

387: Arthur Blank - Owner Of The Atlanta Falcons: How Purpose & Profit Go Hand-In-Hand
Oct 11, 2020
Arthur Blank, co-founder of The Home Depot and owner of the Atlanta Falcons, shares insights on values-driven leadership. He emphasizes that principles matter, shaped by lessons from his mother. Blank discusses the challenges of maintaining company culture during rapid growth, advocating for promoting values-driven leaders. His negotiation experience for the Falcons highlights win-win scenarios. He reflects on the importance of resilience, service, and fostering loyalty among team members, all while committed to continuous improvement in both business and community.
48:05
1 chevron_right 2 chevron_right 3 chevron_right 4 chevron_right 5 chevron_right 6 chevron_right
Intro
00:00 • 2min
Lessons in Leadership and Cultural Integrity
02:08 • 23min
Negotiating the Falcons: A Tale of Trust and Triumph
24:48 • 6min
Legacy of Leadership and Strength
31:18 • 2min
Lessons in Resilience and Service from Outward Bound
32:53 • 3min
Navigating Sports Management Challenges
35:48 • 12min

Good Company
Arthur Blank
In 'Good Company,' Arthur M. Blank shares his vision and roadmap for values-based business. The book chronicles his journey from building The Home Depot into a $50 billion company to turning around a struggling NFL team, rebooting a near-bankrupt retail chain, and launching various other successful ventures. Blank emphasizes the importance of prioritizing the wellbeing of customers, associates, and communities, demonstrating how this approach leads to financial success and positive social impact. The book includes personal anecdotes and insights from his five decades of business experience, highlighting key concepts such as the triple bottom line (people, planet, profits) and the importance of company culture and leadership[1][2][3].

Welcome to Management
Stanley McChrystal
Ryan Hawk
In 'Welcome to Management', Ryan Hawk offers practical, actionable advice and tools designed to help new managers transition successfully. The book is based on a three-part framework: 'Lead Yourself', 'Build Your Team', and 'Lead Your Team'. Hawk draws from his own experience and over 300 interviews with forward-thinking leaders to provide insights on building skills, developing team culture, and setting clear strategies. The book includes case studies, personal stories, and data-backed advice to help high performers make the leap to management with greater ease and effectiveness.

Built from Scratch
How a Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion
Arthur Blank
Bernie Marcus
Built from Scratch is the firsthand account of how Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, after being fired from their previous jobs, created one of the greatest entrepreneurial successes of the last twenty years. The book tells the colorful stories associated with The Home Depot's founding and meteoric rise, highlighting the company's focus on low prices, excellent customer service, and wide availability of products. It also provides lessons on business growth, market leadership, and community responsibility, making it valuable for entrepreneurs and business leaders across various sectors.

The War for Talent
Helen Handfield-Jones
Ed Michaels
Beth Axelrod
The War for Talent, written by Ed Michaels, Helen Handfield-Jones, and Beth Axelrod, emphasizes the critical importance of talent management in corporate success. The book, based on five years of research involving 13,000 executives from over 120 leading companies, highlights the need for a 'talent mindset' where leaders prioritize recruiting, developing, and retaining top managerial talent. It discusses strategies such as crafting a winning Employee Value Proposition (EVP), rebuilding recruiting strategies, and focusing on retention through job sculpting and individual development plans. The authors argue that having highly talented managers is essential for a company's competitive advantage and provide actionable insights for executives to improve their talent management practices[1][2][3].
Text LEARNERS to 44222
Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com
Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12
Episode #387: Arthur Blank - Owner of The Atlanta Falcons
Notes:
- His Dad died when he was 44 years young, leaving his business to Arthur's mother. Arthur's mom took over and built a successful company. He learned to be principled and values driven from his mom. His mom always told him, "Principle matters."
- Arthur got fired from his job at Handy Dan in 1978. He didn't take it personally and founded The Home Depot with Bernie Marcus.
- At the original Home Depot headquarters, he and Bernie Marcus shared a bathroom between their offices. In the hallway outside the bathroom, they hang up press clippings. Not the accolades, or the awards won, but the negative stories and criticism. Why? You cannot have complacency or believe you are beyond reproach. Must always keep striving to get better.
- How did they duplicate the original Home Depot culture when they expanded beyond their first four stores?
- "You must always promote people based on them living the values of the company. Ahead of everything else."
- "The culture is critical."
- Ask, "Can they lead using our values?" --> Read the book, The War For Talent
- "You must always promote people based on them living the values of the company. Ahead of everything else."
- How did they maintained the culture as they acquired nine additional stores? Originally, it was an issue. "It was like changing the tires on a car as it was driving 30 miles per hour."
- "We had to self impose slowing down the growth."
- Must train the team on the culture
- "We didn't have money for training, but we did it anyway." To build a long term, sustainable business, you must focus on training.
- "You have to have a caring mentality. It takes time. I'm only interested in relationships. It's all about building long term relationships."
- Arthur tells the story of when he came to an agreement to buy the Falcons from Taylor Smith -- He booked a nice hotel suite, had dinner/wine, etc… He wrote on a napkin, “For Atlanta and the Falcons, $545 million. To the heritage and the tradition, in the past and the future.” ---> Taylor asked what you were doing and Arthur said “This is a bond between the two of us.” And further, “Important deals don’t get done on paper napkins, it had to be a cloth one.” → That napkin is displayed at the training facility of the Falcons and the team is now worth 5 times what he paid. "It was a win-win negotiation."
- In the lobby of your Atlanta offices, stands a custom bronze statue of a Sioux warrior in full battle regalia. He cannot move from his position on the battlefield -- he will stand his ground until victory or death. His chin proudly lifted and eyes scanning the horizon, he raises his bow, an arrow poised on the string. It’s entitled, Point of No Return. It depicts a time-honored tradition of Sioux Leadership.
- "You have to lead from the front."
- Arthur names all of your conference rooms after personal heroes (Kurt Hahn is one of them, he is the founder of Outward Bound) -- “To strive, to serve, and not to yield.”
- When he was the new owner of the Falcons, he walked to the back of the plane where the players were sitting and said, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to try to coach you, but I need to know, what can I do for you? What do you need?” (“The Best Think Tank Any Company Could Ask For) -- “That one hour flight was worth a dozen strategy meetings with the team’s executives or coaching staff.” (You need to have a front line obsession, Chris Zook -- Get to the people who really know. The ones closest to the action)
- Innovate Continuously -- Need non stop reinvention. Leaders need to ensure that the road is cleared of unnecessary speed bumps and overly stringent traffic rules. Too much bureaucracy will kill innovation before it has even begun. Top down management structure will always constrain people’s entrepreneurial spirit. --- The “Invisible Fence” style of management.
- “Hire people who are overqualified.” -- Arthur had lunch with Charles Lazarus one day, the founder of Toys R Us, and he said, “the hardest moments are when you have to look at a person who helped you get to $1 Billion and realize that person can’t help you get to $10 Billion.”
- “Treat every team member as a free agent” -- Never take people for granted. "They should be committed because of the culture, not the contract."