|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
   |
Marilyn Carlson Nelson: Travel Titan
Under Nelson, 58, Minneapolis-based Carlson has launched a series of acquisitions and joint ventures, increasing the company's worldwide travel-agency business by 200%. And Nelson, who has overseen corporate expansion since 1996, has built a remarkably loyal employee base at the privately owned $7 billion company. A dynamic and inspirational speaker, she has liberalized benefits, instituted day-care and profit-sharing plans, sometimes over her father's objections, and brought in important managers from outside the company. Nelson's biggest coup this year was merging with Britian's Thomas Cook Group, and combining with its 450 travel offices in the United Kingdom and its small British airline. A French speaker who studied at the Sorbonne, in Paris, Nelson has easily expanded operations in Europe. But her empire-building hasn't stopped there. She's commissioning luxury cruise ships and expanding the company's hotel franchises, including its Radisson Hotels. She's also trying to prepare son Curtis Nelson to take over the company someday. In spite of her worries about a recession, Nelson has not slowed down her expansion. Besides travel, Carlson has a $1 billion business that advises companies such as General Electric on employee incentives. Nelson's message: Don't think small. Taking her own advice, she has vowed to double Carlson's revenues in the next five years.
RELATED ITEMS
|
Updated Dec. 30, 1998 by bwwebmaster
Copyright 1999, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
Terms of Use
