So I'm Ian Johnstone.
I set the Maria Island Walk up in 2002.
I've been a civil engineer for 20 years,
worked around Australia and around the world.
I reached my early forties, really saw this
as an opportunity to set up my business,
to have a family business where people
felt they were part of the family, where there was
a sense of loyalty, and really a culture where people wanted
to come and work with us.
And so that's really, I suppose, the essence
of how we set up the business.
We're really strong on our values.
We believe strongly in being good corporate citizens
and working with industry and working in the environment.
And it's the sort of thing that our guests and our guides
really appreciate.
We're big supporters of the local training organization
called Drysdale TAFE.
So they have a variety of courses training students
to become professional tourism guides.
We've been big supporters of that all the way
through for the last 14 years.
About 90% of our guides are [INAUDIBLE] graduates.
I think it's one of the best training courses in Australia,
and as a result of that, I can say
that we've got amongst the very best guides in Australia
working in tourism here.
So it is a really dynamic workplace.
The guides that we work with are young.
They're passionate.
And that passion really rubs off on everyone in the office.
I've come from a guiding background myself,
so I spent a lot of time in the outdoors.
So coming to an office environment,
it was a little bit of a shift.
But this role is really great, in that it's really varied.
I spend probably once a month visit to Maria Island.
And it's great, just to get out to the island,
work autonomously, look at the island,
make sure everything is working, all the procedures
we've got in place.
Tasmania is a pretty small community.
The people know one another.
And one of the joys, not only of being
able to employ just a wonderful group of outstanding guides
and bus drivers and office staff--
the word gets around that a number of guides
have then talked to other family members and have that
have come along and worked with.
And that's been fantastic.
It's a lovely reflection of how we
run the business, the fact that we have multiple family
members wanting to work with us, and it just
enhances the culture and the environment we have.
So we have a really hard retention rate with our staff
and with our guides.
And I think part of that is we actually really listen
to our guides, to our staff.
Not only do we get feedback from our guests
after they finish the walk, but we also
sit down with our guides, and we'll
make a list of any suggestions, anything
from changing a menu item through to a different training
program that we can put in.
And every year, we sit down-- Ian
and myself-- and we go through those suggestions.
And more often than not, if they're feasible,
we implement them.
And the guides can actually say that their suggestions are
being listened to and implemented.
So it's a great way to sort of build the company,
and every year it's evolving.
I have a really flexible role.
I am the sole person that looks after the sales
and marketing, which gives me more flexibility than most.
I'm able to share ideas with our director
and the owner of the business very easily, one on one.
We work in the same office.
I can easily just walk into his part of the office and say,
you know, I got this idea, and we should chat about this.
This Is what we should do.
So we have a view that people like
to do business with people that they share values
or they're people that they like.
And that's really one of the foundations of the business,
I'd believe, is that we're authentic.
We care about the world.
We care about the environment.
We care about our staff.
And because the values and our principles
are really central to the way we operate
and the way we treat people, that
is something that resonates with the people we recruit.
We want our guides and our drivers and the office staff
to really share those sorts of values.
And it's something that our clients really pick up on,
as well.
And that's really been a key to a large part of our success.