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By R.V. Baugus
Usually,
the vantage point of seeing four countries in one
day is when one is hovering overhead in an aircraft. Of course, it is
difficult to know at around 33,000 feet in the sky that Switzerland lurks
below. But for Thom Connors, the original international man of mystery
(sorry about that, Austin Powers), he can boast that his visits to four
countries in one day came with his feet firmly entrenched on terra firma.
“It was in Europe, and I was conducting business,” says
Connors, senior regional vice president, SMG Latin America and resident
general manager of the Puerto Rico Convention Center. “I woke up in Hamburg,
Germany, for breakfast, took a quick flight to Rotterdam to the Philips
plant to check on an early video scoreboard being fabricated for the Nassau
Coliseum, had lunch there, got back on a plane and went to my office in
London by 3 p.m., picked up an hour of time some point during the travel and
then a 4 o’clock meeting and finally back on a plane for a dinner meeting in
Cork, Ireland.
“I went to bed that night thinking, ‘This will never
happen again!’ It was most memorable.”
The same can be said about the career of Connors, who
is one of the first people in the public assembly facility business that
others turn to when discussing dealing in markets around the globe.
It wasn’t that Connors even originally had designs on
working in the international marketplace. SMG’s forerunner company back in
1982 was Facility Management Group (FMG), and company CEO Denzil Skinner
asked Connors if he would be interested in going to London to do some work
for the company. Connors was based in Miami and had already worked for FMG
at the Knight Center before taking a brief career detour in the sports
facilities division with accounting firm Laventhal & Horvath.
“Denzil asked if I was interested in rejoining the
company in London as director of development to see if there were facility
opportunities in Europe,” says Connors. “I told him I was flattered and
delighted to come back to the company. I understood that maybe one reason he
asked me back was that I had some development experience and feasibility
study experience from the accounting firm.
“When I asked Denzil if there was anything else that
brought them back to me, he said, ‘Yes, you have international experience.’
I said, ‘Denzil, I really don’t.’ He said, ‘You’ve been in Miami for three
years — that’s good enough for me.’
“At the time I thought it was funny, but I realized
that Miami today is a very cross-cultural experience. In fact it did prepare
me in many ways for what I would face working in Europe in the late 1980s.
It was actually an astute observation.”
On Second Thought
Or maybe it should have been expected that Connors would be where he is
today, cultivating relationships and opening doors throughout Central
America for SMG to have an even stronger presence.
Consider that Connors was born in New Jersey, moved to
Buffalo at age four, and on to Detroit at 11 before heading to Florida in
1976. That takes care of the part about someone who has experienced travel
and relocating.
Then consider that Connors went to Michigan State
University, where he majored in communications with a political science
minor. That discipline speaks well for someone who would go on to meet and
form relationships with peoples of all cultures, origins and backgrounds.
When he wasn’t taking courses in production, radio,
television, advertising and theater, Connors found the time to work in the
restaurant business while in school. In fact, Connors managed a restaurant
in Detroit while in his early 20s and took a job with a company that
transferred him to Orlando, which truly was a land of opportunity as the
Disney complex had only been open for three years. Connors moved on to work
as a manager at a renovated vaudeville theater called the Great Southern
Music Hall, where he handled concessions, supervised the production and ran
the building. Oh, and he would meet his future wife, Christina, there as
well, as she sold tickets in the box office. “It seated 700 and was a
beautifully restored little vaudeville theater that later became a cinema,”
remembers Connors. “We showed films on the days we didn’t have concerts.
That was my first facility management job.”
After a stint there, Connors went to work for the city
of Orlando and worked his way to general manager of the Orlando Centroplex,
which encompassed the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center, Orlando Expo Centre,
Citrus Bowl and Tinker Field.
Connors believes that his varied background in those
formative years prepared him well. “I believe that my generalist background
gave me a great base of general knowledge,” he says. “It really helps in the
industry we are in because what a lot of us love about the job is that it is
different every day. You could be managing different types of facilities
within the same complex, and that requires broader rather than more specific
knowledge.”
Connors was only about to find out just how broad his
knowledge base would need to be when Skinner came calling about the position
in London. “The purpose for going was to evaluate business opportunities for
the company,” Connors says about his mission for SMG, which today boasts
eight facilities in Europe. “We knew we had to establish ourselves. We had
to do some investigation, learning and research to see how we might fit in.
The industry is very different there, and it was especially so back in those
days. We began to familiarize ourselves with the market and to market the
company.”
One of the first opportunities that came to fruition
was an account in Oslo, Norway, where SMG assisted the city in its planning
and development of the Oslo Spectrum. At about the same time, the city of
Sheffield, England, embarked
on a facilities construction project that was
going to be done for the World University Games. SMG was selected to assist
with the development of the Sheffield
Arena and managed the venue for 10
years.
After working abroad, Connors returned as general manager and later regional
manager for the Miami Beach Convention Center from 1991-94, then in SMG’s
corporate office as vice president, and later senior vice president of SMG
Convention Center Division from 1995-2006.
Opening More Doors
The Puerto Rico Convention Center celebrated its second anniversary in
November, while the Coliseo Arena has been open for just over three years.
Connors made the move in 2006 to leave the office and return to the field to
oversee the crown jewel venue in the Carribbean.
“Wes (Westley, SMG president and CEO) has called the
Puerto Rico Convention Center possibly the most beautiful facility we
operate,” says Connors. “They are actually both excellent examples of great
design of building types and preeminent examples within their region of
their respective building types.
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Time Out
with
Thom Connors
As one of the industry’s prominent faces in the international
marketplace, Thom Connors can speak to a far-ranging scope of
topics, which he does here:
On IAAM’s significance:
When I started in this business it wasn’t really a profession. It
was an industry, but it wasn’t recognized as such. The industry was
really formulating and organizing, and IAAM was the focal point. The
professionalism that existed in the industry was a result of the
work of IAAM. Much of my early knowledge comes from IAAM. We’ve (IAAM)
got the relationship now with European venue managers. When Dick
Walsh was IAAM president (1991-92) I was in London and chair of the
International Committee. We had our first joint activity at that
time with European managers. That’s a big difference today.
International in the early days meant Canadian.
On what he likes most about the industry:
It’s something different every day. In my experience I’ve had the
opportunity to work in different facilities, different cities and
different countries. I’m not sure how many career paths would have
provided that opportunity to me.
On SMG’s growth:
The company has been blessed with very strong growth over the years.
In 1990 we had about 60 accounts and today more than 200. We can
also say that we have senior management who has been with the
company 25, 20, 15 years. That’s saying a lot today in business that
people find careers within a single company.
On how he has become a better manager:
My dad has been an influence on me. Through him — he’s a people
person — I learned that the more interpersonal relationships you
have the healthier person you are in terms of personality. The more
people you know or meet, the more parts of yourself are either drawn
out or you get to use. I think the diversity of relationships that
I’ve had the pleasure of developing has either tested or brought out
many different parts of me, challenged me and made me more
self-aware and also demanded that I develop skills.
On mistakes made in dealing with
international audiences:
Any opportunity requires a good deal of analysis before reaching a
conclusion. We find that the cultural, political and economic issues
cannot be assumed. They have to be learned before reaching a
conclusion or making a recommendation as to the approach to take in
a facility, or what resources or services we can provide that will
make a difference.
On his mentors and influences:
Early on I had great influence from Denzil Skinner, Lynn Thompson
and Miles Wilkins. I also have to say Dick Shaff, who I’ve worked
with for almost 25 years. He has been a role model at work and away
from work and someone I’ve learned so much from not only in the
industry but what is important in life. The other very strong
influence is Wes Westley. Wes taught me about not just the strategic
part of the business, but how to make decisions and how to evaluate
opportunities. Cliff Wallace has been helpful going back to the
early FMG days, and one of my former bosses, Ted Lewis, who is now
in Charlotte.
On how he wants to be thought of:
At some stage I thought I was a bit of maverick — not that I did
things contrary, but I did choose the path less taken. I don’t know
how to answer what else I might have wanted to do, especially at
this stage of my life. I don’t know, trot out a Seinfeld
line: landscape architect.
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“Both the convention center and Coliseo are strongly
supported by the public. They are probably the two most successful
governmental infrastructure projects that have taken place here in 50
years.”
Connors spends valuable time in Mexico these days as
part of his efforts for possible Latin America expansion for SMG’s
portfolio. While he says the company has only been focusing on new business
development for over a year in those parts, two new contracts have already
been signed and a number of others are pending.
“We’re seeing a trend similar to one in the U.S. back
in the 1990s where major markets were expanding and building bigger
facilities, and secondary markets were getting into the business. We are
looking at opportunities in population centers of 10 million and two
million, whether they are stadiums, arenas, theaters or auditoriums.”
But it isn’t enough to just go into a market and say
that is where you want to lay down a foundation. Connors believes that one
reason SMG has been fortunate in its foreign forays is due to the company
business model.
“There has to be a cultural sensitivity to what you are
selling,” he says. “In my mind, the most important part of selling is
listening. You have to do that to find out what the client needs and then
you target or shape your business proposal to meet those needs. There are
some cases where we find people who want to buy the American model. There
are others who say, ‘This is Bogata, Colombia.’ We have to approach it a
little differently for those reasons. We have to be open to that in the way
we staff and structure the management team in those places.”
Connors credits the company’s business approach to the
leadership of Westley, who has led the company since October 1994 when the
growth first started. “Under Wes’s leadership we have a solid business
plan,” says Connors. “We recognized as a company that we were going to have
to specialize. Wes correctly determined that we had two lines of business,
the sports and entertainment side, and the convention and expo side.
“We set up separate divisions for those different
disciplines. That was definitely a key to our success. Now we take that
approach elsewhere and see how we have to modify it and apply it, but we
have a bench strength of specialists in each area to draw on for expertise.”
Connors, like others in the company, listens to field
representatives to also help point out areas of growth. “SMG’s approach is a
team approach,” he says. “Sometimes we don’t know we have an opportunity
until someone from the field speaks up and says they have worked at a place
before or knows an associate somewhere. That’s helped me in Puerto Rico,
Mexico and other places I’m going on a continual basis.”
Coach ’Em Up
When he isn’t racking up frequent flyer miles, Connors leads a fulltime
staff of 65 at the convention center and a number he estimates at 200 for
the different facilities. He describes his leadership style as that of a
coach, which is not too surprising of a sports analogy since one of his
hobbies is sending out a weekly sports “rant” to family, friends and
industry colleagues that addresses all men’s and women’s sports, both
domestic and international.
“I think that coaching and taking the teamwork approach
has been the most successful for me,” he says. “The interesting experience
for me was getting directly back into operations and reapplying that
philosophy. I think I am better prepared.
“This past year I gave the staff a challenge because we
had a number of big shows coming to the Coliseo and a number of offshore
events coming to the convention center for the first time. I said that we
were going to treat this like we’re a football team trying to get to the
Super Bowl, and that these were the playoff games to get there. And you know
what? We feel like we went undefeated last year after a great year of
success!
“At the end of the calendar year last year, I gave out
‘game balls’ when we had a big event coming up. They gave me a hat that said
‘Coach’ and signed a football when we completed that run of challenges back
in the fall. That meant a lot to me because they were getting the message
that they are part of the team and had a role to play. I see coaching as the
overall leadership and mentoring as the one-on-one developing. Both are
important to the overall success of any organization.”
Just know that if Coach Connors was the commissioner of
any major sport, he would undoubtedly have been the first to seek global
expansion. As it is, he is more than happy to do his part in SMG’s
far-reaching success, even if that means hop-scotching to four countries in
one day. fm
R.V. Baugus is editor for
Facility Manager.
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