Stuart Miller
CEO
Lennar Corp.
Rank:2
It's tough for a national home builder to respond quickly to a changing marketplace. “Like other public home builders, we don't adjust like a speed boat,” CEO Stuart Miller told industry analysts in Lennar's second-quarter earnings call in 2006. “We adjust like a cruise ship.”
But after a year in which the Miami-based builder saw its profits plunge, Lennar has attacked the situation with the aggressiveness of a battle cruiser. Every division starts each morning with a review of sales starts, closings, inventory, and asset base. Every afternoon at 5 p.m., an executive committee at the home office scours those reports.
Top priorities are strengthening the balance sheet and reengineering margins. That effort has centered on increasing salesmanship, squeezing costs out of construction, renegotiating land deals, and managing overhead, including significant staff cuts.
“We're preparing for what happens when the market turns around,” Miller said in September on CNBC. “There's been an inventory build-up in the marketplace. But this is going to correct in due time and that's why we think liquidity is king. It gives you the opportunity to reload when times get good again.” - P.C.