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Arthur Blank, owner of the Atlanta Falcons and co-founder of Home Depot, joins Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade with Alexis Christoforous and Brian Sozzi to discuss their new e-book ‘Good Company’, his clients for this nfl season, his recommendation to Steve Cohen and more.
BRIAN SOZZI: “Good Company” is the name of Home Depot co-founder and owner of the new Atlanta Falcons eBook, Arthur Blank. And now you’re joining nosotros. Sr. Blank, it’s good to see you again. What do you not see in American corporations that prompted you to write this eBook?It’s a smart reading, very value-centric, value-based organizations. than in today’s big business?
ARTHUR BLANK: Well, I think we’re seeing more than the gold standard, so to speak, that’s where I think top corporations are looking to move. I think in many cases the question of credibility is not where you want to be. I think the smart company, the smart aspect of this eBook is that it talks about the values we’ve evolved at Home Depot during the 23 years I’ve been there and how this now applies to a football team, a football team, a world. -Class stadium. It is one of the leading golf shops in the United States, two of the best rated guest ranches in the West and our foundation.
So the same core dating values between enthusiasts and visitors and consumers and affiliates and our communities are there. So the e-book leads to the fact that you do the right things for the right reasons and that you live with the consequences, an expression my mom used to tell me: it produces wonderful returns, as well as social duty and participation. And the goal I think goes beyond what we think in terms of ourselves.
ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Arthur, we want to communicate about football, since we have you here, owner of the Atlanta Falcons. It was a tough first game, but you still have 15 left to play. And we all hope to get through those 16 pandemic games. What happens to enthusiasts right now in the stands because I know the first two games of the house you’ve already said, there are no enthusiasts in the Mercedes-Benz stadium, but more clarity about it?
ARTHUR BLANK: Well, we had – based on protocols, founded on the CDC, based on state regulations, we may now have enthusiasts in our building. However, having said that, we felt that the trends at the time we made a resolution were not where they deserve to be in the state of Georgia. We sought to make sure that we were intelligent citizens and that we were leaders in that regard. It’s all a component of thinking about being a smart neighbor and a smart company. We’re delaying it.
We’ll be back in October. I think we’ll pay close attention to what scientists tell us, we’ll pay close attention to what medical advisers tell us, we’ll be smart listeners to answer that, not check to interpret it, not verify. to the doctors ourselves, but let’s stick to science, so to speak. And I think the trends in Georgia are much better. So I look forward to seeing a replacement this October.
BRIAN SOZZI: Mr. Blank, I would say that there are many groups in the league that, I would say, do not have a smart business type approach, focused on the values you have implemented with the Atlanta Hawks. these companies, how can they make a difference, or those groups, how can they make a difference?
ARTHUR BLANK: Well, I think the quick response would be, read a smart company and perceive the values that go beyond the industry and the length of the business and geography and fans, the guests, the customers, the ones we serve. So there are certain things that are transportable, I think, those basic values and the way we interact with other human beings we serve or relate to.
And I think the good look that has also been identified through the Business Roundtable, which for 50 years has said that our main purpose in life is to return price to shareholders, etc. , which I understand, but goes for the final year led by Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase, 182 of the biggest CEO of companies , they said we have to worry about people, the planet and profits: those 3 things, if we’re going to be the kind of citizens and do things in a balanced way.
Our other young people today ask for more meaning in their work. A clever demonstration of this is Yale University, a 205-year-old university, a giant university, nationally and internationally. Laurie Santos, a professor of psychology, has developed a course on happiness, academics approached her and told her that we were not satisfied, what is our goal?Why are we here, et cetera? And that’s gone from 30, 40, 50 young people to now a quarter of the student body. A quarter of Yale University academics enroll in this course each semester because they seek deeper answers, which we appreciate. some deeper answers than the goal, not only to make money, but also on how to do those other things.
How can I do myself a favor, my service to my loved ones, my service to my family?And they are for companies that are aligned with a set of values that are more vital than the bottom line. The result is extraordinarily vital. Without it, you have no durability, but it takes much more than that for partners to feel like this organization, this institution, this company is worthy of my life, so to speak.
And that’s how popular we have in all our businesses. And that’s what this eBook is talking about, how you see those things in a broader set of values. And there are only six. It’s not complicated, it’s a matter of principles, a consultation of respect for those values, of decision-making, they don’t become misleading decisions when you stick to your core values and you don’t replace them every day with others. So I think there’s a lot to be informed about across america, especially for our young people.
ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Arthur, in the book, accounts percentage stories we hadn’t heard before, like when you were in the process of closing the falcons deal. You were on a plane with them to St. Louis. Rams. Au position in front with the rest of the staff and VIPs, you went to the back and sat down with the players. What kind of recommendation can you give to hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen, who now buys the Mets organization?about owning a team and how to run it successfully?
ARTHUR BLANK: Alexis, that’s a wonderful question. It’s not too complicated. So, in my case, I told the players, listen, I’m not going to make them play. I can’t play. I used to play, but it wasn’t wonderful, et cetera. So what can I do as an owner? And they told me, well, the stadium never fills up. 60% is full. Half of that 60% the other team, et cetera.
Then we responded to that. We listened to them, we paid close attention to them. We responded and reduced the value of our tickets by x thousand tickets to $100 per subscription, and sold the stadium in two and a half hours, and it was completed almost 20 years ago. We’ve never had a seating scenario in a stadium that doesn’t sell.
So, I would say that in the case of the Mets, and I respectfully said it to the other people within the building, I sense their feelings. I perceive your concepts and notions, what we want to do to fix the franchise. But Atlanta at that time about five million, up to 7 million today. I said, what worries me is the 4. 9, 5. 0 million other people who don’t come here.
So we spent a little time in the market asking them, with a sense of humility and no ego and giving them a fair description of other people who were interested in their answers, and telling us what was wrong. No, tell us why you’re not coming, etc. And it’s not a list of six hundred or 60 things. A dozen things broke that we needed to fix. And we found those things. And after they gave us the things that were taken care of, the season sold out and departed from there.
And I think it takes an entrepreneur or a business leader in any position in their career to perceive that those we serve in any capacity, whoever we serve, know more about their desires than we do. We probably think so, but they know So I think if we need to be humble, subordinate our emotions to theirs and stick to this yellow brick path, so to speak, that’s what Bernie and I used to call the yellow brick road at Home Depot. Follow the customers. Follow what you’re asked to do. Answer what you’re asked, don’t fight them. Don’t erase it, don’t reinterpret it.
Just give them what they ask for and don’t confuse our affiliates with the things we believe in. So the six core values in the 23 years I spent there with Bernie, that’s all we talked about. We’ve never replaced them. We didn’t come up with a new philosophy every year, people would say, well, they believed in it, now they believe it. That’s what the newsletter says now, it was the same thing.
So when I left the company, we had 250, 000 associates. And other people from McKinsey, who wrote an e-book about the war for talent, the war on talent, for talent, I deserve to say. They went to retailers across the United States and Canada. And they came back here, and said, how to get cashiers and how to make engineers and vendors, other people who, the assistant managers, the branch managers, the store managers, etc. That’s because we don’t confuse them. We have not replaced our fundamental philosophy and those six core values advise everything we do.
So our decision-making has become quite predictable, we do the right things for the right reasons and we get the kind of effects we produce, and that’s true today in all our activities. And that’s the good aspect of this story, it’s just home depot, which is obviously a company and is under just the right leadership today. But it’s true. In all those other industries, in all those other geographies, and all those other types of consumers we serve (fanatics, guests, anything), you get the same kind of effects.