Real Estate and Construction
Luis Spinola
Founder, President and CEO, Azteca-Omega Group
By Kristy J. O’Hara
Smart Business Dallas | September 2007
"You need to listen and be open to change. If not, you’ll stop growing." - Luis Spinola, CEO, Azteca-Omega Group
Luis Spinola hates credit cards, and he hates how people rack up debt using them, but he gets more frustrated when he sees people
dip into their company’s money to settle their personal financial crises. When leaders do that, they rob their companies of resources
to reinvest with, says Spinola, founder, president and CEO of Azteca-Omega Group. By following his own advice, he’s grown his construction company into a nearly $170 million business and survived all the ups and downs throughout almost two decades in
the industry. Smart Business spoke with Spinola about developing criteria and how it helps him make important decisions.
Embrace change. You need to listen and be
open to change. If not, you’ll stop growing,
and you’ll have problems because the
economy, market and technology changes
every day. Be open to adjustment in your
processes and your guidelines.
Years ago, I was invited to a seminar. The
theme was ‘Open to Change.’ This person
talked about the Swiss watchmakers. They
had dominated all the watch industries in
the world. At one of their conventions they
have every year, they had an engineer come
and talk to them about the Pulsar system.
They thought he was crazy. ‘Why are we
going to change? We dominate the market.
We don’t need to change.’ The Japanese got
hold of this engineer, and that’s how the
Pulsar watch business went to Japan, and
that’s how (the Swiss) lost their leadership
in the watch industry. They ignored a
potential idea for change or improvement.
Take smart chances. Sometimes there are
good temptations and there are good business opportunities that get away from what
you do, and you fall in that trap, but it’s a
learning experience. You say, ‘I shouldn’t
have done that,’ but you learn that over the
years.
But if you’re too rigid, then that limits
your growth. Some of the biggest investors,
some of the most successful entrepreneurs,they have taken chances, and they have been very successful, but it all depends on how you do it.
You have to be smart, but also, you have
to be lucky.
Use criteria to make decisions. The first thing
you learn is the theory — the knowledge —
and that’s what you learn when you go to
school. The second that you learn is the
practice and practical knowledge. The third
thing that is very hard to apply is criteria.
That’s what helps you make decisions.
Some people don’t get to that point. They
never develop the criteria. They have the
knowledge, but they don’t have the practice, or they have the practice, but they
don’t have the theory part. Criteria is a
combination of both, but not everybody
gets to the point where they have the proper criteria to make decisions.
Be careful that you’re not putting people in the wrong position where they can’t
make the proper decisions — they can’t do
their best. We all have our limitations, and
we need to know where to put ourselves
where everybody gives their best.
Hire open people. Make sure they have a positive attitude and they’re open to learning
— they don’t have that attitude that they
know everything. There’s no such thing as
knowing everything. Even with the years I
have of experience with this business, I
know you learn something every day.
People who act like they know everything,
they are not the kind of people you want
around your company.
Foster communication. Be involved with your operation. We need to be able to talk to our
people so they don’t feel there are barriers
to come talk to us if they have a problem,
issue or an idea on how to improve. Don’t
make them feel like there is a separation or
distance between you and them or
between the managers and the people.
Make them feel that they are important to
your process and your system — that they
are being taken into consideration and not
just being criticized or blackmailed
because they come talk to you. I don’t want
them to be reprimanded if they bring up
issues.
Be very honest and always do what you say
you’re going to do. Be open with your people.
Always tell them the truth, good or bad, so
they also tell you the truth, good or bad.
Empower employees. Give people responsibility, and you have to give them a good list of their responsibilities so they know what
they need to do. Give them the authority to
make decisions, but you have to be careful
in knowing and realizing how much power
to give them.
There are some people that need time to
be able to get to that point. You have to
sense people, and that’s why it’s important
that you talk to them.
Have a good reporting system. You have
to have meetings with people and know
and ask how people are doing because as
you grow, you can’t talk to everybody, but
you can talk to your division managers.
They are the ones that are going to tell you
how people are doing, and you need to ask.
Remember, it’s important that they feel
they are important to the system. That
makes them do better when they feel
they’re work is being recognized.
Understand how personal issues affect professional work. Ask [employees] about their
families. Sometimes they have family problems, and that affects their production and
the way they do business.
If they’re under a lot of pressure at home
for whatever reason, don’t make them have
to make an important decision because
they’re probably going to make a mistake.
That’s when you have to help them.
Coach people. Recognize when they do
something good. When they make mistakes, instead of pointing fingers and trying
to blame people, help solve the issues and
work as a team to resolve the issues. They
all have my mobile phone [number], and if
there’s an issue, they can call me anytime,
day or night, and I’ll help them, but we also
need to sit down afterward and see why we
had this issue and how we can avoid having the same problem.
That’s how they will learn to respect you
and work more as a team. We all have problems, but it’s how you resolve problems that
makes you different. When you use a positive attitude toward obstacles and problems,
that helps resolve the issues more smoothly.
HOW TO REACH: Azteca-Omega Group, (214) 905-0612 or
www.azteca-omega.com
