History of Wayne Huizenga

Wayne Huizenga

Wayne Huizenga built virtually from scratch three Fortune 1000 companies: Waste Management, Blockbuster Entertainment and AutoNation. He has also developed six companies listed on NYSE. He also owns the Miami Dolphins and owned the Florida Marlins baseball team and the Panthers hockey team, becoming the only person to have three professional teams in a single market, two of which won national championships.

Huizenga was born in a suburb of Chicago in 1937 and moved to Florida in his teens. After his parents divorced, he lived with his mother, who drove a truck and worked at a gas station after school and weekends to help with expenses. After one pass through the army and college, he left school to work with a family friend who had a garbage collection company. Within two years, he bought his own truck and started their own. This eventually became Waste Management Inc.

Huizenga was legendary for his hard work driving the truck from 2:30 am until noon, then spend the day knocking on doors and introducing himself to improve the new business. The company grew to 40 trucks at the local, then merged with another company in Chicago to form Waste Management Inc. WMI soon went public and used its buying power to purchase nearly 150 garbage services locally and regionally, so company is the largest U.S. waste management

Big business does not only start a business. Sometimes they see the potential of a company and buy undeveloped for its development. This is what he and two partners made in 1987 with Blockbuster. Following a model similar to WMI, took the company in 1989 and launched into a rapid growth from a $ 7 million with 19 stores to a global $ 4 billion with more than 3,700 stores in 11 countries. In 1994, Blockbuster was sold to Viacom for $ 8.4 billion in stock.

After the sale of Blockbuster, AutoNation created the first car dealership across the U.S., now with 370 dealers, and the first to go public. Then, create Extended Stay America, which grew to 62 points in his first year, and about 500 hotels by the time it was sold in 2004. Also re-entered the field of waste management with the creation of Republic Services, which became the third largest waste management in the U.S. before merging with the first company Huizenga, WMI.

The key to the success of Huizenga is the formula that has proved hard work time and again. It focuses on service industries, most of which have recurring revenues, dumpster rental, trash, video rentals, etc. Even with AutoNation, no manufacturing plant, and the emphasis of the model is customer service. Above all, it focuses on the search for industries that are not meeting customer needs. Each of its companies has established a new standard for highly professional in their field.

But Huizenga is not without its detractors. A 1994 article in the Miami New Times unearthed a mound (both real and alleged), is accused of climbing to success at the expense of others, links to organized crime, physical and emotional abuse of his wife the practices of unfair competition, illegal political contributions, and disregard for environmental laws.

But despite everything, no discussion of business success Huizenga. In 1992, he received the Horatio Alger Award, given in honor Americans who have overcome adversity to achieve success. He is also receiving five times "CEO of the Year" Financial World Magazine. He was named 2004 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year USA and 2005 Entrepreneur of the Year. Is at the top of his game and shows no signs of slowing in the short term.