Personality - Peter Ueberroth

Richard M. Smith

If they awarded gold medals in the game of business, Peter Ueberroth would have several. In his 20s, he founded a travel company that he grew to become America's second largest. Next he served as organizer of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, the first privately financed Games and a huge financial success. From 1984 to 1989 Ueberroth was commissioner of Major League Baseball, a job in which he restored profitability to a sport in which most teams had been losing money. Today he's a director of Coca-Cola and chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee. In the latest in his series of interviews as part of NEWSWEEK's partnership with the Kaplan University M.B.A. program, NEWSWEEK Chairman Richard M. Smith spoke with Ueberroth about what young managers do right—and do wrong. Excerpts:
SMITH: When you took your role with the L.A. Games, where did you begin?
UEBERROTH: Los Angeles had voted not to put any taxpayer money in, so there would be no Games unless we did it in the private sector. So we had to break all the models of the past. One of our rules was never to say anything about projections—never tell people what it was going to be like. The good news is there's a start and a finish. It's something we were going to create and then it was going to be over—dramatically over on the day of the closing ceremonies. So you can plan differently for it than you would for a business.
In the Olympics and in Major League Baseball, you developed a reputation for toughness. How do you decide when to be tough and when to be more relaxed?
When there's an integrity issue. We like to use the phrase "chalk lines." In football and baseball there are white chalk lines on the grass, and if you cross them you're out of bounds. We say, "Don't get any chalk on your toes—don't even get close."
What do you look for in a young leader?
When you get past integrity, you go to curiosity. [When I observe young leaders] what I'm so surprised by is, everybody wants to talk—to make a presentation, to do something rather than ask questions. The smartest people are the ones who continue to drive for information.
What are common mistakes young leaders make?
Not recognizing talent, and that talent comes in all kinds of packages. I don't look at résumés very long. I don't want to know very much about where people graduated from college. Whether it's a state college or whether it's Harvard, the quality of people can be good out of both institutions. I think it's important to be able to recognize the talent in somebody that's, say, a working mom who didn't even go to college, but she's got great drive. You promote that person, give [her] more authority, and all of a sudden you step back and allow that talent to emerge.
When you took over as commissioner of baseball, you described your job as being the fans ' representative. Why was that?
Baseball has powerful owners and a powerful union and they have self-interests. [But] who the heck is paying the bill? It's the fan. The owners or the union might say TV is paying the bill, and there are advertisers selling products via TV, but the fan is the ultimate payer. Unless you respond to the fan, your economic model is going to crumble.
Do you think you can spot integrity when you meet people, or shortly thereafter?
No. You mostly don't see it until there's an issue. You can check somebody's background and find out they've got, maybe, an alcohol problem … But I don't think you know who's going to be pointing fingers at somebody else until there's a crisis. There's value in a crisis, because you see who stands up.
Have you seen ethical behavior improving, declining or staying the same?
In business I think it's pretty much the same. After Enron and all the rest, there's been a trend at the board of directors' level to try to emphasize integrity ... But I don't think it's gotten better or worse, except in government. Our current two parties spend all their time throwing mud at each other and not really forging solutions.
Can the upcoming Olympics in London and, potentially, Chicago match Beijing?
Every Games has its own distinction. I said to the [executives organizing] the Vancouver Games in 16 months, "China had more people on the field [during the opening ceremonies] than you have in your whole province, so you aren't going to do what they did. But you're going to bring the mountains, the beauty, the cultural diversity, all the stuff you have in Vancouver—and they're going to be great Games." London's going to have the same thing—they're going to be loud, and they'll put on a great Games that have great flavor and will make their country proud. Chicago, it's a different game. In my view we've got to do our very best to bring the Games to the heartland of America, where they've never been.
You have strong opinions about the roles of cell phones and e-mail in executive life.
When I go into offices, I see brilliant people looking at a bloody screen for hours. I say, "When are you communicating? When are you learning and being creative?" It drives me nuts ... A salesperson says they sent out 22 e-mails to people. [I say,] "No, pick up the phone and talk to the customer. Go see the customer" ... I carry a cell phone to call my wife, but I don't get any calls—I don't even remember the number. I don't have a BlackBerry. If somebody wants to get in touch with me, it's real easy. You call, boom, I'm back to you.