What It Takes to Break Through

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Here's an example: If anyone in business today would have the right to make a business all about himself, it would be Roger Staubach, founder of The Staubach Company. After winning the Heisman Trophy as a junior at the Naval Academy in 1963, he delayed his NFL debut to complete a tour in Vietnam. He was considered past his prime in 1969 when, at the age of twenty-seven, he signed on as a tenth-round draft pick of the Dallas Cowboys. It was at the ripe old age of twenty-nine, after sitting on Coach Tom Landry's bench for two years, that Staubach burst into the sports world's consciousness, earning Most Valuable Player honors in the 1971 Super Bowl on his way to becoming one of the most famous and respected quarterbacks in football history.

But if you walk into Staubach's office just outside of Dallas, you'll notice there's something missing -- just about anything related to football. And if you ask him why, he'll tell you, "It's because we're building something here that is bigger than Roger Staubach."

Staubach started working in the Texas commercial real estate business in 1977, a couple of years before he retired from the NFL. While he knew that he could make a career in the industry, he figured he needed to carve out a niche for himself. After seeing how frustrated his commercial tenants were when they dealt with landlords, the idea hit him: He could focus on the tenant representation side of the business.

While it was groundbreaking enough for someone in the brokerage business to build a business around the tenants, Staubach left an indelible mark on the industry when he decided to move outside his stronghold in Dallas and make The Staubach Company a national business. To face off against established competitors like New York City-based Studley and Grubb & Ellis, Staubach tapped brokers around the country who would work under the Staubach banner but be free to operate their individual offices as entrepreneurial enterprises. "Even with all of Roger's star-power, he knew he wouldn't grow much past $40 million on his own," said Greg O'Brien, who has worked for the company since 1993 and who was named CEO last July. "He knew that in order to grow, he couldn't be the quarterback on every deal. The company needed to become bigger than him to last."

To lure the best and brightest brokers to his team, Staubach granted them an equity stake in the company. At the same time, he developed the Staubach Constitution, a playbook of sorts that fosters a platform of teamwork and a common set of values for the entire company. For example, in an industry that Staubach says operates on a "fee-and-me" principle, Staubach's brokers commonly share information and, perhaps more extraordinarily, celebrate each other's victories.

Staubach's main competition over the years has been from Julien J. Studley, who ran a tenant representative firm that bore his name up until 2002. Studley, founded in 1954, was one of the forerunners in the tenant rep business in the ever-turbulent New York City real estate market while Staubach was struggling to find a toehold in Dallas. The firm was run by the charismatic Julien Studley, a Holocaust survivor, known also for his presence on New York's fund-raising circuit and having a hand in just about every major real estate deal in the city. While the firm eventually expanded to 20 offices nationwide, Studley's customer base remained in New York with its founder, who retained 100 percent ownership until 2002, when, at the age of seventy-one, he sold the company to forty-five of his brokers. Over a shorter time frame, The Staubach Company grew from a single office into more than sixty around the country, employing more than 1,400 people. Since making the switch to turn his brokers into owners, Staubach has seen his annual revenue skyrocket from $20 million in 1993 to more than $400 million in 2006, which, based on industry estimates, is about double Studley's revenue.

Staubach had come to understand that the success of his venture did not rest on his shoulders alone. It was only when he empowered his entire organization to operate independently that The Staubach Company really took off. He had crowned The Staubach Company.

Reprinted from The Breakthrough Company Copyright © 2008 by Keith R. McFarland. Published by Crown Business, a division of Random House, Inc., and available in stores Jan. 15.

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