NEWH - April 2004 - (Page 16)

top hotel developers... John Q. Hammons by: Pat Miller and Wendy S. Clark, Leo A. Daly Hotel Company, and we’ve now been building at the rate of four to five a year. Last Friday we opened the eightstory, 225-room Marriott Courtyard in downtown Oklahoma City in the big development called Brick Town. So that makes our 150th hotel. John Q. Hammons and Pat Miller ‘If you don’t know how to say yes to a customer...go pick strawberries’ - John Q. Hammons PM: How did you get started in the hotel development business? JQH: Well, I got started by being interested in it. In the earlier part of my career, I was in shopping centers and land developments, sub-divisions, office buildings and warehouses. That took about 10 years, and then I got aggravated with a defeat in a zoning case so I went out to California and I found Del Webb’s highway houses being built, and he was moving right along from California into Phoenix and west, through Tucumcari and Amarillo and Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Then he branched into the Sun Cities, so forth and so on. He originally came out of Fresno because he had built a townhouse there, which was a combination of office building and hotel. That was very interesting, what he did there. I saw that and so that’s where I got interested in the hotel business. Then one day Roy Winegardner, who was a plumber; he and I teamed up. We went down to see Kemmons Wilson and bought 10 Holiday Inn franchises. They were located in the states of New York, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. Those were our first ones, so instead of building 10, we built 30 in a 10-year span. The rest is history. We formed Winegardner and Hammons in 1958, then Roy Winegardner became chairman of Holiday Inns for a brief period of time, like two years, and he semiretired after that. But I formed the John Q. Hammons 16 PM: Could you tell me personally how growing up in the Depression shaped your approach to business? JQH: Well, in those days we were denied the modern conveniences we have today in many respects, so if you want to succeed you just grind it out. So, I guess I had the fortitude built in to try that, and so what I’ve done has all been since 1948. Prior to that I had been teaching school and working on the highway in Alaska for two years, then went off to war for two years, then I came back and picked Springfield, Missouri, to try to be successful in the business world. So that’s where we are today. PM: You’re famous for your extraordinary knowledge of the U.S. interstate system. What has its impact been on your business decisions? JQH: Well, there’s no question that it helps. But frankly, if you’re gonna be successful, you must stay focused on what you’re going to do and don’t detour and don’t allow anyone to get you off track if you think you’re right. You’ve got to know the United States and its economy, its greatest division of enterprise and the opportunities. You’ve got to learn how to do business in all states, keep that in focus and learn to live with all the troubles you hit. You’ve got to learn to live with all the changes that are materializing. Time changes so fast and our workers’ production in the United States is tremendous. And every generation that comes along is different. In the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s those were all great periods - but the people who did business then didn’t branch out to learn what was going to happen in the ‘70s. I used to make the statement that if you do business in the ‘70s like you did in the ‘60s, you’d never see the ‘80s. Or you can apply that to any three 10year periods. So, in the hotel business, what people did in the previous 10-15-20 years is not what the new generation is looking at today. The magnificent advancement we make in hightech everything totally changes everything, and if a man comes home and he tells his wife, “I’m going to get you

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NEWH - April 2004

NEWH - April 2004
President’s Letter
Calendar of Events
Contents
From the Editor
Hospitality News
In Memory - Thomas R. Durkan, Sr.
Top Hotel Developers - John Q. Hammons
On the Road Again
HD Expo at a Glance
Surviving HD
Did You Know
Exclusive Lifestyle by Design
If It Were Easy
The Best of Time
Talk About Fast Track
What to Expect From the Vacation Ownership Industry
A Look Back in History
The New Direction for Timeshares in Europe
Confronting the Disabilities Myth
Furnishing Today’s Timeshare
Art - The Final Piece of the Puzzle
Showcase Projects
Design Education Today
Designer Profile: Esther Dunbar-Cullum
Oh Canada, Oh Canada
Top Awards
From Across the Pond
Spotlight On...
Tips on Specs
Window Treatments 101
Hot New Products
We Want Your Projects
Bios

NEWH - April 2004