LEADERSHIP CORNER
Coldwell director finds motivation in competition

Interviewed by David Butts
Advertiser Staff Writer

Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

Personal profile

• Self portrait: I like to think of myself first as a father (of four children ages 3 to 7) and a husband. I work long hours and travel quite a bit, so I needed to come up with a fun way to make sure that I was spending as much time as I wanted to with my children. We started a tradition in the family called Dad's adventure day on Sundays. We do a lot of hiking. Wa'ahila park is our favorite. We go to Sea Life Park, the zoo and the water park. We are pretty simple. When we can find the time, my wife, Lisa, and I like to play three or four holes of golf after work and have dinner with friends. She is from the East Coast and goes back for two months in the summer. Usually I take a couple trips to visit while she is there. When I have time for myself, I like to ride my bicycles. We live on Maunalani Heights. My favorite road trip is to Makapu'u.

In business I think of myself as an entrepreneur. Competition motivates me. I like to help people succeed. We have 400-plus independent contractors who each have their own business to develop and grow.

• Favorite book: "The One to One Future: Building Relationships One Customer at a Time," by Don Peppers. I'm interested in trends in retail and customer service where, rather than one-size-fits-all, you customize your service. It's a challenge to take that small-company, personal feeling and do it on a big scale. I also like "Jack: Straight From the Gut," by Jack Welch. I like how focused he was on the importance of finding and attracting quality people to work with and the difference that one individual can make. "John Adams," by David McCullough. It made the whole founding of our country very personal.

• Favorite Web site or search engine: Amazon. I used it once, and when I came back it had been customized for my preferences. It is always relevant to me. I think it is the future of retailing.

• Most remembered mentor: I would look to my mother, Penny Bradley. She founded our family company Bradley Properties. She has incredible enthusiasm and passion for anything she does. She's the epitome of the power of positive thinking.

• Best part of the job: I love putting together a strategy and plan and watching it come together. When we created the company, we took four separate companies. We turned it into something that was far more successful than any one of those companies would have been on its own. We have had double-digit growth since then.

• Best decision as a leader: The decision to merge our company with these other three companies (Dolman Associates, Conley Dew, Bradley Properties and Coldwell Banker McCormack Real Estate merged to form Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties in 1995). It was a big change emotionally. I was CEO and had little accountability. Now I have a partner. There was apprehension about that, but I ended up with a dynamic partner in Herb Conley. We work very well together. We surpassed all our goals.

• Worst decision as a leader: The first was being too aggressive during the Gulf War in 1991 and too conservative after 9/11. During the Gulf War we were still on expansion mode and in a year the market dropped 50 percent in sales volume. I should have made cuts earlier, cut offices and adjusted to a smaller market much faster. After 9/11 we imposed a hiring freeze, looked for ways to cut expenses. It probably was the prudent thing to do given the uncertainty, but having the benefit of hindsight now ... Since 9/11 it has been a very strong market, the strongest in my career.

• What I worry about most: Making sure that I make a difference to people around me and my family. I like the quote, "Nobody on their deathbed ever said 'I wish I spent more time at the office.' " I want to make sure I have done well by my children, my wife and my community.

• Most difficult challenge: Struggling with having too many things to do and not enough time to do them.

• Leadership tip: The first thing is to be very focused on the mission of your organization, the outcomes you are trying to achieve. Do what is right for your customers. Do what is right with the people that you work with and the rest will take care of itself.

Taking on... Adapting to new technology

• The biggest problem I've had is the rapid evolution in technology. We are now creating very sophisticated Web sites. It was difficult in the beginning to implement that technology, being a nontech company. I spent a couple years researching the technology. The effort and the resources we had to get a quality Web product was too much. Now we are in a hui of seven or eight real estate companies called Realtech. We have pooled our resources so we can hire expertise to develop our site. Projects that were taking a year in development, we have done in as short as 60 days. It showed the power of partnership. By combining resources with other companies we could get a better product faster at a lower cost.