Executive off-sites fail when they feel like canned affairs cooked-up by HR. You know: team-building ropes courses, faith-fall exersizes, the endless “interactive” PowerPoint presentation in a beige-colored hotel conference room where the only one interacting is the one blathering endlessly on, slide after slide after slide.
They’re successful, on the other hand, when your mind is fully engaged by your activities and surroundings. My favorite off-site was on a tiny island in the Swedish Archipelago, in the Baltic Sea near Stockholm. We took a Zodiac boat to a water-bound cabin where we stayed and worked (and partied) like gangbusters for a weekend — and pretty much re-imagined our company. The wild boat ride, the rustic cabin, the simple chores and the natural beauty set our minds ablaze.
Writing in “RL” magazine, Ralph Lauren’s luxury lifestyle shopper, Christian Chensvold offers a relaxing alternative to the dreary conference-center-and-PowerPoint scenario: a train trip in your own private rail car.
Imagine setting up your whiteboard easel while rolling slowly over the majestic Rocky Mountains, as the car gently sways from side to side. Afterward, how about an early champagne dinner aboard, served by an obliging wait staff in starched white uniforms? Repair for the evening to your own room for a nightcap and a good night’s rest, the wheels softly click-clacking beneath your bed.
Nice. Not cheap. But nice. Chartering the Pony Express, which can carry up to 40 people, could cost your company $4,300 for a day. A round trip for six between the San Francisco Bay Area and Denver on board the luxury car Virginia City — a piece rolling stock once owned by society gadfly, Lucius Beebe — could run you $25,000.
But then, what’s the point of being CEO if you can’t enjoy it?
