Harvey Dondero

January 31, 2007  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Las Vegas on February 2007 After three decades in top roles at several high-profile home furnishings companies, Harvey Dondero left North Carolina in September for his hometown, Las Vegas, to take on a highly visible role as the chief executive officer of the World Market Center. As the former CEO of both Universal and Broyhill, he is intimately familiar with the project from an exhibitor’s perspective. He also came into the job with experience in a variety of home furnishings categories, having started his career with Wedgwood and serving as the CEO of Maitland-Smith in the late ‘90s.

Now, back home in Las Vegas, Dondero says he’s enjoying his latest challenge and is pleased his first market will be a major celebration as the World Market Center unveils a new 300-tenant structure, Building B, with a series of special events.

After just over three months in the new job, how are you enjoying the move from manufacturing to overseeing the World Market Center?

It’s fun. It gives me a different perspective on the industry, having been in the manufacturing part for so long. You get a little ... isolated is, I guess, the right word. Now, I’m getting to know a lot of different companies, and it’s fun getting to know so many more people from a different angle. It’s a challenge, and I’m learning a lot. There are parts of this industry that I’ve never been exposed to as deeply as I am now. Not just the (market) part of it, but also construction, real estate and so on.

With the opening of Building B and its space for 300 tenants at this market, how will it change the market experience for attendees?

As our ad says, ‘B is for Bigger.’ It will be a much bigger show. We’ve been extremely successful so far with the one building, the Pavilions and the temporary part of our show. And, now, we’re more than doubling that in the permanent part, and the building is beautiful. If you haven’t had the opportunity to see it yet, it’s absolutely fantastic and, along with the original building, serves as sort of our monument dedicated to the furniture industry. I think attendees will also enjoy seeing the fact that Building C is also coming out of the ground now and so is our parking structure. With all of those things happening, there is going to be a lot of energy and excitement associated with this show.

As an exhibitor at the World Market Center from the beginning, did you come to the job with thoughts on any challenges the World Market Center may face when it comes to meeting the needs of its tenants?

From the beginning, I agreed with the vision and the strategic intent of the World Market Center and opportunity it has. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here. I’m here to drive that vision, and, as far as recognizing that there are things to be changed, the answer is that that’s minimal. We’re focused mainly on making things even better ... It’s such an easy market to shop, and it’s efficient and effective for the buyers. Speaking as a (former) exhibitor, you are assured that all the buyers at this market will pass in front of your showroom, so I think what the World Market Center offers is just a fantastic opportunity to do business and be very effective.

When you came on board, you talked about how the World Market Center is much more than a building. What did you mean by that?

The World Market Center wants to be the destination for the home furnishings industry, and that’s really what we’re looking at. There’s more than bricks and mortar here. The bricks and mortar are very important, and they give us the opportunity to facilitate change in the industry. We see ourselves as being able to offer vast resources and a lot more to the industry than other shows are able to do because of who we are and where we are, and we see that as an important aspect to our business.

There are competing markets here in the United States, but do growing markets in China and other countries in Asia have the potential to attract buyers away from Las Vegas? We’re the most vibrant market, and we present something here to the trade that I don’t think people in other countries can. It’s been tried in the past to have markets in other countries, but they end up being very local markets. It depends on your perspective of the U.S. market, but this is a very special place and (Las Vegas) is where a lot of that commerce is going to be done.

As the World Market Center gets bigger and adds a third building, does its increased size create more challenges or benefits?

It’s a very good question. I think the answer is benefits. The buildout size is going to be eight buildings, and, as we build more buildings, it will all be under one roof. As you enter our complex, you won’t have to go outside again to shop. We integrated the benefits of what we’re doing into the construction model, so as we get larger, it actually gets easier in a sense to shop more showrooms. It’s like a city, and as the city grows, the neighborhoods become more well-defined and easier to shop. If you’re a category shopper, that becomes easier. The ability to be able to see everything—and not miss anything—is very important to any buyer, and our infrastructure makes that very easy.

What spurred the World Market Center to expand the hours of its shuttle system and make other improvements that were announced recently?

We’re in a constant research mode with our attendees, so we’re getting feedback all the time on how to improve and how to get better. We’re not just working to improve on what we have, but focus on what our attendees really want. Our objective is always to provide what the buyers want and, by extension, address what the exhibitors and tenants want, as well. We’ve introduced a continuous improvement process to our market, and when it comes to creating a more effective shuttle system, it really helps to be able to tie into the great infrastructure that Las Vegas already has to make going back and forth as seamless as possible.

How are you going to celebrate the opening of Building B at this market?

Well, B is going to stand for Bombastic when it comes to that. We have a very exciting opening party planned with very big-name entertainers and lots of entertainment. We’re going to open up all 15 floors of Building B and have parties on every floor, as well as parties in the courtyard and parties in Building A. We’re just going to try to entertain as many people in the industry as we can, and, hopefully, all the thousands and thousands and thousands of people in our industry who come to Las Vegas are all going to enjoy the party. It’s one of our small gifts back to the industry. HFB