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26 27 Academy at Sandhurst. Over the next six years he saw active service in Yemen, Bahrain, Oman and Malta. ‘The Army was the best thing that ever happened to me – it completely changed my life,’ he says. ‘It took all the energy and power that I had and it re-shaped it into a highly focused and disciplined box.’ It is an experience and legacy that resonates today in his work at Abercrombie & Kent. A firm believer in pragmatic intelligence, logical thinking and conscientious hard work, Geoffrey Kent runs his company with military efficiency. ‘The army taught me logistics, that everything was about detail and delivery,’ he explains. ‘Even today, Abercrombie & Kent is not really a travel company – it's a logistics company. We have 2,500 employees in 50 offices around the world moving 250,000 clients on an annual basis. Then think of the myriad of movements within all that – planes, Land Rovers, ships, boats, canoes, feluccas, horses, camels – it's all going on. All my troops are out there operating flat out minute by minute by minute.’ His short yet distinguished military career also provided valuable lessons on leadership. Geoffrey Kent is the type of boss who does everything himself first, including the reconnaissance. He is a team player who leads by example. Kent's army career was truncated after he damaged his hearing during his years spent
‘You have to understand that polo is really my only love. Abercrombie & Kent was there to support my addiction to it’
1 Geoffrey Kent and Prince Charles played together for Windsor Park from 1987-1991 2 From 1979 to 1991, Kent played for Rolex, one of the first companies to sponsor a team 3 Geoffrey Kent today
in heavy tanks – but it was also his entrepreneurial nature that spurred his departure. As a teenager he had sold crocodile skins and elephant hair bracelets, and by 1962, while still in the forces, he had started Abercrombie & Kent with his parents. The pioneering idea of a modern luxury safari operation had been born, in part, out of his military experience: he had noted and admired the way many of his senior officers were not prepared to compromise on comfort and luxury even in the most inhospitable of places. He returned to Kenya in 1965, bought a second Land Rover with his compensation money from the army, and took over the running of the business a year later. In 1966 the company's annual gross income was $24,000; today it is $433m. ‘I regularly work 12 to 14-hour days, seven days a week,’ he says. ‘I’m just crazy about the company.’ But there is another abiding love of his life: polo. Kent was captain of the polo team at Sandhurst and later, after committing himself to becoming a high-goal player, became captain of the Windsor Park team. In the 1970s, he developed and captained the celebrated Abercrombie & Kent team that went on, against the odds, to win the US Open twice, as well as triumphing in the US Gold Cup and World Cup. ‘You have to understand that polo is really my only love,’ he confesses unapologetically. ‘Abercrombie & Kent was there to support my drug. Any money I made
