At university, Andrew received an undergraduate degree in Business and Psychology (with special emphasis on Organizational Behaviour and Adventure Therapy), and a graduate degree in Human Resource Management

In 1998, his entrepreneurial ambitions led him to become co-owner of Canada’s oldest canoe tripping company. Combining his business acumen and love of adventure he spent his summers guiding and leading trips through some of Canada’s most spectacular wilderness. It was the Arctic that convinced him that experiential travel could play a valid role in preparing companies for the 21st century. He saw travel as a catalyst in truly transforming people – forcing them to alter their perspective to "see new things and to see old things in a new way." From his work in the corporate world he knew these life-defining travel experiences could prove invaluable to corporations and their employees in seeking innovative and break through solutions to specific business challenges. In 2002, he founded Destination Arctic a Destination Management Company. Destination Arctic soon gained a reputation for delivering experiences-of-a-lifetime to corporate audiences.

 Drawing on his travel experience Andrew knew that innovative thinking could be taught. He saw it all the time when people face alien situations in different countries. “It’s as if a button is pushed and suddenly the most conservative of accountants becomes an innovative thinker when faced with situations that require new solutions”. Andrew’s theory is based on the belief that real change is only possible when people are pushed out of their comfort zone. He calls it the “innovation zone”. “Obviously, he says, people aren’t going to change unless they have to and the only place they really have to change is in environments that demand it.”

Back in his corporate days Andrew had participated an infinite variety of off-sites and incentive travel programs. None had any long-term affect on the way he thought or acted in business. Those programs and sessions just don’t stimulate your “innovation center”. While taking a group of high tech executives to the Arctic Andrew asked them what the biggest problem was in their company. They all said that getting employees to share information was tough. Sure, they could develop all the virtual communication links but it still didn’t lead to real communication. People still shut themselves up in their labs and worked in isolation and research teams tended to lack focus. Andrew knew that in the Arctic everyone has to work together to stay alive. Inuit culture is community not individual based simply through necessity. This situation develops an aura of trust and trust leads to real communication. He took the group out in the morning and said they’d be spending the night in igloos that they would have to build themselves – no instruction, no guides, no help. He gave each person a snow knife. By the following morning they had not only mastered the art of Arctic survival but the art of communicating with each other. They had also come up with a plan to revitalize their corporate structure. It had all been done without Powerpoint, cell phones, emails, meetings, schematics, consultants or memos. The travel experience had been their teacher.

Call Andrew today at 1-800 387-2977 or email him at awhite@horizon-co.com