Management Style
Q: Because you’ve had this opportunity with Gores to talk to other people, are there any particular companies or management styles that you have come to admire and say, “There’s a thread that could work here”?
A: I think the biggest piece I’ve seen since May 6 is the speed at which private equity moves to get things done. It’s a lot less bureaucratic, and it’s all about “We’ll make mistakes along the way, but our hypothesis is we can fit it if we break it.” The speed of execution is different. The other big thing–and I always felt we were accountable as an organization–it’s driving accountability down, all the way to the folks that are doing counter support. Everybody is accountable for the performance. I think in the past, in a layered organization, we had divisional VPs, and what point in time does the accountability really stop? In the private equity world, everybody has to be accountable for performance.
Q: Have you changed the way you communicate internally and externally?
A: Probably a little less internally because that was the one piece we could control. I think we did a pretty good job internally. But externally, that’s why we’re sitting down today.
Q: That said, will your financial statements be public?
A: (Smiling) I can assure you we will not.
Staffing
Q: Are you done making adjustments.
A.: What I’ve told the 19 markets as I’ve visited them is “You are the go-forward footprint of the business. You still have to get out after business every day.” We’ve done hard things. Most of them will be done by the middle of this month. And I’m hopeful that, other than seasonality, there aren’t any more adjustments to do. If starts drop to 250 (thousand), come back and see me.
Q: You’re trying to gear yourself up to make a profit at what level?
A: 400,000 (single-family starts)
