LEADERSHIP CORNER
Campbell trustee David Heenan calls himself 'co-leader'
Interviewed by Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| "I would describe myself as a co-leader," said David Heenan, James Campbell Estate trustee. "With four trustees, we all share strategic decision making."
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser |
Position: Trustee, Estate of James Campbell, based in Kapolei. The estate is one of the nation's largest landowners with assets valued at more than $2 billion.
Experience: Author of several books including "Co-Leaders" and the recently released "Double Lives." Former chairman and chief executive, Theo. H. Davies & Co. Ltd. Former vice president for academic affairs, University of Hawai'i. Former dean, College of Business Administration, University of Hawai'i.
Age: 62
Personal profile
• Self portrait: "I would describe myself as a co-leader. With four trustees, we all share strategic decision making. So that means that this is a cooperate-or-die collaborative effort where you are encouraged by both statute and the will of the estate and the essence of day-to-day operations to share power with, in my case, three other peers. It's a different environment from my former life as chairman and CEO of Theo H. Davies. It's obviously quite different if you are the primary authority and have total authority for decision making."
• Favorite book: Heenan's latest and fifth book, 'Double Lives,' which profiles people from Winston Churchill to astronaut Sally Ride who juggle two or more careers or lives simultaneously or in sequence. The point of the book is: "Don't wait until you're Grandma Moses until you pick up a paint brush. The book tries to inspire people to get off their duffs and get on with it and try to get the building blocks in place for a second or third or fourth identity sooner rather than later."
• Favorite Web site: amazon.com
• Best part of the job: "Reshaping the Campbell Estate's future. The estate, under the terms of the will, terminates in January 2007. So the most exciting part of the challenge is to move us ahead, and the organization ahead, in new and exciting and creative ways, allowing us to preserve the elements of our history and to get ready for some of the exciting things. All of the trustees are involved in winding down the present enterprise and reshaping or redefining a new mission for it with the help of our beneficiaries."
• Worst part of the job: "Dealing with the uncertainty that the future often holds, really coping with the unknown. I have concerns about the economic vitality of Hawai'i and world events that have impacted our business and many other people's business."
• Trademark expression: "It's all downhill from here."
• Best decision as a leader: "Coming to Hawai'i. I was really on a fast track at Citicorp and my wife and I were all set to go to the Philippines to work for Citicorp. I was 34 at the time and decided to leave the world of business and come here to be dean of the College of Business Administration at UH. To switch from quite a fast track, go-go financial services giant — sort of a financial behemoth — to venture into the world of academia was a bit of a risk. But in retrospect it worked out extremely well."
• Worst decision as a leader: "Acquisitions that I made in a former life that seemed to hold more promise but for a variety of reasons didn't pan out. I liked to focus on a business that is No. 1 or No. 2 in its market. It should have dominant or next-to-dominant market share. Occasionally I would deviate from that principle and I usually got burned doing it."
• What I worry about most is: "The ability of all of us in Hawai'i to shape a viable vision for the future and to work energetically to make sure that vision occurs."
• Most difficult challenge: "There has been an awful lot of rhetoric about various future courses for the state, but we have been long on vision and short on implementation. I continue to be concerned about our collective ability — business, government, labor, all of us — to create for the people of Hawai'i a truly exciting future so that our kids don't have to work elsewhere."
• Leadership tip: "The old classic is to identify good people around you and cut them loose, give them the reins to run and create their own sense of accomplishment and momentum and hold them accountable for it. It is hard to do, but that's the thing I get the most fun out of — trying to surround yourself with a cast of characters that are vibrant and exciting and giving them the freedom and flexibility to create their own identity."
Taking on...
Restructuring
•In the mid-1980s to early 1990s Theo Davies suffered "huge losses in agriculture, particularly in the sugar business. The question was: How do you extract yourself from that business and what do you do for an encore? The challenge was to really redefine the company from an old line Big 5 sugar company to one that was diversified in business lines that have great promise and potential."
Theo Davies' senior management team compiled a list of 15 to 20 companies in various industries that, following Heenan's philosophy, were leaders in their markets. The idea was to acquire the companies along with their management teams.
"Whether it was Pizza Hut or Mercedes, if you didn't contaminate it, you would probably find success. The premium was on following directions, following the formula that was created by the franchisor, whether it was making and selling a pizza or selling and servicing an automobile."
Theo Davies now owns all of Hawai'i's combination Pizza Hut/Taco Bell restaurants.
Despite the challenge, changing the company's corporate culture was not difficult.
"Our backs were against the wall. That has a motivating and stimulating feel to it. We knew that we had to do something and in large part when we moved into these businesses, we were acquiring a proven management team to make the concept go. It wasn't like you were taking guys who were working on a sugar plantation and asking them to do these other things. ... When we acquired Pizza Hut and Taco Bell ... we were bringing on people who were proven performers."
