Canadian Travel Hall of Fame Inductee: WestJet's Clive Beddoe

This is the first of five stories highlighting the careers of the travel industry pioneers who will be inducted into the Canadian Travel Hall of Fame at the TravelPulse Canada Readers’ Choice Awards in Toronto on May 16. Our first story focusses on Clive Beddoe, a Canadian business and travel icon who started flying gliders in college in England and later founded WestJet airlines. Beddoe helped take WestJet from a fledgling airline to a major force on the North American aviation scene. WestJet now flies to Europe and is moving to become a global carrier.

Beddoe doesn’t make a lot of public appearances, but he’s planning to attend the Readers’ Choice Awards, which will be held at the Steamwhistle Brewery in downtown Toronto the night of May 16. TravelPulse Canada will be live streaming the event on our Facebook page. We’ll also have plenty of social media posts that evening on our Twitter (@TravelPulseCA) and Instagram pages (@TravelPulseCA).

“The Canadian Travel Hall of Fame is an incredible way to recognize individuals who have had a material impact on how the modern travel industry has been shaped over the last 50 years," said TravelPulse Canada Editor in Chief John Kirk. "Paying tribute to those who paved the way for most of us in a 'Hall of Fame' is a fitting way to showcase their legacy in perpetuity. We are honoured to have Mr. Clive Beddoe inducted in the class of 2019."

TravelPulse Canada chatted recently with Beddoe, who reflected on his business philosophies and his time at WestJet, including a hilarious story of the company's revenge on a California company it felt was overcharging for airplane repairs.

Who was your biggest mentor and what did they do to help your career?

I don’t think there was any one person. I have a lot of respect for people I’ve met along the way. You can’t go through life without meeting great people who are certainly inspirational in one way or another. I’m always curious about what drove them and the things they’ve achieved and how did they do it. I think curiosity is the most valuable asset that you have. You can learn from other people so much if you listen to them.

What’s the best advice you ever received?

Most things I think I learned the hard way. (Laughs). I’m sure my parents had all kinds of advice for me that I probably never took. But the things you learn you learn best through your own experiences and listening to others. When you reach an age when you’re prepared to listen or you’re facing a predicament or a challenge and you listen to other people who can help you often get gems of wisdom. I’m also a great believer in not having too much debt, and I learned that the hard way.

How has the role of travel agents evolved over the years, and how has that impacted the business?

One thing that’s obvious in the last 15 to 20 years is the evolution of the electronic agent and companies like Expedia and Travelocity. To my mind those are wonderful search opportunities but at the end of they day they fall short. You’re just a number in the system. It’s hard to get personal service. Agents who succeed the most are the ones who supply the best service and I think service is something our society is lacking in many ways. I think people are more interested in experiences than they are in things. We’ll pay for experiences, whether it’s a safari or a cruise or seeing people in another part of the world.

What are the biggest obstacles you encountered in your career?

Bureacuracy. If you’re an entrepreneur, bureaucracy is just a nightmare; people telling you why you can’t do something instead of how you can. So I’d say bureaucracy has been the biggest challenge. Oddly enough capital has been one of the easiest things to achieve. I think anyone who has a decent idea and good business plan can attract capital.

How important is to groom for a business person to groom a leader?

I had a very particular plan. I saw my skills as more entrepreneurial. I’m not a professional administrator. I accepted that. I told the board when WestJet reached $2 billion revenues from a standing start I would back away and endeavour to find my successor. When you look at where your strengths lie and your weaknesses lie, it’s a very sobering process. You have to listen to other people to see where you’re good and where you’re weak. And you need to step aside at some point in time. Very few people can do everything. I couldn’t imagine I could continue as the CEO and it wasn’t something I wanted to do.

The one thing I would’ve really hated is having someone tap me on the shoulder and say, “Clive, it’s time for you to back off.” I never wanted that.

Did your family play a large role in your success?

No disrespect to them but they didn’t play a big role that way. But I visited with my family in England after the Dreamliner flight. I have a brother in Canada and a brother and sister in England. My brothers and I sailed the Atlantic after I stepped aside at WestJet. We re-established a bond that’s been fantastic. There were six of us on the ship. We went from the Canary Islands to Saint Lucia. It was a 64-foot sailboat that I bought to do the crossing and kept afterward for a few years. It was pretty uneventful; 16 days at sea. It was a great challenge and a wonderful experience but probably not something I wish to do again as I’ve been there, done that.”

Looking back, is there anything you would do differently? Do you have any regrets?

I think my biggest regret is not, how do I put this, probably not firing people soon enough. I don’t mean that callously. Everybody has a skill set. When we see someone’s skill set doesn’t fit I think we tend to leave them in the role too long, and really they’re better off to move on. Human beings tend to be kind by nature. We don’t like to create pain and suffering. Firing someone or getting someone to leave is painful but in most cases we say to ourselves months later, “Why didn’t I do that earlier?” It’s a discredit to the employee and to the company when someone stays on too long. They’re better off going to a place they can excel.

What was it like to see your name on the WestJet 787 that you flew to England recently?

It was pretty neat. The whole naming of the airplane thing was quite a shock. I was blown away by it. It was totally embarrassing, really. I’m not a particularly high-profile person. I’d rather keep my head down but that’s the reality and I have to live with it.

If you had to pick just one memory from your career, preferably something comical, what would it be?

“One of the interesting stories is when we had an airplane down at Santa Barbara (California) going through a heavy maintenance check. One of the employees at the company told us they were fabricating time sheets to bill us a huge amount of erroneous claims. But you don’t get the airplane back until you pay for it. We devised an idea to take the plane on a test flight and rather than return to Santa Barbara we’d fly it back to Calgary. The whole plan was put in place. The airplane took off on a flight test out of Santa Barbara. Unbeknownst to the Santa Barbara company, our team got a second flight permit for a flight to Calgary. Twenty minutes into the flight our guys pulled a couple of circuit breakers and the lights came on in the cockpit. It looked like something was malfunctioning, which wasn’t the case. The pilot said, “Well, we’re going to have to land.” They took the three Santa Barbara guys to the nearest airport and landed. They gave them a few hundred bucks for a taxi to get home and kicked them off the airplane and flew back to Calgary. The other guys ended up in the bar at the other airport drinking Canadian whisky and toasting WestJet, because they didn’t like the company they were working for. I later got a call from the RCMP, who said the FBI had called them saying we’d been accused of kidnapping the three employees. I told the RCMP officer what had happened, that we wanted to get the airplane back because they were five months late getting it finished and were going to present us with this horrendous, erroneous bill. I explained the whole story and the RCMP guy said, “That’s fantastic. Good luck.” At the Christmas party that year we got captain up on stage and gave him a patch to put over his eye. We gave the chief engineer a cutlass and then a peg leg for the other guy. Like the three musketeers or three pirates. The Santa Barbara company went bankrupt and we ended up suing them and going to arbitration. We settled the case for a million dollars or so with their insurance company, and we gave the money to our employees. There was no profit-sharing that year, so we gave the money to our employees.”