Larry Connor talks with Richard C. Wilson about starting The Connor Group and building it into a real estate investment firm. He shares lessons on learning from mistakes, hiring and training people, company culture, and philanthropy.
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About the guest
Larry Connor. Larry Connor founded The Connor Group, which specializes in luxury apartment communities and has over $5 billion in assets across 18 markets. He says he was an English major focused on Shakespearean literature and came from the computer industry before starting the firm in 1991.
Key takeaways
- Connor says the firm learned from failures by taking responsibility, avoiding excuses, and changing quickly.
- He describes reinvention as an ongoing process, including a focus on changing, simplifying, and improving.
- Connor recommends reviewing beliefs, strategies, and processes when investment results fall short of a target.
- He says the firm sees itself as a professional operator of businesses that happen to be apartment communities.
- The Connor Group hires outside the real estate industry for site roles, then invests in training employees to follow its approach.
- Connor says people are central to both business problems and their solutions, and that leaders should address a poor hiring fit honestly.
- He describes culture as something demonstrated through actions and deeds, rather than only through a mission statement.
- Connor says the firm shares ownership with employees who meet high standards, including some property groundskeepers.
- He says successful people have an opportunity and an obligation to share wealth, including through programs for underserved children.
- Connor's four P's for success are people, a plan, processes, and perseverance, with passion also part of the formula.
Best quotes
"we owned them we didn't make any excuses we learn from them we change quickly and we just continue contined to get better and better and better"
"we believe you've got to reinvent yourself and you've got to by definite if you want to be elite you want to be exceptional you've got to be different and not just surface different like disruptive different"
"if you do the right processes and you have the right people and you have the right plan the outcomes will generally take care of themselves"
"we actually would tell you we're not what does that mean we think that we are professional operators of operating businesses that just happen to be apartment communities"
"we believe that's foundational we think 90% of your problems are people problems and 90% of your Solutions are people"
"we personally believe if you've been fortunate and successful that you have both the opportunity and we would argue the obligation to share the we"
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