4:57 Files O chrome://external-file T ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN ACTION Roads Less Travelled Lonely Planet Founders: Tony and Maureen Wheeler Founded: 1972 Success: A sense of adventure led to Lonely Planet with offices in Melbourne, London, and Oakland; 500 staff members; and 300 authors. Tony and Maureen met on a park bench in London, England, and married a year later. For their honeymoon, they decided to attempt what few people thought possible-crossing Europe and Asia overland, all the way to Australia. It took them several months and all the money they could earn, beg, or borrow, but they made it. The experience was too amazing to keep to themselves. Urged on by their friends, they stayed up nights at their kitchen table writing, typing, and stapling together their very first travel guide, Across Asia on the Cheap. Within a week they had sold 1500 copies and Lonely Planet was born. They wrote their second book, South-East Asia on a Shoestring, in a backstreet hotel in Singapore, which led to books on Nepal, Australia, Africa, and India. The Wheelers decided to settle in Australia where Maureen went to La Trobe University in Melbourne and received a bachelor's degree in social work. Faced with a choice between her social work and travelling, she chose to make travel her career. Travelling with children became a way of life for the Wheelers after the births of their children. This prompted Maureen to write a guidebook about it, Travel with Children, which is the result of years of experience on the road with the kids. As Lonely Planet became a globally loved brand, the Wheelers received several offers for the company, finally selling to BBC Worldwide, which in turn sold the company to NC2 Media in 2013. The Wheelers are still actively involved with Lonely Planet. They are travelling more often than ever, and they are devoting their spare time to charitable projects. And the company is still driven by the philosophy in Across Asia on the Cheap: "All you've got to do is decide to go and the hardest part is over. So go!"* DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Is Lonely Planet a service organization or a manufacturing organization? 2. What are the inputs and outputs used in Lonely Planet's production of its guides? 3. Managing quality consistently is important to Lonely Planet's successful operations. What are some of the challenges of managing consistency of service in Lonely Planet's writing business that it may not have with its manufacturing business? + :)