Leading with integrity, even when times get tough

Orbridge and Sports & Entertainment Travel owner Jim Staples ’99 MBA shares how the values and skill sets he learned at Kellogg inspired him to lead his travel businesses through a pandemic and into an era of unprecedented growth.
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A group of six people pose with a safari guide in front of a beige Safari Legacy vehicle on a dirt road, surrounded by lush greenery. The safari guide, seated on the vehicle’s front bumper, smiles while holding binoculars, while the others stand on the vehicle’s running boards and roof rack, dressed in casual outdoor attire.
Staples (top left) has built his career on a passion for travel. This trip to the Serengeti in Tanzani is just one of dozens of unforgettable experiences his firm, Orbridge, facilitates for group trips.

By Jim Staples ’99 MBA

I always knew I wanted to be in business. And I knew that in whatever industry I resided, I was going to try my best to build a better mousetrap. When I started out in the hospitality field, it immediately felt like home. I love how travel makes people feel, the relationships it enhances, the open-mindedness it spurs and the memories it creates. Soon after I started working in the alumni travel market, I quickly realized this niche was an inspiring product and I’d never leave. I saw how putting together educational tours for college alumni and other like-minded travelers could deliver life-changing experiences for them. But I also saw how the guest experience could be vastly improved from where it stood at the time.

Our team and I had the vision for the caliber of travel company we wanted to build. But I was missing the tool kit to make it happen. That’s when I began researching our excellent local community of business schools in the Chicagoland area. I was attracted to Kellogg because of its collaborative, team approach and its focus on marketing — which after working for two tour operators, I knew would be a critical component of our success.

I was thrilled to be accepted and was fortunate to have an interview with a major Kellogg advocate in Dean Don Jacobs. The skills I learned in the Evening & Weekend MBA Program gave me confidence, and I quickly put my new knowledge to use in my position as vice president of sales at one of the foundational affinity travel companies in the industry. As I studied at Kellogg and got hands-on experience, I learned enough to start Orbridge in January 2008.

We began with just three employees, including me, a marketing person and a guide who could help us with operations and guest services, as well as lead departures. Using that word, “guest,” instead of “customer” or “passenger” was key to the more evolved, exceptional travel experience we were trying to create. It inspired a less transactional relationship. Our mission was to take what already existed in alumni travel and make it better, while also creating new travel programs that the industry had not yet seen. That meant less cookie-cutter itineraries, strengthening our guest services team, enhancing our tour execution and simply trying hard at everything we did. 

A person standing on the deck of a boat, wearing a bright yellow life vest over a red jacket and yellow-and-black waterproof pants. They are smiling at the camera while standing beside the boat railing. In the background is a misty fjord or inlet with steep, forested mountains partially obscured by low clouds.
Sailing through the mists along the famed Inside Passage of Alaska

A Kellogg moment that resonated with me as I built my business was an entrepreneurship course taught by Professor Steven S. Rogers. I loved his class, but it was not for the thin-skinned or those who didn’t want to be challenged. He called on you whether you were ready to answer or not. The class was for those who would keep scratching and clawing and find creative ways to clear hurdles — to suffer setbacks and continue on. The message was very Churchillian: When you’re going through hell, just keep on going. But professor Rogers also pushed us to take the risk to start a business because we might just create something worthwhile.  

This “forge ahead” mindset was put to the test many times in the early days of Orbridge, but none more so than during the pandemic. By January 2018, I had also acquired Sports & Entertainment Travel (SET), a tour management company that delivers fan travel experiences to high-profile events like college football bowl games, March Madness, Kentucky Derby and The Masters. Just two years later, COVID brought the industry to a sudden halt. No one could, or wanted to, travel for about 18 months, which could have put both companies out of business. As antithetical as it may sound, I didn’t lose a wink of sleep. We had a great team, and I was convinced we would get through it.

Three people standing together in an arid landscape with scattered acacia trees in the background. Two individuals are wearing traditional Maasai wraps - one in bright orange/red striped fabric and the other in solid red patterned fabric. The person on the left holds a walking stick. The third person on the right is wearing a white long-sleeved shirt, olive pants, and a cap.
Meeting two warriors from the Masai tribe in Tanzania

I credit the values I learned at Kellogg for helping us navigate those challenges and emerge stronger than ever. As I learned in that entrepreneurship class, there are times when your industry is looking directly at you. This was a time when all businesses had to look in the mirror and ask, did I do right by my customer? Or maybe more importantly, did I do right by my employees, who’ve committed their time and effort to work for this company? I knew that if we pursued massive layoffs like most of our competitors those caring professionals and team members — who are by far our biggest assets at Orbridge and SET— could be lost for good. So, I did what a lot of other people did to keep their businesses going: You sell the assets you have, get an SBA or PPP loan and keep your people as long as you can. We did that at both companies and hardly a soul lost their job.

We had the foundation to keep both companies going because we had a very guest-focused, collaborative, and honest team. We were going to do right by our guests, and we were going to do right by the more than 140 alumni partners with whom we work, including Northwestern University. For more than a year and a half, we were constantly picking up the phone to talk with our concerned guests. We pulled back the veil of how the tour operator industry works, and we let them know how we were going to go about getting their money back or making them whole. Once you do that, you find that people appreciate the transparency and give you a little more grace.

A kayaker in a bright orange kayak and red jacket paddles on choppy waters while two beluga whales swim nearby. One beluga is visible as a white shape just beneath the water's surface to the left of the kayak, while another's back breaks the surface with a small splash to the right. In the background is a rocky shoreline with patches of grass and a small building or lighthouse visible on the hillside.
Kaying among hundreds of majestic beluga whales along the Churchill River in Manitoba, Canada

Another component that we had in our favor during that time was that most employees for both Orbridge and SET were already remote. Orbridge has its headquarters in the Seattle area and SET has its offices in Indianapolis. I had learned early on in the travel industry that knowledge, passion and work ethic are more important than where our team lives. I find that if you provide a strong company culture with a good work-life balance and a sense of community, it shows in the quality of work. Team members will go the extra mile.

It's been about 25 years since I graduated from Kellogg, but the connection I feel with the school and its alumni is stronger than ever. In fact, someday I’d love to put together a tour for some of our fellow alumni, which will soon include my niece, Emma Williams, who just started her Kellogg adventure in January. 

Orbridge and SET have come a long way since we started. With a combined team of about 100 full-time and part-time employees, 2024 was a year of record revenue and we’re growing fast. I attribute that success to the values I learned at Kellogg to lead with integrity and push through the tough times. I hope you choose to trust me when I say a Kellogg education is worth it.