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Note: Each Leader’s name above is linked to their original podcast episode
Show Notes
Together with three members of The Iconic Journey in CRE, the community of young CRE professionals formed in 2021, Kevin Dean, Colin Madden, and Rameez Munawar, we assembled a special episode to extract leadership lessons from four recent episodes of the podcast. Below will be insights from each leader’s episode followed by a discussion of why each leader is suited to its company based on their particular leadership style and challenges they have and continue to address.
Willy Walker Segment
- Kevin Dean’s overview (6:00)
- Leadership lessons
- Ability to taking a long term approach
- Develop a long term vision and execute that plan
- Leadership lessons
- Willy Walker Clip (7:20)
- Banking business needed to be built up
- Scale to limit risk of mortgage brokers leaving and affecting revenues
- Build servicing portfolio from $3B to $112B
- “No Jerk” Policy stories led to scaling business to eliminate his “jerk”
- 5 Yr. Planning process was formed
- Kevin’s reaction (13:23)
- Not a clear cut decision to change the business up front
- Vulnerability reaction was to scale larger instead of “shrinking back”
- John’s reaction (15:00)
- Growing his company 5X in 5 yrs. to accomplish this goals
- Competitive person
- Willy Walker Clip (17:20)
- Didn’t want to join an alliance with other companies- set his own path
- 5X in first 5 yr. plan in 2007- He accomplished the goals almost perfectly
- Through the global financial crisis, two acquisitions, and going public
- Next 5 yr. plan he accomplished the goals of $1B in revenue almost on the mark they predicted
- Drive to ’25- Goals ambitious yet achievable
- Establish vision to accomplish this with a strategy to implement and knocking them down
- Analysis (21:50)
- He wants to double firm’s size by 2025 through the pandemic
- Not knowing how goals were going to be met when set, but by establishing them gives a direction with the right team, culture and focus
- Questions (23:40)
- Relationship with Howard Smith who managed the business operations of the company as President while Willy was seeking the growth opportunities and lead the vision
- Competitive nature and success in setting and accomplishing plans
- Extremely bold and a different vision of the business
- Visionary leadership
Don Wood Segment
- Rameez Munawar’s overview (32:00)
- Don’s understanding that adversities and setbacks are part of life
- Fundamentals drive value
- Intrigued by episode due to retail challenges
- Interested to learn how he approached his challenges
- Don Wood Clip (33:45)
- Steadily increasing streams of capital
- Notion of basic shopping centers being the life blood of the cash flow
- Large projects are the exciting things, but need to be limited
- “Marrying up the left side of the balance sheet with the right side”
- Moderation and balance is critical as an REIT
- Santana Row was a big old bet and “kind of blew us up”
- Design and idea was great, but company wasn’t big enough to take on the risk of a huge development project
- Scale was out of whack
- Being fired was a “so what” moment
- He wanted to have “alternatives”
- Out front on development belief with “smart growth” and “new urbanism”
- Don came and said they needed to simplify the business in defining community
- Rameez’s take on it (44:22)
- Balance was the theme overall
- Placemaking and community balance
- Pareto Principle- Quality only
- Scaling balance is the key
- Don Wood Clip (47:30)
- Employees love company
- “Who they are”- Federal employees
- “Wear that on your sleeve”
- Doing something that helps society- be altruistic
- Character, Professionalism, integrity yet it needs to “get inside you”
- Commentary (50:40)
- Companies that care about culture
- Taking pride in what people do in their work
- Don Wood Clip (53:45)
- Decentralization is riskier yet the rewards are so worth it
- Built for long term conservative approach to running a company
- Find the right people to keep the company going
- Rameez’s and my thoughts (56:10)
- Relates his experience with a national REIT, Columbia Property Trust, who also decentralized to operate their portfolio
- Contrast with Peterson Companies’ approach
- Questions (59:45)
- Balance between large projects and grocery anchored strip centers
- Individual analysis of each project
- Placemaking requires financial balance to create with a financial perspective
- Don knows what he likes and wants even though he doesn’t create it
- He recognizes “alternatives” and quality
- Retail is the most evolving aspect in real estate
- Balance between large projects and grocery anchored strip centers
Bob Youngentob Segment
- Colin Madden Perspective (1:07:45)
- Core Values important to Bob
- Focused and decisive in his management characteristics
- Bob Youngentob Clip (1:09:25)
- Leadership style- when he started the company he was the analyst and now his role has evolved into his mentor, Terry Eakin, had then
- Analysis (1:10:48)
- Bob delegates tasks well learning from Terry
- Bob Youngentob Clip (1:12:30)
- Westfield relationship important enough to “make it right” after global financial crisis to pay back all obligations and make them whole
- Analysis (1:14:20)
- Example of core values of relationship retention
- Bob Youngentob Clip (1:15:45)
- Relationship with Terry Eakin his biggest win
- “Killed in Hyattsville” however project was a great long term contribution to the community
- Analysis (1:17:15)
- Glass is half full approach- Perspective of a “loss” being a “win” long term
- Relationship with Terry was gratifying and now pays it back to others
- Bob Youngentob Clip (1:19:05)
- “The right choice is the one you take”
- “Be Kind”
- Analysis (1:20:30)
- Ability to make decisions emphatically- comparison to General Grant
- Kindness and fairness a core value- Influenced by Terry
- Overreaching comparisons with other leaders- “long term focus”
- Questions (1:25:15)
- Optimism tempered with a “critical eye” to peel away what is not good
- Partnership relationships- reference to Tom Bozzuto and Copley Real Estate and Gary Rappaport with a one deal at a time approach
- Bob focused on the real estate aspects and made capital raising simple by having a “go to” capital source for most of his deals
- Triangulating mechanical parts, planning parts and financial parts of development
- Reliance on expertise is critical
- Consistency of doing the same project over and over again
- Reference to Jim Collins’ approach with the hedgehog and fox contrast
- Mentorship- Mutual trust and respect.
- Aim mentees in the direction they want to go
- Empower mentees with tools
- Mentor gets more benefit than mentees in some respects
Paul McDermott Segment
- Initial overview (1:39:00)
- Paul’s courage in taking on a big task in changing a company without knowing how he would do it
- Paul McDermott Clip (1:41:15)
- Completely rebuild the place
- Likes building and fixing something
- Wasn’t afraid to tackle things that had to be done
- Hired research immediately- Where’s the growth?
- Needed a change agent operationally- Found Tom Bakke
- 100% of C-Suite, 80% of management turned over in 2 yrs.
- Evident that Class B office was going through a de-evolution
- Retail portfolio sale
- Multifamily was the right asset class to pursue
- Gives credit to Board to allow him to make the moves to transform the company
- Needed courage to make the moves
- Analysis (1:52:15)
- Jury is out on this transformation with the property management transition ahead
- Believes in the progress from these changes
- Paul McDermott Clip (1:54:10)
- Suggestions to interviewee
- Be intellectually curious
- Be flexible
- Enjoy your job and have fun
- Suggestions to interviewee
- Analysis (1:57:30)
- Employment critical and his attitude is thoughtful
- Paul McDermott Clip (1:58:30)
- “Think about what should happen”
- People should have total clarity on what is important in life
- Questions (2:00:40)
- Looking at challenges with a competitive urge and taking them on
- Methodically build a strategy
- Truly believes in research to make decisions
- Contrast among Willy Walker, Don Wood and Paul McDermott
Conclusions
- Walker & Dunlop and Willy Walker Assessment (2:05:00)
- Think big and think outside the box
- Federal Realty and Don Wood Assessment (2:06:25)
- Readjust when necessary to keep the company on track
- EYA and Bob Youngentob Assessment (2:07:15)
- Build culture from the start and continue to reinforce it
- WashREIT and Paul McDermott Assessment (2:08:00)
- Be bold when confronted with huge challenges
