• History • Enduring Values • A Tradition of Management Expertise • The 21st Century
Mr. Longyear developed his vast wealth through very hard work, a willingness to take risks and clear vision of the value contained in natural resources – land, timber and minerals. From the beginning of his business ventures, he also remained true to principles that endure in all Longyear businesses today – over 100 years after he first set foot in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Creating Value: Someone with a lesser vision than John M. Longyear might have surveyed the rugged timberlands of the Upper Peninsula and seen only obstacles – the difficulty in harvesting, the inhospitable climate, transportation challenges. Mr. Longyear, however, saw the opportunity to create value from the vast timber resources, despite the obvious challenges.
Likewise, he was willing to take risks to secure the value he envisioned. He identified and acquired mineral resources in both Michigan and northern Minnesota and invested the money and manpower necessary to develop mines to bring the iron ore from below ground to the blast furnaces waiting to turn it into steel – creating value by taking rocks and transforming them into the steel that would help build a nation.
Finally, he recognized the long-term value of key pieces of land, whether for recreation or future development. He didn't expect an immediate return on his investment; he recognized that creating value from land often involves making other strategic investments around it or waiting for just the right opportunity to release the value contained.
Maximizing Performance: Mr. Longyear's businesses flourished, in large part, because he and his successors were not content with hands-off management that captured only a portion of the potential value of the resources under their control. The various Longyear companies strived to maximize the return from these resources by using state-of-the-art technology, strategically reinvesting and disinvesting in assets as times and needs dictated, and by committing themselves to the principle of squeezing all possible value out of what, in the case of mining or land, is a finite resource.
Leveraging Opportunities: Personally, Mr. Longyear was gifted with the ability to see clearly how leveraging opportunities – bargaining for partial ownership instead of land-looking fees, teaming up with partners who complimented his skills and assets, assessing the timing of acquisitions and investments – increased value exponentially. The unshakeable ethics that grounded all of his dealings also ensured that his various partners enjoyed a mutual benefit.
Encouraging Sustainability: Some developers of natural resources are hindered with a short-term vision that ends with the sale of a piece of land or the harvesting of a stand of timber. Not Mr. Longyear; his vision was driven by sustainability of resources.