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An evening with mountaineer David
Hamilton
On 9th March, a group
of Interregna clients and interim managers were treated to
an evening with mountaineer
David Hamilton, held in the President’s Room of the Queen’s
Club in London. The evening, entitled “Leadership in Higher
Places” included slides from Everest- the top of the world-
which elicited awestruck gasps from the audience, and a question-and-answer
session which could have comfortably continued all night.
David has over twenty years experience as
a professional climber, making a living guiding expeditions
to some of the world’s
most inaccessible and (literally) breathtaking peaks. The presentation
included discussion of projects from Everest, Uganda and Ecuador
(where he was accompanied by Interregna MD Malcolm Alexander).
In April, David makes his third assault on Everest, with renowned
polar explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes.
Yet David is tremendously self-effacing: “I got into mountaineering
by accident. At school I joined the canoeing and mountaineering
clubs because I had to do something… I didn’t like
the canoeing much!” The audience was particularly keen
to hear how David had turned his personal love of climbing into
a business- and the conflict of mountaineering for a client’s
pleasure rather than his own, particularly taking responsibility
for people with far less experience than himself. “I don’t
get too stressed. Without the business side, I wouldn’t
be able to do any climbing at all, so I need the sponsorship
of clients. It’s self-confidence, knowing that I can do
the job, that gives me the strength to provide leadership and
direction with less experienced climbers on a mountain.”
Management at 29,000ft
This is of course a lesson that translates
to the toughest of decisions in the boardroom. “An Everest expedition usually
involves each member of the team paying around $50,000, so invariably
my clients are ambitious and fairly successful people in their
own right. Most of my clients are people who are more used to
giving than receiving orders!” If you’ve had to make
a tough call, consider this: “Nobody wants to fail on Everest.
If a client is injured or simply physically exhausted, I have
to be strong enough to send them back down- but I won’t
get any thanks for it. But that’s still better than seeing
them die on the mountain- for which I would be publicly panned,
and my career would be effectively over.”
Unlike some extreme challenges, Everest doesn’t present
just an incrementally more difficult challenge; it’s a
whole new ballgame: “Everest is something else entirely.
It’s the only mountain where the vast majority of climbers
require supplementary oxygen. Where most expeditions are 2-5
weeks, Everest is a ten week project. Every 1000 metres represents
a temperature drop of 6 degrees Celsius- with the wind-chill
factor, temperatures at the summit are regularly below -25 degrees.
It’s a huge physical commitment at a very fundamental level;
for example climbers will naturally lose their appetites- you
have to force yourself to eat.” David therefore carefully
chooses who is to be allowed to join an expedition with him.
He is constantly surprised by the skills of sometimes fairly
inexperienced climbers, and equally surprised that experienced
adventurers can fall by the wayside. “Just as in business
you find people in a company with unique skills and astonishing
reserves of energy and ability, we get exactly the same commitment
in unexpected places on an expedition.”
David himself is starting to consider a career
change- in typically self-effacing style: “I’m 44 now, and I still make
a living from my legs. Sometime soon, I’ll have to start
making a living from my brain”. At this point, several
pens were heard to begin scribbling, and we suspect he won’t
be short of offers. By the way, if Everest is just a little too
much effort and money for your tastes, David has a piece of useful
advice: “The trek to base camp alone is quite an achievement,
and still affords you some of the world’s most breathtaking
scenery”
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