Lonely Planet - Entrepreneurship in Action:

Business case and story:

- Read the story and answer the questions -

Lonely Planet was founded by married couple Maureen (Links to an external site.) and Tony Wheeler (Links to an external site.). In 1972, they embarked on an overland trip through Europe and Asia to Australia, following the route of the Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition (Links to an external site.).

The company ne originates from the misheard (Links to an external site.) "lovely planet" in a song written by Matthew Moore (Links to an external site.).^{[8] (Links to an external site.)} Lonely Planet's first book, Across Asia on the Cheap,^{[9] (Links to an external site.)} had ; it was written by the couple in their home.^{[10] (Links to an external site.)} The original 1973 print run consisted of stapled booklets^{[11] (Links to an external site.)} with pale blue cardboard covers.^{[12] (Links to an external site.)}

Tony returned to Asia to write Across Asia on the Cheap: A Complete Guide to Making the Overland Trip, published in 1975.^{[13] (Links to an external site.)}

The Lonely Planet guide book series initially expanded to cover other countries in Asia, with the India guide book in 1981,^{[14] (Links to an external site.)} and expanded to rest of the world later on.^{[5] (Links to an external site.)} Geoff Crowther (Links to an external site.) was renowned for frequently inserting his opinions into the text of the guides he wrote. His writing was instrumental to the rise of Lonely Planet. The journalist used the term "Geoffness", in tribute to Crowther, to describe a quality that has been lost in travel guides.^{[10] (Links to an external site.)}

By 1999, Lonely Planet had sold 30 million copies of its travel guides. The company's authors consequently benefited from profit-sharing and expensive events were held at the Melbourne office, at which limousines would arrive, filled with Lonely Planet employees.^{[5] (Links to an external site.)}

In 2007, the Wheelers and John Singleton (Links to an external site.) sold a 75% stake in the company to BBC Worldwide (Links to an external site.), worth an estimated 63 million at the time.^{[10] (Links to an external site.)} The company was publishing 500 titles and ventured into television production.

Please answer all three 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 the quality consistently is important to this business. What are some of the challenges to managing the high quality of service in Lonely Planet's writing business?