June 4, 2001
TEAM PLAYER
Businessman Drayton McLane Jr.
___Drayton McLane Jr. owns the Houston Astros, which he purchased in 1992 and operates as one of the enterprises of McLane Group. His far-flung interests grew out of a grocery business started by his grandfather, Robert McLane, in Cameron in the late 1800s. McLane, who lives in Temple when he is not in Houston overseeing the Astros operation, is a graduate of Baylor University and currently serves on the university's board of regents. He has been a major benefactor of the university. The new McLane Student Life Center is named in his honor. He also earned a master of business administration degree at Michigan State University. Heserves on the boards of many groups, including the Boy Scouts of America, Scott & White Memorial Hospital, Children's Miracle Network, South Texas College of Law and the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research. He and his wife, Elizabeth, have two sons, Drayton III and Denton. The McLanes are members of First Baptist Church of Temple, where is a deacon.
Drayton McLane Jr.
Q.
___ You are the chairman of the McLane Group and chairman and CEO of the Houston Astros, plus a number of other things. How do you describe yourself?
___I describe myself as a business leader. I enjoy business. Outside of our Christian faith and our love for our families, one of the greatest things in our society in America is free enterprise, that we have a chance to become what we want to be through hard work, innovation and creativity, risk-taking and having the courage to do things. It's a wonderful opportunity to show your expression, leadership, courage and, hopefully, be successful. I was taught by my father that when you become successful, you have a Christian responsibility to share that success with other people. Not only the financial success of making contributions, but being a mentor.
Q.
___ How much time in all these different pursuits do you give to the Astros?
___When I bought the team, my view was to spend about 10 percent, just to set goals and standards. We bought the team for two reasons--one, because in America nothing brings people together as much as athletics, whether at the high school, college or professional level. I saw the Houston Astros, which had been a major league team since 1962 and had been a pretty good team but had only won two pennants and felt we could help them become a champion. I thought that could be a great leadership responsibility to help unite the community and this part of Texas.
___I had observed the Dallas Cowboys and how they helped bring together people in Dallas and North Texas. And I had seen how teams at the University of Texas and Texas A&M and during Grant Teaff's days of great success at Baylor, how that had really brought people together.
___Second was sharing my father's philosophy, and certainly one I aspire to, to make a positive difference, to use these great athletes and get involved deeply in the community and to do things that uplift people.
___We are the only Major League Baseball team that has a full-time chaplain, Gene Pemberton. He works with the players, but we then use his ministry and the players to reach out to about 350 civic groups. We work with kids' groups, but senior citizens' groups also need uplifting and excitement, and we work with them. And over here on Hope Boulevard is one of the largest VA centers in America, and we take two players over there every Wednesday and spend about two hours. We go to Texas Medical Center, particularly M.D. Andersen Hospital, and visit terminally ill patients, particularly children.
___I had planned to spend 10 percent of my time with the Astros. And then we found out the Astrodome was not a good place to play baseball, so we got on a project to win a referendum to get the funding for this stadium and get it built. So in the last five years, I must have spent 40 or 50 percent of my time here. And for six months they play every day. If I ever get involved with another sports team, it will be with one that plays once a month.
Q.
___ How many games do you see?
___There are 81 home games, and I will attend about 60. I see a few on the road, but most owners don't go on the road. I'm interested in customer service--how we treat the fans, how we build up excitement. I try to spend at least half a game just wandering around among the fans, trying to see how we can improve customer service.
___
Q.
___ What's the secret to managing so many enterprises successfully?
___You have to learn leadership. As I talk to groups, I say that first you have to be rock solid in integrity. You can have the best ideas in the world and be a great charismatic leader but get all upside down with values and integrity. You have to have rock-solid integrity and honesty and make that paramount in everything you do. Then you have to learn how to communicate with people and get your ideas and thoughts over to people.
___I speak four or five times a week to young people who are looking for leadership. I tell them that one of the greatest characteristics of a leader is the ability to communicate and that in America some of the best communicators are preachers. I tell them to watch the best preachers in their town and how they communicate and get their thoughts across and bring people together. If they can learn that, it could be the equivalent of getting an MBA somewhere.
___You have to have integrity, be able to communicate and then you have to know how to set goals. I think human beings are basically kind and thoughtful, and the hardest thing to learn in leadership is to set goals and hold people accountable. It's against human nature.
Q.
___What is unique about operating a Major League Baseball franchise as compared with other businesses?
___The one thing I misjudged was that everything is done in the public eye. We built 18 grocery distribution centers around the country and at one in Athens, Ga., we were going to spend about $25 million, build a 250,000 square-foot building and employ about 600 people. The chamber of commerce had a press conference with 15 business leaders there, and there were two reporters. When I bought the Astros, there were 130 news people at the press conference, and they asked every kind of question. They even interviewed my two teenage sons who were there.
Q.
___ You have followed in the footsteps of your father and grandfather in business.
___My grandfather came from Abbeville, S.C., to Cameron in the late 1800s and worked as a farm laborer until about 1885, when he was able to buy and build a small retail grocery and in l894 went into the wholesale grocery business in a small way. When my dad got out of college in 1922, he went in business with his dad. When I got out of graduate school in 1959, I went into business with him.
Q.
___Did you ever consider any other career?
___I sure did. I went to Baylor and got interested in going to graduate school after that. I loved economics and business ideas and liked the program at Michigan State. When I graduated, I was going to go to work for Kraft Foods in San Francisco, but I came to see my mother and dad after I got out of school, and my dad asked me what I was going to do. I told him I planned to work for seven or eight years on my own, but someday I wanted to come back and go in business with him.
___He told me he was 65 and the business hadn't been growing and if I waited a few years there might not be anything for me to do. That disturbed me, and the next day I said I wanted to go work for him. He said, "Fine," but the only job he had was on the night shift loading trucks. We had 67 employees, and 19 of them loaded trucks at night. I reminded him that I had been to graduate school, and I thought he would put me in charge of it. But he didn't; I was just one of the 19 workers.
___He told me later, "Even with your education, you still have to win the support and admiration of the other guys. You don't anoint leaders; they emerge." So I loaded trucks for 18 months. It taught me a lot of respect for and how to work with everyday human beings--and to appreciate them.
Q.
___Why did you attend Baylor University?
___I grew up in Central Texas, in Cameron, about 60 miles away. I was a Baptist and had the Christian influence of my mother and dad, and Baylor was a Christian school. I had known a lot of people who had gone to Baylor and had a lot of appreciation and respect for them. Baylor had good athletic teams. I think that had as much influence as anything.
Q.
___ You say you learned some of your valuable life lessons while living in the dormitory at Baylor?
___When I went to Baylor, probably 95 percent of the students lived in dormitories. Having grown up in a Christian, middle-income family in Cameron, I had only had to deal with my family. But when you come to the university, it's quite a shock.
___Living in a dormitory was a stimulating experience. It was the first time I had to live with other people, and you learn to interact and live with a wide variety of people. I have said I learned as much living in a dormitory as I learned going to class. I learned how to deal with people and made lasting friends. That's a big part of life. I required that my two sons live in a dormitory at Baylor for two years.
___Real success in life comes through being able to bring people together. That's what the dormitory system does.
Q.
___ What role specifically has your Christian faith played in your business career?
___Your integrity and faith, your Christian values, are the most stable parts of your existence. It's what helps you feel good about yourself. It helps you set what your values are, what you stand for. The amount of money you have or don't have is not important; it's how you have lived your life. I tell my children and those I work with and those I try to be a mentor to that when your life is reviewed, it won't be how much money you made or how many degrees you have, it will be what kind of human being you are.
Q.
___ Is it hard to be a successful businessman and a Christian?
___I think you can be successful if you have the values I have spoken of, including integrity first. You have to put a stake in the ground. I was in the ROTC in Baylor, and when we were drilling, I was always tall and at the front of the line. They would tell me to pick out a tree or post and walk toward it; otherwise, I would lead them all over the place and everybody else would follow.
___That was a good leadership example for me for business. If we establish our integrity, our values, and say we are not going to deviate from them, then life is pretty simple. In business, particularly when we are trying to debate decisions or policies, the last thing to ask is what is the right thing to do, not how much money we can make. Both my parents told me thousands of times I would never gain anything if I hurt someone else to gain an advantage. They said the only worthwhile success comes when the people at work succeed while you succeed.
___Interview by Toby Druin
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