The Family Connection: NAI Capital

Family is important at NAI Capital. And although it begins at the top, family ties hardly stop there. There are about 45 family members spread out among NAI’s 14 Southern California offices. Chairman Mike Zugsmith and his wife chief financial officer Rachel Howitt own 50 percent of the Encino-based firm, while another 25 percent rests in the hands of chief executive Bob Scullin, whose wife Cathy works as a broker. The company has a litany of husbands and wives, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters and brothers who have teamed up to tackle the commercial real estate market. Overall, the firm has about 250 brokers covering the region. We sat down with NAI Capital officials at the company’s Encino headquarters to discuss family and its role in the workplace. Q: Why have so many families found a home at NAI Capital? Chief Financial Officer Rachel Howitt: The philosophy of working together as families started with Mike and I. It filtered down, and it continued on ever since. Chief Executive Bob Scullin: We encourage it in the sense by not discouraging it. (In) my experience at Xerox, it was literally against the law to work in the same branch as a family member. I had like eight people in my family who worked for Xerox, and they could not have worked together. So by eliminating that restriction, I think you leverage those relationships among the individual people, which makes them more effective professionally. Chairman Mike Zugsmith: We have been soundly criticized by a variety of competitors for the fact that we don’t prohibit family members from working together, and I have never quite understood that. We have people working together at almost every office. We have brothers, and we have husbands and wives and mothers and daughters. If family can work together harmoniously, which is a challenge, I think it is wonderful for family to work together. If you have conflict, which quite frankly we have very rarely, then it could be a problem. Q: How are these relationships beneficial to NAI Capital? Associate Charles Carmichael III: We have a lot of family-run businesses in the San Fernando Valley. (When) I’m sitting across the table from a father and he has got his son, and he’s got daughters, or whoever else working in the organization, and he looks across the table to another family-run business, he or she is more apt to trust that model, which mimics what they already do. Senior Vice President Chuck Carmichael: I have trained a lot of brokers over the years. No one’s success has been as important to me as Charles’s success has been. Obviously, I have a vested interest in my family doing well. When you are bringing in somebody new, there is a much better chance of that person’s success if they are coming in with someone who has got something beyond just a quick monetary interest in (them) doing well. Charles came in three years ago — just as the market was really hitting the toilet — and there was an extra interest in making sure he survived that time Bob Scullin: It also leverages — from a business perspective — the effectiveness of the individual professionally. Two people who work together can have the tendencies to create problems between themselves. If they are starting out with a relationship between them personally, they are less likely to allow professional differences to bring them apart. So I think two people — using (senior vice president J. Richard Leyner and associate Barbara Leyner) as an example — they can get more done between the two of them than two people who don’t know each other, because they are concerned about feelings and sensitivity. Q: Did the recession and the collapse of the real estate market put strains on your relationships? These relationships, obviously, don’t end when you leave the office. Mike Zugsmith: The relationship between Rachel and I — and having to work through the Great Recession — it actually improved our relationship. We were having to confront common problems with (chief executive Bob Scullin) as senior management, and we were having to find solutions. Senior Assocaite Emily Jori: You have someone next to you that is well aware of what you are going through. And they become more supportive. So it’s not like you have a problem at the office, and you are going home and nobody understands what you are going through. If somebody at home understands exactly what is going on, then you will find solutions. Q: Have boundaries been established in the workplace? Chuck Carmichael: There is a different relationship here than there is at home. Here (Charles) is my partner. At home he is my son. We have had a couple conversations. When we’re in a meeting in my office… initially I was picking up the phone a lot because I could, I wouldn’t have done the same thing had it been a fellow broker, and he pointed out that was just discourteous. And conversely, when I walked into his office, I don’t like to be kept waiting for that long. I pointed that out to him and said, “I am still the senior partner. You need to show due respect.” Charles Carmichael III: And I refer to him as Chuck in the office. People tend to look and be like “Who are you talking to?” I don’t think anything different of it. Bob Scullin: With my wife and myself for instance, I don’t talk to her for any reason during the day. She is out there (in the field, and) I am over here. We have no business to be working together, yet when we go home obviously we are living together as friends. Q: Is it difficult to not bring work home when you work with a family member? Bob Scullin: Yes. It is impossible. As a matter of fact, if brokers are not bringing work home, they are not being successful. If they are doing the things that they need to do to be successful, they are not able to accomplish their paperwork, their administrative work during the course of the day. Senior Vice President J. Richard Leyner: And it makes it easier when you have somebody, because they will understand. Associate Barbara Leyner: We’ll help do it!