Profile of Sam Zell in the New Yorker

Posted on November 27, 2007
Filed Under Business & Entrepreneurship, Leadership |

There is a great article of Sam Zell in the New Yorker.  Zell, who built and later sold the giant office REIT Equity Office Properties Trust shares many insights into his life.  One of my favorites is his humor:

“Sam was the rainmaker, and Bob was the one that took care of all the messes Sam made,’ Stuart Sloan, an investor and a friend of Zell’s, said.  Lurie was as funny as Zell, and when they were together their interactions often took the form of a comic routine. They created myriad partnerships and delighted in giving them names like B/S Investments and FU Associates. Their height—Lurie was short, as is Zell—was a subject of ongoing mock competition. They drafted a partnership agreement, which said that, in the event of a dispute, “the taller one” would decide. “

Another is his directness:

“That day, Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon al-Nahyan, who is the chairman of the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, had invited Zell to see a model of a planned development of an island being created just off the coast, in the Persian Gulf. The neighboring emirate of Dubai has become famous for its devotion to the superlative: it has one of the world’s largest indoor ski slopes, and is constructing the world’s tallest building and largest shopping mall. Abu Dhabi, with far greater oil reserves and a more conservative, religious population, has proceeded more deliberately. Sheikh Tahnoon was eager to hear what Zell thought of his development plans. Accompanied by a small entourage, the two men drove to a hotel and entered a conference room dominated by a model so vast that it nearly filled the space. Sheikh Tahnoon led Zell around the structure, pointing to office towers, malls, hotels, schools, hospitals, apartment buildings, and houses. The towers would be built first, he explained. Zell listened intently, scrutinizing the model. Finally, he spoke. “Pardon me, Your Highness, but I have a reputation for being direct,” he said. “This makes no sense!”

Zell told the Sheikh that his planners had it all wrong. They should start by building the kind of housing, schools, and shopping centers that would make people want to live on the island. Office towers should be built only after it had been populated. Zell warned the Sheikh not to be influenced by the grand ambitions of his architects—not to build a skyline in advance of demand. Sheikh Tahnoon said that he thought Zell might be right. At Zell’s direction, a construction manager began to move pieces of the model around, and an assistant to the Sheikh took notes. “

 Check out the New Yorker for the full article or head over to Ben Casnocha’s blog for an interesting discussion on Zell’s and business ethics (which include expletives).

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