Boyle Talks: Mark Halperin Discusses Boyle’s History and Culture

Summary

In this series of Boyle Talks, Mark Halperin discusses his experiences working with Boyle for more than 50 years and how the company has built a culture of integrity and loyalty by empowering teammates.

Transcript

Gary: I’m Gary Thompson I’m your host today for another episode of Boyle Talks. Today we’ll be talking with Mark Halperin, who is our Executive Vice President, COO and a recent recipient of the Lambda Alpha Lifetime Achievement Award. The Lambda Alpha Lifetime Achievement Award is sort of a big deal, not just because of that award but because who else has gotten it inside this company. I know it’s really special for you. Tell us a little bit about that and what that is about.

Mark: Lambda Alpha is an international real estate economics organization that really is really the cream of the crop of real estate practitioners around the world and there are dozens of local chapters. Bayard Boyle Senior and Rusty Bloodworth both have previously won this honor and this will be the third Boyle family person who received this recognition. The list really is made up of some amazing people who have really changed the face and shape of Memphis. I think it’s a lot of the recognition though for our company and for our teammates. They as a group really are the ones that deserve this award. We’ve done a lot of exciting things that deserve recognition. That was greatly appreciated.

Gary: Boyle is known for keeping long-term employees. This is sort of a milestone year for you. It’s 50 years that you’ve worked at the company in an industry that’s not known for keeping long-term employees. How does Boyle do that well?

Mark: I think it’s deeply embedded in our culture. The real milestones for our business were were created by Bayard Boyle Senior, and he put a lot of confidence in just a few important principles, among those were integrity and loyalty. When you have people working as teammates and treating people with respect and the highest level of integrity, it turns into a special place to be. Rusty and I both got to spend a good bit of time with Bayard Senior, and he was a unique individual. We were fortunate that the next generation of the Boyle family felt the same way and carried on those same traditions.

Gary: You’ve celebrated several milestones and big awards this year, but this year is also a big milestone for the company. This is our 90th anniversary. That’s a big milestone for any company, but certainly a family business in the real estate business. Why do you think that is?

Mark: I think it goes back to the culture Bayard Boyle Junior and Henry Morgan Senior having Bayard Boyle Senior’s basic philosophy about loyalty and integrity creates a baseline culture, but they’ve done a masterful job of how they’ve organized our financial structure and combine that with a culture of loyalty and integrity and empowering all of us to do our jobs and do them well. I think they’ll be here a long, long time going into the future.

Gary: Seems like a good model. So Mark, your role here for years and years has been managing our office development team, which encompasses a lot. That’s picking out the product, developing the product, leasing the project, managing the project. We’re really one of the biggest office owners and real estate owners in the state of Tennessee. You certainly have had done a great job of assembling a group of people to help you with that. Tell us a little bit about that?

Mark: I think the key you use is the keyword which is TEAM. Over the years our development team, really Henry Morgan Senior was the lead on the development team and Rusty, who has a variety of talents and gifts.  I think that one of the really key differences is encouragement from Bayard and Henry, we want everybody to think like owners. We’ve got a group of people who can do it, and they can do it responsibly. They do it carefully. They try to present our product and they try to make decisions within the context of an owner’s mentality. It really works.

Gary: When I think of Mark Halperin, I think of relationships. I know your story. I’ve seen you work. Some of our tenants have been here multiple years in multiple buildings. They move from this building to that building as their company grows, and you’re a part of that. You help them grow or in some cases contract or merge. How is it that you’ve been able to do that so well?

Mark: I think the key word there is relationships. We’ve had people say to us we’re getting ready to move for whatever reason, and they say I bet you’re just mad at us for leaving. I say, well you know, I’m really not mad. The way we look at it, and this is true, there’s really only two kind of people in the world, they’re either tenants or prospects. It really doesn’t make much sense to make either one mad, so we’re going to miss you. You’ve been good to us, and we’re going to get you back. The longest continuous tenant I’ve had doing what I do actually just retired at the end of last year, and he had been with us for almost 47 years.

Gary: Wow, he was a great, great customer. Almost your whole career.

Mark: Almost, we just try to treat people the way they would like to be treated.

Gary: It’s the Golden Rule.