Consumer Services
Bob MacIntosh
President and CEO, PIER 39
By Mike Cottrill

It doesn’t matter if you have good news or bad news, just tell Bob MacIntosh what’s going on. MacIntosh, president and CEO of marketplace PIER 39, knows that the key to keeping his people heading in the right direction is to avoid surprises. Instead of playing off the major brands that most malls in America have, PIER 39 has created a niche market with unique shopping attractions and a scenic location on the San Francisco Bay, with its own famous sea lions. To keep that niche, MacIntosh has to constantly keep his finger on the pulse of both the industry and his customer base. Relying on his employees for feedback, MacIntosh has led PIER 39 to more than $189 million in annual revenue.

Smart Business spoke with MacIntosh about the importance of staying informed and of understanding a market.

Talk to your staff to stay informed. My direct reports know that the only surprise in this world is a birthday party, so keep me informed. Whether it’s good or bad, I just want to know what’s going on. To make sure that’s happening, I have lunch meetings with all of my direct reports, and we discuss specifically what’s happening in their world and if things are going well.

What I do on a weekly basis is I have two meetings with people; the first is Monday morning, and we discuss the weekend results from what we own and operate, and that gives us all a sense of what direction we are going. That’s very important. Even if one of those guys is in construction, I think it’s very important that he knows how our sales are going, so it keeps the building team’s spirits up.

On Wednesday, I have my direct reports and expand it to include other key people in our organization, and at that meeting, we discuss the busiest areas of current activity — what’s going on in your world, so to speak. By having those kinds of meetings — and they don’t have to be super long — it’s just a good way to get things out and keep everybody informed because that’s so valuable.

I talk with different people every day — not just my direct reports but other people, too. I feel free to talk to anybody. I don’t necessarily have to go through the leasing person to talk to the people that work in that office.

Again, the thing is communication and to make sure everyone knows what they’re doing and they are staying on target. The worst thing that can happen is people go off in the wrong direction, and you aren’t aware of it.

Get feedback from the outside. I also am out in the public a lot and just meeting people, and I hear comments about PIER 39. So I can see if we are accomplishing what the vision is. I think that’s very important to do. You can think you are doing a great job, but when you go out and talk to other people, they’ll say something like, ‘I like going to PIER 39 because ... ‘ and you can get a feel for where you stand.

Remember that your employees are the experts. I also listen to my people. I know that I don’t have all the answers, and they are specialists in their own area. So I listen to them, and if their strategies sound right to me, then I say, ‘Let’s go.’

I ask questions of my nine direct reports, but they know my style and that’s to let them do their thing but to keep me informed.

It goes back to letting them do what they do in their specialty area. A lot of people try to dot somebody’s I’s and cross their T’s, I don’t do that. We work together, and it works out. When they see that I come to them for the answers in their area, that builds up chemistry and allows them to do their job without fear.

Fix the message, not the messenger. I don’t shoot the messenger. You have to take any news, good or bad, and listen to it. When I hear good news, I don’t jump up and down and wave the flag — same with the bad news. If something could go bad, it’s better to hear about it early and maybe cut it off, and that means you have to know what’s going on. So if we have potential of stopping it, let’s stop it. Come talk to me, and I’ll listen to the problem, and we’ll go from there.

Maintain the company’s chemistry when hiring people. Basically, my philosophy on hiring is to bring in the best people I can while keeping chemistry. I interview them, but I have other people interview them as well because chemistry is very, very important.

We’ve had situations in the past where the person did not get along with the other direct reports that I have, and they have to all get along or it doesn’t work right. It doesn’t matter if you are hiring a leasing person or a construction person, they have to get along with other people because they’ll all have to work together.

Understand your niche. First, you have to understand your product. At PIER 39, we’re dealing with the public. If you are in manufacturing, it’s a different audience, but we’re dealing with customers, so we need to know our product. I have to understand my direct reports and their responsibility, and I have to understand the customer.

We take surveys twice a year basically asking the same questions so we can compare ourselves this year to the year before and the year before that. One of the questions asks if they are satisfied with PIER 39. We can use that to reinforce that what we’re doing for our customers is right. We don’t go out and celebrate that, but it’s a confirmation of our success. We have to focus on our customer. From marketing to leasing, we want to get tenants in here that our customers really like, and we have to understand them to do that.