and craft by promoting
local sourcing.
Intrepid Travel has implemented the use of social media such as Facebook and the
application of transport management software to improve their supply chain management. Social
media allows the travel organization to create more channels and keep touch with the real-time
stakeholders in their supply chain (Bramwell et al. 2017). TMC TMS is the popular transport
management software, which helps Intrepid Travel to maintain computerized tracking system in
their supply chain management. However, application of such technology allows this
organization to maintain their economic sustainability by reducing the workforce in their supply
chain, which is associated with cost reduction. On the other hand, the involvement of the local
suppliers is beneficial as it contributes more to the local economy and enhances the economic
sustainability.
Recommendations
 In order to achieve the sustainable business, it is crucial for Intrepid Travel to obtain
social, economic and environmental sustainability. Intrepid Travel needs to give fund to
the child education, which will help them to maintain social sustainability in their
business besides the economic and environmental sustainability.
 They need to adopt food recycling process besides keeping low inventory. For this
reason, they can deliver their excess food to the pig or other animal firms, which will be
helpful to recycle the food waste and develops an environmentally friendly business.
 Application of the information technology will be effective for Intrepid Travel. This will
enable them to enhance the communication between the stakeholders by sing ICT
software and manage a huge data.

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Conclusion
The entire piece of work reveals the sustainable development of the business in the
context of Intrepid Travel. They have achieved both economic and environmental sustainability.
On the other hand, contribution in the child education will be a valuable approach for them to
achieve social sustainability. In order to gain competitive advantages, they have utilized modern
technology in their supply chain management. However, it is crucial for Intrepid Travel to
develop an eco-friendly business to make a trustable tourism management in the international
market. They have implemented reduction of paper use and trips to reduce the pollution.

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References
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tourism and the Journal of Sustainable Tourism: looking back and moving forward.
Clarkson, C., Jacobs, Z., Marwick, B., Fullagar, R., Wallis, L., Smith, M., Roberts, R.G., Hayes,
E., Lowe, K., Carah, X. and Florin, S.A., 2017. Human occupation of northern Australia by
65,000 years ago. Nature, 547(7663), p.306.
Daft, R.L. and Samson, D., 2014. Fundamentals of Management: Asia Pacific Edition PDF.
Cengage Learning Australia.
Ehnert, I., Harry, W. and Zink, K.J. eds., 2013. Sustainability and human resource management:
Developing sustainable business organizations. Springer Science & Business Media.
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company-research-reports/administrative-support-services/INTREPID-group-limited-
company.html [Accessed 2 Feb. 2018].
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%20to%20Sustainability_COP_Updated%202011.pdf [Accessed 2 Feb. 2018].
INTREPIDtravel.com. 2018. Small groups, big adventures with INTREPID Travel. [online]
Available at: https://www.INTREPIDtravel.com/en [Accessed 2 Feb, 2018].
Job, H., Becken, S. and Lane, B., 2017. Protected Areas in a neoliberal world and the role of
tourism in supporting conservation and sustainable development: an assessment of strategic
planning, zoning, impact monitoring, and tourism management at natural World Heritage
Sites. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 25(12), pp.1697-1718.
Legislation.gov.au. 2018. Fair Work Act 2009. [online] Available at:
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C2009A00028 [Accessed 2 Feb. 2018].