Every Thursday morning throughout winter, the seven members of Herwig Demschar’s executive team go skiing together. “It’s ski first, business second,” says Demschar of the ritual he introduced when he took the top job at SilverStar Mountain Resort in 2022.

The resort, in Canada’s British Columbia, has long been popular among Australians, partly because it was Australian-owned for 18 years, and partly because it’s relatively easy to get to and the snow is dry and abundant.