August 17, 2023 • 26 mins
Ron welcomes NFL Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank to the show.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Ron Barr, and this is today's edition of
Ron Barr's Sports Byline USA podcast on the eight Side Network.
Arthur Blank joins us on Sports Byline. He's the co
founder of Home Depot and the owner of the NFL's
Atlanta Falcons and also MLS is Atlanta, United and as
a very successful businessman, he believes for good companies, purpose
(00:22):
and profit can go and should go hand in hand.
His companies have never lost sight of their commitment to
care for their people and also communities. He shares that
vision and also a roadmap for values based business, including
in sports as well, in his book Good Company. Arthur
will talk about your sports business a little bit later on,
(00:42):
but let me first ask you how did you develop
your business philosophy and what experiences you had growing up
in Queens, New York that helped you develop that philosophy.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Well, you know, it really is interesting, Ron, because both
my partner and I have a partner at Home Depot,
Bernie Marcus, we both came from backgrounds that were really
very modest. Both of our both sets of parents came
from Eastern European countries, both came to United States, was
very little close to nothing. When I grew up, I
lived in a single bedroom apartment with mom and dad.
(01:14):
I lost my dad when I was only fifteen he
was forty four, and my brother, so the four of
us shared one bedroom, we shared a single bathroom, and
that was it. So I think, you know, part of
what I groomed my thinking and helped produce it was
my early life experiences. And that was, you know, with
a mother who was very always very committed to principal,
(01:36):
always very committed to social action, always committed to being
in the middle of wherever the frame may be. She
may not have been able to do it financially, but
she could do it with her time or energy in
her brain and she always did that. So I think
that was a lot of it. And then, you know,
my life experience is just traveling through through the journey
of life and who I've worked with, who I've spent
(01:58):
time with, who I've admired, who I've learned from, the
businesses that I've learned from the leaders of those businesses
I've learned from, and understanding We didn't write down our
core values at home Depot, which the same six core
values are the same for HD and have been there
until you know, probably we're in business probably ten or
twelve years in front of the Finally, one day I
(02:18):
was in a meeting with them with my partner burning
I said, you know, we're opening up tw hundred stores
a year. One of these one hundred and forty thousand
square for stores every day and a half. I said,
we're never going to be able to touch all of
these stores. So it was just important at that point
that we reduce our core culture to writing, et cetera.
And I think the important thing I would say for
(02:40):
you know, all of the listeners is that you know,
every company has its own unique culture. We did it
at Home Depot. And one of the key questions that
came early on in September actually of eighty one, when
we first went public but only four stores now twenty
two hundred and I left the company thirteen hundred and
now four to fifty thousand associates fifty when I left
(03:00):
the company, was that how do we ensure that we
maintain this core culture as we go forward. And the
conclusion we came to is that we had a first
The first staff in terms of promoting anybody to a
leadership position was that do they understand the culture, not
could they articulate it, because that became secondary. Doing stand it?
(03:22):
Do they live it? Are the ambassadors for it? Are
people leading by example, they're learning by example. So all
of those things the things that built our company. In fact,
when McKenzie wrote their book on the War on Talent,
their senior partner was based in Chicago, and hr came
to see me last there were seven or eight companies
including the book, and he said to us, you know,
(03:44):
we talked to two owner of your associates all over
the United States, in Canada, everybody from a lot of
engineered to a cashier to assistant managers, store managers, division presidents,
whatever may be. They all understood your culture. They all
said the same thing about your values. They all expressed them.
And so you know, that kind of consistency not only
of understanding but of living them, I think is really
(04:05):
what separated us. And the beauty of this book and
the reason we wrote the book, and the reason it's
important in my opinion, for you know, for our readers
to you know, to listen to and to and to
try to learn from, is that we then took these
same core values and we applied them to a football
team Atlanta Falcons. We apply them to a soccer team
at Land United, We apply them to the PGA, to
(04:27):
a Superstars, which is the largest golf specialty store today
in the country. We apply them to two guest ranches,
United States that are rated number one, you know, in
the country for that experience, and then we apply them
to our foundation. So all these different environments, different industries,
different geographies. But it's all service fans, guests and customers.
It's all about doing it with associates that understand our
(04:51):
core philosophies and our core culture. And it's about doing
it in the way that we show in careingness and
kindness towards the neighborhoods and the communities that we live in.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Arthur, I have a friend of mine who used to
do on a team in the National Football League, and
he served with you on a couple of NFL community committees,
and he said to me, I always came away with
the belief that Arthur always wanted to do it the
right way. Was he right about that?
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yes? He was. I think you know it's interesting. My mother,
you know, had this expression that I would hear say
pretty regularly, is that, you know, you do the right
things for the right reasons and live with the consequences.
And and I think that you know, that's you know,
that's part of those core values, is that you know,
doing the right things for the right reasons and to
live with the consequences. So I can give you one Well,
(05:36):
what what does that mean? A listener might say, well,
give you an example. This summer, we we had to
make a decision about our two ranches in Montana. One
had been open for one hundred years, had never closed
in one hundred years. One was open about four years.
And so we made a decision to close them both.
Not because I mean our associates. You know, we knew
seventy percent of our associates are coming from out of state.
(05:58):
We knew that close one hundred percent of guests are
coming from out of state. But yet, you know, based
on CDC protocols, public health officials, local public health officials,
they all said, came to see our operation. You all said,
you've done everything here you know how to do. But
having said that, because of the number of people coming
from out of state, you will bring disease to Paradise Valley, Montana,
(06:21):
where these ranches are located and it will affect the
neighboring communities. So when I heard that, I mean it
wasn't a hard decision. The decision was, we should not
open up these communities. Our neighbors who have been heavily
involved in these communities for a number of years, from
a philanthropic standpoint, from a social standpoint, from a whole
variety of engagements, and we want it to be you know,
(06:44):
a caretaker for a caregiver for our neighbors as well.
So we decided it's a sad decision, but an easy one.
We would keep their ranchers closed this summer. So a
couple of about a month ago, I had to have
lunch with the governor and I did hadn't met him
before and didn't know him. I didn't know what he
knew about our business or not. But he said, you know,
(07:05):
I heard about your decision that you made to keep
these two anxious clothes, and I want to thank you
on behalf of the state of Montana. He said, because
we only have a million people here, but we get
you know, close to eleven million guests come every summer
because of Yellowstone and other things as well. And he said,
you did whatever you could do to keep disease away
from this state. And I really appreciate that. I want
to thank you a boy half of the citizens. So
(07:27):
that's what you know, that's all part of your core values.
It's not hard decisions to make. Doesn't mean they're always happy,
doesn't mean they're always easy, but you make them because
you have these values which strive your behavior. And so
that's what we pay attention to.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Can the value is in culture that made home depots
so great? Can that be replicated in all businesses, even sports?
And I asked that question, Arthur, because each one has
a different personality.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
My answer on is that, you know, I think that
we are proved conclusive that the answer would to that
would be yes. We are very successful financially in the NFL.
We're very successful with Major League Soccer. We are in
the first three years of existence. This is our fourth
year and playing. We have broken every attendance record in
the history of Major League Soccer, which goes back twenty
five years now, and that's per game, per season, playoffs,
(08:17):
whatever it may be. We filled up the entire stadium
with more than doubled and more than doubled the average
attendance per game that even the top teams have had
in the league. And we have a return rate in
our guest ranch of ninety six percent with zero marketing,
ninety six percent of the people come back every year,
year after year after year. So and we have our
(08:39):
PGA to Superstars, which I told Commissioner Commissioner Monahan, they
are a partner of ours. I mean, obviously their brand
is on the building. We operate the buildings. It's our business.
But you know, I was telling about incredible comp sales
we've had since we've reopened after fifty four days of
being closed, and you know, he was running around the
golf course looking for people to talk to tell him
(08:59):
about this incredible retail business and that that they're a
part owner. And so the answer is, you know, proved
conclusive that all of these existing businesses they've always taken
these same core values, will followed these same core core
values and are producing the same kind of results financially
and otherwise. And the otherwise is really important because it's
(09:20):
the human relationships between the fans and the customers and
the guests we have. It's between our associates who service
those people and in the communities that in which we in.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Which we live, we only have forty five seconds before
we have to break. But I'm just wondering over your
fine business career, were there any failures that you learned
more from than you might have from successes.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah. I think when we were running HD, we acquired
the group of nine stores from a company called Bulwater.
They had stores in Dallas, they had stores in Mobile
and Baton Rouge and Shreveport, Louisiana. And what we tried
to do with those stores is that we we tried
to rebrand them and keep them open while we were
(10:02):
changing out the merchandising and retraining all the associates. I
found out that even a car going as slow as
ten miles an hour, it's pretty hard to change the
tires on it unless you stopped it completely. So you know,
I've looked back and said, you know, we should have
done it. We did do that is that eventually we
closed the stores for sixty days, you know, did our
re merchandising, get our retraining, and set it reopened. And
(10:24):
then those stores started to produce sales volumes that were
typical of our volumes and our stores. So I think
you know that was a mistake. You learn from these things,
and we all make mistakes throughout life. It's not important
if you make them. We don't make them because you
are going to make them. It's a question whether you
learn from them, and you hope, you know, God willing
you don't continue to make the same mistakes over and
(10:44):
over again.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Arthur Blank is with us. We're talking about his book.
It's called Good Company. It's a selection of the month
on the Sports Byline book corner. We'll talk some sports
with Arthur as we continue across the country and around
the world. We've got you on Sports Byline. You're listening
to Ron Barr's Sports Byline USA podcast. Arthur Blank is
with us here on Sports Byline USA. I urge you
(11:06):
to check out his book called Good Company, and he
says when good companies put the well being of their customers,
their associates, and their communities first, financial success will follow.
And he also says, if you don't care about people,
profit and the planet at the same time, profitability by
itself isn't really enough. Before you bought the Atlanta Falcons, Arthur,
(11:27):
back in early two thousand and two, what were your
thoughts and analysis of the business of sports.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Well, to be honest, I didn't know a whole lot
about the business of sports. I knew that the NFL
had this incredible reputation as the best professionally run sports
league in the world. What that meant financially, I really
didn't know. I had no access as as you know
and your listeners know that all these sports teams are
own privately, so there was no really way to get
(11:53):
the information. What I decided was interesting is that I
had been a season ticket holder and the Falcons up
to that point, up to two thousand and two, had
never had back to back winning seasons. I didn't know
that at the time, but you know, I was able
to acquire the team Rank and Smith before we passed
away and told those kids, well, we're not going to
sell the team, but if he ever did, this guy
(12:14):
would be a perfect donor. So after we did pass,
you know, the siblings all decided they would sell the team.
So I had been in the stands like everybody else
in the win the season, losing season, winning season losing
seasons for thirty six years, and so when I bought
the team, I went the closing commission Tagoo, who said
to me you know, you just bought a franchise that
never set back to back winning seasons and I hadn't
(12:35):
really checked that, and I said, well, Paul, that can't
be correct. And Paul, if you knew him, Ron was
not because he said it, but he really was the
smartest guy in the room. And you know, a brilliant commissioner,
as is Roger. Good deal but a different but both
brilliant in their own ways. But in any event, so
we we acquired the team, We looked at obviously the economics,
doing our due diligence, and felt it was going to
(12:58):
be a really good investment. It's turned out to be
a superb investment. So I'm happy about it from the
financial standpoint. But you know, I never, honestly, I've never
focused on the financial results. I mean I've always focused
on And that's a big part of this book, big
part of the emphasis. Do the right things. Take care
of your fans correctly, take care of your associates correctly.
(13:19):
Treat players like there all free agents, so they feel
that they cared for all the time, not just as
a player, but not as a commodity, but as a
human being. We care about them, We care about their families,
who care about their philanthropy. You care about what they
want to do when they're done playing football. Not all
of them play for ten twelve You as most as
you know, do not, and care about the communities in
which you're operating, in which you're living, and understand that
(13:43):
we all all neighbors and we're in this together. So
you know, those are things that make everybody feel good
about what they're doing every day as well, and give
you real purpose to our work. And purpose today is
something that our young people are constantly pushing for and
striving for. They want to see more of that. And
that's a wonderful thing I've told some others and I
(14:05):
would repeat it again, is that you know. Yale University
is a good example where doctor Lori Santos, who is
one of the senior professors there of psychology, she began
a small course thirty forty kids who said we're not happy,
we don't feel fulfilled at this great university two hundred
and five years old, et cetera. Well, she continues to
teach that course on a voluntary basis, and a quarter
(14:28):
of the student body every year at Yale University signs
up for that course, So these are some of the
best and brightest minds in the United States today, or
internationally for that matter, a lot of international students, and
they all want to know much life about It has
to be more purpose to it, it has to be
really just making a great living. And so I think
(14:48):
that's great. That bodes well for our country and vodes
well for you know, dealing with these big issues, we
big societal issues that we're facing with now. So I'm
happy to see that in a lot of these values
we talk about in this book, connect the dots. Connect
the dots. So somebody feels like, you know, my life
has purpose, not just financially, which it needs to have.
(15:09):
I understand it for their circle of love, their family
of love, et cetera. But beyond that, how do we
serve others? How to we serve humanity? And that's and
that becomes your very real question. They want to understand,
you know, not just you know why am I here?
And you know what is life? You know what? Why
am I here? I would take advantage of life, et cetera.
(15:29):
But life responds to them and says, you know, giving
you a blessing. You are here, you have responsibility now
to make a difference in your own way, but every
way that may be in improving a lot of all
of us that live on this planet Earth.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Now, let me get a brief answer from you. I've
always found that the dynamics of sports team ownership very
different from traditional business ownership. One example, paying an athlete
multimillions of dollars in advance based on potential productivity, and
that really goes against the general norms of business. How
does one get their head around that?
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Well, I think you know, in the case of the NFL,
if you weigh in bonuses and things of that nature,
guaranteed bonuses, it's about half of the compensation is guaranteed.
Other sports it's it's more than that. It's close to
one hundred percent, like in baseball, et cetera. Basketball. So
I think in our sport, it's just the dynamic of it.
The players who at risk physical risk, mental risk, and
(16:24):
so you know, I understand their viewpoint. They've performed at
high levels. It's never that way for the first contract.
It's always based on the kind of prescribed formula. The
second contract will be going on to the fifth, fourth, fifth,
sixth year, depending on what the hell the first contract
is you know, players get paid, you know, based on
their based on their future productivity what you think it
(16:46):
will be. So it's a little bit you know, investing
in the future, but you have a track record to
go on. Sadly, on occasion, you'll find that money will
change somebody, not in a positive way, but in a
negative way. And you try to select players to the
draft of free agency that you feel like you understand,
you understand the goddess at what they're being paid. They're
going to perform at a very high level and going
(17:07):
to function at a very high level. And we've been
pretty lucky with that, although you know occasionally we all
make mistakes in that regard. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
In your book, you also talk very candidly about your
relationship with Michael Vick. You formed an unexpectedly close relationship,
and you said, for me, put people first means treating
people as people. If I can't get to know our players,
learn about their passions, their histories, their families, and their hopes,
and help them in any way that I can, there
(17:35):
wouldn't be a reason for me to own a team.
You mentored Vic on such diverse roles as being a
father and starting a foundation and you believed he you
had a special relationship with him. Did you feel betrayed
to some degree when you found out that he indeed
was involved with the problems that he had.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Yeah, for sure, I think Commission of Goodell felt that way.
I felt that way. I had a relationship with Michael
as they do. You know, the majority of our players,
getting to know them, their families, their interests, their passions,
their philanthropy interests, their social issues. That we're involved in
social issues, not only nationally through the Social Action Committee
which I served on for the league and as well
(18:16):
as their own club, but you know, involved in particular players.
I mean, when Michael wanted to start his own foundation,
he came to visit and we talked about, well, do
you want to start this for the right reasons? Are
you ready at your age to deal with these issues?
Maybe you should deal with through a community fund. There's
a lot of different ways you can be philanthropic without
having a little burden of the administrative stress that comes
with that. So, you know, I the last thing I
(18:38):
want to do is treat players like commodity. If I
had to do that, if I had to deep personalize
it and treatment as commodities. I would not be in
this business because that's just not who I am and
why I am. I need to know and care about
and be able to create, you know, a family environment
for these players. I don't cross the line. Never talking
about football, never talking about players, Never talk about they're
(19:00):
playing or not playing, or they like their coaches, head coaches, coordinators,
position coaches. That's not you know, that's not fair game
for conversation. But his fair game is that, you know,
you give me some advice about some financial plan, give
me some advice about some life plan, give me some
advice about my own foundation, give me some advice about,
you know, being involved in some of these things from
(19:20):
a societal standpoint. So I'm happy to do that. And
you know, I had I did an interview this morning
with the Good Good Morning Football, which is the morning,
you know, the morning show for the NFL, and I
had one of the ex players on there say to me,
you know, and I know this is true. He said,
the NFL, we got a couple of thousand players. Everybody's
playing on different teams, thirty two different teams. But it
(19:43):
is a tight fraternity, he said. Every player that I
ever talked to about the Atlanta Falcons, says the same
things that they used to say about Eddie de Baudelo.
This is an owner that really cares deeply about his players,
cares deeply about his coaching, cares cares deeply about his fans,
and cares deeply all about the human side of the equation.
(20:03):
So you know, to me, that was you know, a
great honor that they would say that and express that.
But that's what we try to do, and we and
we want the players to feel that we really do
care about them. We expected to perform at a high
level that being paid a lot of money. I get it,
understand it. But we also don't want to make them
a commodity to make them feel that way. We want
to make them feel like they know we do care
(20:24):
about them. People will never I mean, people will forget
what you say about them. People will forget about what
you do for them. They will never forget about how
you make them feel and that we want to make
players feel like. You know, they're always a free agent.
They're always going to go someplace else. They never bound
by a contract. They just want to be with us
because we treat them, you know, as they should be treated.
(20:45):
And so we're very proud of having that relationship with them.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
You and Michael have remained closed and three years ago
he formally retired as a Falcon and a very small ceremony.
I got to tell you, having been around the game
and having friends that have been in ownership in the NFL,
I feel for you guys, because you put so much
into it, and really there's a lot of things that
are out of your control that in normal business would
not certainly be that way. Let me take you back,
(21:10):
and I think know where I'm going super Bowl fifty
one because you said it was an incalculable equation of
bad luck and unfortunate choices. I threw out all my
Super Bowl fifty one gear. It was too painful. A
reminder now, Eddie de Bartelow is very much like you
were when he was an owner as well. It was difficult.
I watched the highs and lows with him. How does
(21:32):
one ever get used to that on a week to
week basis?
Speaker 2 (21:37):
I don't think R answer your question. Eddie would tell
you this too, I don't think you ever get used
to it. I would say this that you know the
lows are lower than the highs are high. And I
think what's interesting is that you know, over the years,
whether it be Super Bowl fifty one or just you know,
weekly wins and losses as they may come and go.
(21:57):
Is that you know, I'm always concerned when I come
home home, you know, from the game, if it's you
know when obviously room for celebration. And we do that
as a family, and do that as a community of
people who live in Atlanta, et cetera. But come home
and we lose a game. I mean, I think about,
you know, how do I teach my children how to
deal with diversity? How do I teach them to overlook
a loss? And you learn from it and you move on,
(22:18):
which is the story of life. We all make mistakes
in life. You scratch the skin of any human being,
as doctor King would say, and you're going to find mistakes.
You're going to find errors. So you know, we all,
we all fail in certain ways. And do we learn
from those and do we move on from those? Hopefully
the answer is yes. And so part of my job
is to set a role model for my family, and
(22:40):
my family includes all my family, of all of my associates,
and all of our businesses in that way, and I certainly,
I certainly try to do that.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
We only have two and a half minutes left. But
when you think back on that particular game and it
was so close and then it slipped away from you,
how long did it take you, Arthur, to get over
that or at least put it into some perspective that
you can move on.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Well, I think number one, it wasn't close, which is
really really we were up twenty eight three in the
third quarter, so that you know that was you know,
it was a game that we really should have won.
I think coach Quinn would have told you that. We'll
tell you that today if you asked him. Ron. I
think at the time I spent you talked about this
in the books. I spent a lot of time, you know,
(23:21):
wearing I mean, you know, understanding my role as a
father now just the father and my family, but a
father to our team, our players, our coaches, our associates,
et cetera in the city, and our fans, and you know,
time take a longer view of this. We got there,
we competed, we lost the game we should not have lost.
We'll be back again, you know, let's move on and
(23:43):
learn from it, et cetera. And I believed all that,
and I still believe all that. But having said that,
I think once I got out of that, and that
took a while to get out of that mode, you know,
I really started to feel that kind of the personal
pain because, as you well know, it's not just the
best teams, but the best teams and they do have
to have some luck in terms of injuries and things
of that nature. Is the season we'res on or have
(24:05):
to catch teams when they're not as hot as they
might be some other time and play them during those
during those period of times. So you know, I think
it's a degree of luck involved as well. But it's
very hard to get back, you know, out of thirty
two teams that are designed to be quote evenly balanced
in some form of fashion through the salary cap and
other ways, it's very hard to get back a Super Bowl.
So it doesn't come easily, and we're going to fight
(24:27):
again and be back there and hopefully get a different result.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
In about thirty seconds. When you think back over your
professional career as a businessman and also as a sports owner,
is there one moment, Arthur that's kind of emblazoned in
your mind that you'll never forget.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Really good question. It could take me thirty seconds to
think about that, but I think just you know, the
joy of I'd say for the Falcons, the joy of winning.
The joy when we won the MLS Cup in Atlanta,
we had not won a championship here and I don't know,
close to twenty years in any form of fashion, the
Braves are the last one that want to World Series
(25:00):
here in nineteen ninety five, I'm thinking something like that,
and hadn't had, you know, a championship since then. So
to see MLS being launched, see and break all these
at tennis records in the history of the sport in
the North America, and then to play at the levels
that we did and win the MLS Cup, and you know,
we'd fill up the stadium with seventy thousand fans that
(25:22):
represented the United Nations truly in every sense of the word,
having them all standing for an hour and a half
and then be able to bring home that cup at
the end of the year. I would say that that
definitely was one of my one of my highlights.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Arthur.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
I love sports. I have a lot of highlights, but.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Arthur, I've I've thoroughly enjoyed this and I thank you
for the time. Please come back and visit with me
again so we could talk about other interesting things.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
And best wish just to all your listeners.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Thank you so much, Arthur Blank with us check out
the book good company. We continue with more of you
in sports byline. You have been listening to Ron Bars
Sports Byloe one USA podcast on the eight Side Network
Hi, I'm Ron Barr, and this is today's edition of
Ron Barr's Sports Byline USA podcast on the eight Side Network.
Arthur Blank joins us on Sports Byline. He's the co
founder of Home Depot and the owner of the NFL's
Atlanta Falcons and also MLS is Atlanta, United and as
a very successful businessman, he believes for good companies, purpose
(00:22):
and profit can go and should go hand in hand.
His companies have never lost sight of their commitment to
care for their people and also communities. He shares that
vision and also a roadmap for values based business, including
in sports as well, in his book Good Company. Arthur
will talk about your sports business a little bit later on,
(00:42):
but let me first ask you how did you develop
your business philosophy and what experiences you had growing up
in Queens, New York that helped you develop that philosophy.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Well, you know, it really is interesting, Ron, because both
my partner and I have a partner at Home Depot,
Bernie Marcus, we both came from backgrounds that were really
very modest. Both of our both sets of parents came
from Eastern European countries, both came to United States, was
very little close to nothing. When I grew up, I
lived in a single bedroom apartment with mom and dad.
(01:14):
I lost my dad when I was only fifteen he
was forty four, and my brother, so the four of
us shared one bedroom, we shared a single bathroom, and
that was it. So I think, you know, part of
what I groomed my thinking and helped produce it was
my early life experiences. And that was, you know, with
a mother who was very always very committed to principal,
(01:36):
always very committed to social action, always committed to being
in the middle of wherever the frame may be. She
may not have been able to do it financially, but
she could do it with her time or energy in
her brain and she always did that. So I think
that was a lot of it. And then, you know,
my life experience is just traveling through through the journey
of life and who I've worked with, who I've spent
(01:58):
time with, who I've admired, who I've learned from, the
businesses that I've learned from the leaders of those businesses
I've learned from, and understanding We didn't write down our
core values at home Depot, which the same six core
values are the same for HD and have been there
until you know, probably we're in business probably ten or
twelve years in front of the Finally, one day I
(02:18):
was in a meeting with them with my partner burning
I said, you know, we're opening up tw hundred stores
a year. One of these one hundred and forty thousand
square for stores every day and a half. I said,
we're never going to be able to touch all of
these stores. So it was just important at that point
that we reduce our core culture to writing, et cetera.
And I think the important thing I would say for
(02:40):
you know, all of the listeners is that you know,
every company has its own unique culture. We did it
at Home Depot. And one of the key questions that
came early on in September actually of eighty one, when
we first went public but only four stores now twenty
two hundred and I left the company thirteen hundred and
now four to fifty thousand associates fifty when I left
(03:00):
the company, was that how do we ensure that we
maintain this core culture as we go forward. And the
conclusion we came to is that we had a first
The first staff in terms of promoting anybody to a
leadership position was that do they understand the culture, not
could they articulate it, because that became secondary. Doing stand it?
(03:22):
Do they live it? Are the ambassadors for it? Are
people leading by example, they're learning by example. So all
of those things the things that built our company. In fact,
when McKenzie wrote their book on the War on Talent,
their senior partner was based in Chicago, and hr came
to see me last there were seven or eight companies
including the book, and he said to us, you know,
(03:44):
we talked to two owner of your associates all over
the United States, in Canada, everybody from a lot of
engineered to a cashier to assistant managers, store managers, division presidents,
whatever may be. They all understood your culture. They all
said the same thing about your values. They all expressed them.
And so you know, that kind of consistency not only
of understanding but of living them, I think is really
(04:05):
what separated us. And the beauty of this book and
the reason we wrote the book, and the reason it's
important in my opinion, for you know, for our readers
to you know, to listen to and to and to
try to learn from, is that we then took these
same core values and we applied them to a football
team Atlanta Falcons. We apply them to a soccer team
at Land United, We apply them to the PGA, to
(04:27):
a Superstars, which is the largest golf specialty store today
in the country. We apply them to two guest ranches,
United States that are rated number one, you know, in
the country for that experience, and then we apply them
to our foundation. So all these different environments, different industries,
different geographies. But it's all service fans, guests and customers.
It's all about doing it with associates that understand our
(04:51):
core philosophies and our core culture. And it's about doing
it in the way that we show in careingness and
kindness towards the neighborhoods and the communities that we live in.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Arthur, I have a friend of mine who used to
do on a team in the National Football League, and
he served with you on a couple of NFL community committees,
and he said to me, I always came away with
the belief that Arthur always wanted to do it the
right way. Was he right about that?
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yes? He was. I think you know it's interesting. My mother,
you know, had this expression that I would hear say
pretty regularly, is that, you know, you do the right
things for the right reasons and live with the consequences.
And and I think that you know, that's you know,
that's part of those core values, is that you know,
doing the right things for the right reasons and to
live with the consequences. So I can give you one Well,
(05:36):
what what does that mean? A listener might say, well,
give you an example. This summer, we we had to
make a decision about our two ranches in Montana. One
had been open for one hundred years, had never closed
in one hundred years. One was open about four years.
And so we made a decision to close them both.
Not because I mean our associates. You know, we knew
seventy percent of our associates are coming from out of state.
(05:58):
We knew that close one hundred percent of guests are
coming from out of state. But yet, you know, based
on CDC protocols, public health officials, local public health officials,
they all said, came to see our operation. You all said,
you've done everything here you know how to do. But
having said that, because of the number of people coming
from out of state, you will bring disease to Paradise Valley, Montana,
(06:21):
where these ranches are located and it will affect the
neighboring communities. So when I heard that, I mean it
wasn't a hard decision. The decision was, we should not
open up these communities. Our neighbors who have been heavily
involved in these communities for a number of years, from
a philanthropic standpoint, from a social standpoint, from a whole
variety of engagements, and we want it to be you know,
(06:44):
a caretaker for a caregiver for our neighbors as well.
So we decided it's a sad decision, but an easy one.
We would keep their ranchers closed this summer. So a
couple of about a month ago, I had to have
lunch with the governor and I did hadn't met him
before and didn't know him. I didn't know what he
knew about our business or not. But he said, you know,
(07:05):
I heard about your decision that you made to keep
these two anxious clothes, and I want to thank you
on behalf of the state of Montana. He said, because
we only have a million people here, but we get
you know, close to eleven million guests come every summer
because of Yellowstone and other things as well. And he said,
you did whatever you could do to keep disease away
from this state. And I really appreciate that. I want
to thank you a boy half of the citizens. So
(07:27):
that's what you know, that's all part of your core values.
It's not hard decisions to make. Doesn't mean they're always happy,
doesn't mean they're always easy, but you make them because
you have these values which strive your behavior. And so
that's what we pay attention to.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Can the value is in culture that made home depots
so great? Can that be replicated in all businesses, even sports?
And I asked that question, Arthur, because each one has
a different personality.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
My answer on is that, you know, I think that
we are proved conclusive that the answer would to that
would be yes. We are very successful financially in the NFL.
We're very successful with Major League Soccer. We are in
the first three years of existence. This is our fourth
year and playing. We have broken every attendance record in
the history of Major League Soccer, which goes back twenty
five years now, and that's per game, per season, playoffs,
(08:17):
whatever it may be. We filled up the entire stadium
with more than doubled and more than doubled the average
attendance per game that even the top teams have had
in the league. And we have a return rate in
our guest ranch of ninety six percent with zero marketing,
ninety six percent of the people come back every year,
year after year after year. So and we have our
(08:39):
PGA to Superstars, which I told Commissioner Commissioner Monahan, they
are a partner of ours. I mean, obviously their brand
is on the building. We operate the buildings. It's our business.
But you know, I was telling about incredible comp sales
we've had since we've reopened after fifty four days of
being closed, and you know, he was running around the
golf course looking for people to talk to tell him
(08:59):
about this incredible retail business and that that they're a
part owner. And so the answer is, you know, proved
conclusive that all of these existing businesses they've always taken
these same core values, will followed these same core core
values and are producing the same kind of results financially
and otherwise. And the otherwise is really important because it's
(09:20):
the human relationships between the fans and the customers and
the guests we have. It's between our associates who service
those people and in the communities that in which we in.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Which we live, we only have forty five seconds before
we have to break. But I'm just wondering over your
fine business career, were there any failures that you learned
more from than you might have from successes.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah. I think when we were running HD, we acquired
the group of nine stores from a company called Bulwater.
They had stores in Dallas, they had stores in Mobile
and Baton Rouge and Shreveport, Louisiana. And what we tried
to do with those stores is that we we tried
to rebrand them and keep them open while we were
(10:02):
changing out the merchandising and retraining all the associates. I
found out that even a car going as slow as
ten miles an hour, it's pretty hard to change the
tires on it unless you stopped it completely. So you know,
I've looked back and said, you know, we should have
done it. We did do that is that eventually we
closed the stores for sixty days, you know, did our
re merchandising, get our retraining, and set it reopened. And
(10:24):
then those stores started to produce sales volumes that were
typical of our volumes and our stores. So I think
you know that was a mistake. You learn from these things,
and we all make mistakes throughout life. It's not important
if you make them. We don't make them because you
are going to make them. It's a question whether you
learn from them, and you hope, you know, God willing
you don't continue to make the same mistakes over and
(10:44):
over again.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Arthur Blank is with us. We're talking about his book.
It's called Good Company. It's a selection of the month
on the Sports Byline book corner. We'll talk some sports
with Arthur as we continue across the country and around
the world. We've got you on Sports Byline. You're listening
to Ron Barr's Sports Byline USA podcast. Arthur Blank is
with us here on Sports Byline USA. I urge you
(11:06):
to check out his book called Good Company, and he
says when good companies put the well being of their customers,
their associates, and their communities first, financial success will follow.
And he also says, if you don't care about people,
profit and the planet at the same time, profitability by
itself isn't really enough. Before you bought the Atlanta Falcons, Arthur,
(11:27):
back in early two thousand and two, what were your
thoughts and analysis of the business of sports.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Well, to be honest, I didn't know a whole lot
about the business of sports. I knew that the NFL
had this incredible reputation as the best professionally run sports
league in the world. What that meant financially, I really
didn't know. I had no access as as you know
and your listeners know that all these sports teams are
own privately, so there was no really way to get
(11:53):
the information. What I decided was interesting is that I
had been a season ticket holder and the Falcons up
to that point, up to two thousand and two, had
never had back to back winning seasons. I didn't know
that at the time, but you know, I was able
to acquire the team Rank and Smith before we passed
away and told those kids, well, we're not going to
sell the team, but if he ever did, this guy
(12:14):
would be a perfect donor. So after we did pass,
you know, the siblings all decided they would sell the team.
So I had been in the stands like everybody else
in the win the season, losing season, winning season losing
seasons for thirty six years, and so when I bought
the team, I went the closing commission Tagoo, who said
to me you know, you just bought a franchise that
never set back to back winning seasons and I hadn't
(12:35):
really checked that, and I said, well, Paul, that can't
be correct. And Paul, if you knew him, Ron was
not because he said it, but he really was the
smartest guy in the room. And you know, a brilliant commissioner,
as is Roger. Good deal but a different but both
brilliant in their own ways. But in any event, so
we we acquired the team, We looked at obviously the economics,
doing our due diligence, and felt it was going to
(12:58):
be a really good investment. It's turned out to be
a superb investment. So I'm happy about it from the
financial standpoint. But you know, I never, honestly, I've never
focused on the financial results. I mean I've always focused
on And that's a big part of this book, big
part of the emphasis. Do the right things. Take care
of your fans correctly, take care of your associates correctly.
(13:19):
Treat players like there all free agents, so they feel
that they cared for all the time, not just as
a player, but not as a commodity, but as a
human being. We care about them, We care about their families,
who care about their philanthropy. You care about what they
want to do when they're done playing football. Not all
of them play for ten twelve You as most as
you know, do not, and care about the communities in
which you're operating, in which you're living, and understand that
(13:43):
we all all neighbors and we're in this together. So
you know, those are things that make everybody feel good
about what they're doing every day as well, and give
you real purpose to our work. And purpose today is
something that our young people are constantly pushing for and
striving for. They want to see more of that. And
that's a wonderful thing I've told some others and I
(14:05):
would repeat it again, is that you know. Yale University
is a good example where doctor Lori Santos, who is
one of the senior professors there of psychology, she began
a small course thirty forty kids who said we're not happy,
we don't feel fulfilled at this great university two hundred
and five years old, et cetera. Well, she continues to
teach that course on a voluntary basis, and a quarter
(14:28):
of the student body every year at Yale University signs
up for that course, So these are some of the
best and brightest minds in the United States today, or
internationally for that matter, a lot of international students, and
they all want to know much life about It has
to be more purpose to it, it has to be
really just making a great living. And so I think
(14:48):
that's great. That bodes well for our country and vodes
well for you know, dealing with these big issues, we
big societal issues that we're facing with now. So I'm
happy to see that in a lot of these values
we talk about in this book, connect the dots. Connect
the dots. So somebody feels like, you know, my life
has purpose, not just financially, which it needs to have.
(15:09):
I understand it for their circle of love, their family
of love, et cetera. But beyond that, how do we
serve others? How to we serve humanity? And that's and
that becomes your very real question. They want to understand,
you know, not just you know why am I here?
And you know what is life? You know what? Why
am I here? I would take advantage of life, et cetera.
(15:29):
But life responds to them and says, you know, giving
you a blessing. You are here, you have responsibility now
to make a difference in your own way, but every
way that may be in improving a lot of all
of us that live on this planet Earth.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Now, let me get a brief answer from you. I've
always found that the dynamics of sports team ownership very
different from traditional business ownership. One example, paying an athlete
multimillions of dollars in advance based on potential productivity, and
that really goes against the general norms of business. How
does one get their head around that?
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Well, I think you know, in the case of the NFL,
if you weigh in bonuses and things of that nature,
guaranteed bonuses, it's about half of the compensation is guaranteed.
Other sports it's it's more than that. It's close to
one hundred percent, like in baseball, et cetera. Basketball. So
I think in our sport, it's just the dynamic of it.
The players who at risk physical risk, mental risk, and
(16:24):
so you know, I understand their viewpoint. They've performed at
high levels. It's never that way for the first contract.
It's always based on the kind of prescribed formula. The
second contract will be going on to the fifth, fourth, fifth,
sixth year, depending on what the hell the first contract
is you know, players get paid, you know, based on
their based on their future productivity what you think it
(16:46):
will be. So it's a little bit you know, investing
in the future, but you have a track record to
go on. Sadly, on occasion, you'll find that money will
change somebody, not in a positive way, but in a
negative way. And you try to select players to the
draft of free agency that you feel like you understand,
you understand the goddess at what they're being paid. They're
going to perform at a very high level and going
(17:07):
to function at a very high level. And we've been
pretty lucky with that, although you know occasionally we all
make mistakes in that regard. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
In your book, you also talk very candidly about your
relationship with Michael Vick. You formed an unexpectedly close relationship,
and you said, for me, put people first means treating
people as people. If I can't get to know our players,
learn about their passions, their histories, their families, and their hopes,
and help them in any way that I can, there
(17:35):
wouldn't be a reason for me to own a team.
You mentored Vic on such diverse roles as being a
father and starting a foundation and you believed he you
had a special relationship with him. Did you feel betrayed
to some degree when you found out that he indeed
was involved with the problems that he had.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Yeah, for sure, I think Commission of Goodell felt that way.
I felt that way. I had a relationship with Michael
as they do. You know, the majority of our players,
getting to know them, their families, their interests, their passions,
their philanthropy interests, their social issues. That we're involved in
social issues, not only nationally through the Social Action Committee
which I served on for the league and as well
(18:16):
as their own club, but you know, involved in particular players.
I mean, when Michael wanted to start his own foundation,
he came to visit and we talked about, well, do
you want to start this for the right reasons? Are
you ready at your age to deal with these issues?
Maybe you should deal with through a community fund. There's
a lot of different ways you can be philanthropic without
having a little burden of the administrative stress that comes
with that. So, you know, I the last thing I
(18:38):
want to do is treat players like commodity. If I
had to do that, if I had to deep personalize
it and treatment as commodities. I would not be in
this business because that's just not who I am and
why I am. I need to know and care about
and be able to create, you know, a family environment
for these players. I don't cross the line. Never talking
about football, never talking about players, Never talk about they're
(19:00):
playing or not playing, or they like their coaches, head coaches, coordinators,
position coaches. That's not you know, that's not fair game
for conversation. But his fair game is that, you know,
you give me some advice about some financial plan, give
me some advice about some life plan, give me some
advice about my own foundation, give me some advice about,
you know, being involved in some of these things from
(19:20):
a societal standpoint. So I'm happy to do that. And
you know, I had I did an interview this morning
with the Good Good Morning Football, which is the morning,
you know, the morning show for the NFL, and I
had one of the ex players on there say to me,
you know, and I know this is true. He said,
the NFL, we got a couple of thousand players. Everybody's
playing on different teams, thirty two different teams. But it
(19:43):
is a tight fraternity, he said. Every player that I
ever talked to about the Atlanta Falcons, says the same
things that they used to say about Eddie de Baudelo.
This is an owner that really cares deeply about his players,
cares deeply about his coaching, cares cares deeply about his fans,
and cares deeply all about the human side of the equation.
(20:03):
So you know, to me, that was you know, a
great honor that they would say that and express that.
But that's what we try to do, and we and
we want the players to feel that we really do
care about them. We expected to perform at a high
level that being paid a lot of money. I get it,
understand it. But we also don't want to make them
a commodity to make them feel that way. We want
to make them feel like they know we do care
(20:24):
about them. People will never I mean, people will forget
what you say about them. People will forget about what
you do for them. They will never forget about how
you make them feel and that we want to make
players feel like. You know, they're always a free agent.
They're always going to go someplace else. They never bound
by a contract. They just want to be with us
because we treat them, you know, as they should be treated.
(20:45):
And so we're very proud of having that relationship with them.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
You and Michael have remained closed and three years ago
he formally retired as a Falcon and a very small ceremony.
I got to tell you, having been around the game
and having friends that have been in ownership in the NFL,
I feel for you guys, because you put so much
into it, and really there's a lot of things that
are out of your control that in normal business would
not certainly be that way. Let me take you back,
(21:10):
and I think know where I'm going super Bowl fifty
one because you said it was an incalculable equation of
bad luck and unfortunate choices. I threw out all my
Super Bowl fifty one gear. It was too painful. A
reminder now, Eddie de Bartelow is very much like you
were when he was an owner as well. It was difficult.
I watched the highs and lows with him. How does
(21:32):
one ever get used to that on a week to
week basis?
Speaker 2 (21:37):
I don't think R answer your question. Eddie would tell
you this too, I don't think you ever get used
to it. I would say this that you know the
lows are lower than the highs are high. And I
think what's interesting is that you know, over the years,
whether it be Super Bowl fifty one or just you know,
weekly wins and losses as they may come and go.
(21:57):
Is that you know, I'm always concerned when I come
home home, you know, from the game, if it's you
know when obviously room for celebration. And we do that
as a family, and do that as a community of
people who live in Atlanta, et cetera. But come home
and we lose a game. I mean, I think about,
you know, how do I teach my children how to
deal with diversity? How do I teach them to overlook
a loss? And you learn from it and you move on,
(22:18):
which is the story of life. We all make mistakes
in life. You scratch the skin of any human being,
as doctor King would say, and you're going to find mistakes.
You're going to find errors. So you know, we all,
we all fail in certain ways. And do we learn
from those and do we move on from those? Hopefully
the answer is yes. And so part of my job
is to set a role model for my family, and
(22:40):
my family includes all my family, of all of my associates,
and all of our businesses in that way, and I certainly,
I certainly try to do that.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
We only have two and a half minutes left. But
when you think back on that particular game and it
was so close and then it slipped away from you,
how long did it take you, Arthur, to get over
that or at least put it into some perspective that
you can move on.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Well, I think number one, it wasn't close, which is
really really we were up twenty eight three in the
third quarter, so that you know that was you know,
it was a game that we really should have won.
I think coach Quinn would have told you that. We'll
tell you that today if you asked him. Ron. I
think at the time I spent you talked about this
in the books. I spent a lot of time, you know,
(23:21):
wearing I mean, you know, understanding my role as a
father now just the father and my family, but a
father to our team, our players, our coaches, our associates,
et cetera in the city, and our fans, and you know,
time take a longer view of this. We got there,
we competed, we lost the game we should not have lost.
We'll be back again, you know, let's move on and
(23:43):
learn from it, et cetera. And I believed all that,
and I still believe all that. But having said that,
I think once I got out of that, and that
took a while to get out of that mode, you know,
I really started to feel that kind of the personal
pain because, as you well know, it's not just the
best teams, but the best teams and they do have
to have some luck in terms of injuries and things
of that nature. Is the season we'res on or have
(24:05):
to catch teams when they're not as hot as they
might be some other time and play them during those
during those period of times. So you know, I think
it's a degree of luck involved as well. But it's
very hard to get back, you know, out of thirty
two teams that are designed to be quote evenly balanced
in some form of fashion through the salary cap and
other ways, it's very hard to get back a Super Bowl.
So it doesn't come easily, and we're going to fight
(24:27):
again and be back there and hopefully get a different result.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
In about thirty seconds. When you think back over your
professional career as a businessman and also as a sports owner,
is there one moment, Arthur that's kind of emblazoned in
your mind that you'll never forget.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Really good question. It could take me thirty seconds to
think about that, but I think just you know, the
joy of I'd say for the Falcons, the joy of winning.
The joy when we won the MLS Cup in Atlanta,
we had not won a championship here and I don't know,
close to twenty years in any form of fashion, the
Braves are the last one that want to World Series
(25:00):
here in nineteen ninety five, I'm thinking something like that,
and hadn't had, you know, a championship since then. So
to see MLS being launched, see and break all these
at tennis records in the history of the sport in
the North America, and then to play at the levels
that we did and win the MLS Cup, and you know,
we'd fill up the stadium with seventy thousand fans that
(25:22):
represented the United Nations truly in every sense of the word,
having them all standing for an hour and a half
and then be able to bring home that cup at
the end of the year. I would say that that
definitely was one of my one of my highlights.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Arthur.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
I love sports. I have a lot of highlights, but.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Arthur, I've I've thoroughly enjoyed this and I thank you
for the time. Please come back and visit with me
again so we could talk about other interesting things.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
And best wish just to all your listeners.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Thank you so much, Arthur Blank with us check out
the book good company. We continue with more of you
in sports byline. You have been listening to Ron Bars
Sports Byloe one USA podcast on the eight Side Network
Host
Ron Barr
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