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Henry
S. Miller 2003 season |
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Success on field and off
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The Millers find a winning formula for business and polo
 Greg and Vaughn Miller, brothers and principals of the Henry S. Miller Companies, one of the most successful commercial real estate firms in the Southwest, took their business model and applied it to polo. The result was a smashing success on the polo field last year at Las Colinas, Santa Fe and Houston. “We had a terrific season last year,” Vaughn said. “We were undefeated in almost every league, and we even swept in some leagues, particularly in the 10-12 goal. We like to play an open, fast, running game, very high octane. We couldn’t play slow even if we wanted to. In fact, one of our players was Pelon Escapite, who is on the Catamount team with Carlos Gracida, Mike Azzaro and patron Scott Devon and they’re undefeated, too, in Palm Beach right now.” [Devon’s Catamount team won the 26-goal C.V. Whitney Cup in March.] The Henry S. Miller team pros consist of Isidro Olivas, Oscar Bermudez, Pelon Escapite and Sain Joseph. One of their most exciting wins was in the final of the 6-8 goal Land Rover Cup, where Greg scored the winning goal in double overtime. According to Greg, “We play well together as a team. We are very competitive and, accordingly, we push ourselves, our teammates and our opponents to play their best at all times. Because we all played our positions well that day I was in the right place at the right time on that particular play.”
Vaughn and Greg Miller started playing polo in 1995 in Dallas and it’s paid off well in many ways. “Last year was a tremendous learning experience on how to work with different personalities and different polo clubs; we had fun and met wonderful people. It was our best season so far,” Vaughn said. “We played in three leagues at Las Colinas last year, 4-6 goal, 6-8 goal and 10-12 goal and we were undefeated in 6-8 goal and the 10-12 goal, and we nearly won the 4-6 goal league. We played and won in both Houston in April and in Santa Fe in the summer. We basically followed the good weather and good polo.” The Miller brothers tie their success in polo to their success in business. Greg explained “I believe our success is due to the fact that we really try to prepare and strategize before each game. Success is when preparation and hard work meet opportunity. We applied the same principles to polo that our father and grandfather taught us in business. Our father has a list of great sayings that we call Vance’s proverbs, which we’ve found are applicable to just about everything, including ‘give the bird room to fly’ and ‘don’t curse the crocodile before you cross the stream.’ According to Vaughn, being able to find people’s strengths and weaknesses and accommodate for them is also very important. “In polo, just like business, you obviously have to manage different levels of polo players with different personalities, all of which has to jibe and come together smoothly in order to win. The same applies to your business, whatever it may be. So a good manager of business or a good manager of a polo team will know how to manage those personalities and make winning combinations vs. losing combinations. It’s so evident on the polo field when you have personalities on one team that don’t go well together. It’s also obvious when you have personalities that do work well together. Typically that’s always the winning team. That’s kind of an obvious conclusion, but it’s so important.”
 Greg said “And it’s obviously important in business, too, because if you’ve got an operation like ours, for example, which is made up of professional sales people, you have to deal with all types of personalities, while making sure your clients are satisfied. What we try to do is instill in our brokers that you don’t work for the company, the company works for you. Which is different from most of our competitors who have the exact opposite attitude toward their sales force=. And I really think that is the one of the biggest secrets of our success, although it might not be a secret after this story.”
The Millers’ great-grandfather, Henry S. Miller, started the company in 1914, and Vaughn and Greg’s father Vance became president in 1960 and grew the company to one of the largest in the country. “Our father encourages an entrepreneurial spirit among the brokers in order to allow creativity to flourish. It’s pretty well known in the industry that the Henry S. Miller Co. produces some of the most creative and innovative brokers in the country. We’re based in Dallas, and we are the largest independent commercial real estate firm in Texas, with offices in every major city, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio.” Vaughn added “As the largest independent brokerage, we are in a very unique position. We are not tied to a large bureaucracy like the national brokerages are. Real estate will always be a local business, requiring local market knowledge and expertise, and that’s what we’ve excelled at for over 85 years. Hopefully that’s evident on the polo field too.”
The Henry S. Miller team won the following games in 2003 at Las Colinas: Merrill Lynch Cup 8-10 goal; USPA Intra-Circuit 8-12 goal, DeBoulle Cup 8-12 goal; State Farm Cup 8-12 goal, Land Rover 6-8 Goal. In Santa Fe, they won two 4-6 goal tournaments and the Lt. Governor’s Cup. And they won the USPA Governor’s Cup in Houston in April of last year. “It was our first tournament of the season, and we competed against 13 teams. It was one of hardest, most competitive 4-6 goals leagues I’d ever seen. Each team had very talented, seasoned players who were all
 well mounted.” Greg said, “We had a strong team of Isidro Olivas, Will Tankard, Vaughn and I, but at the last minute I was unable to play so we got Ross Haislip to replace me.” Vaughn explained, “With my brother Greg out we weren’t sure how we would do, but Ross came in and did a terrific job. We won each game by two or more goals and had to play the most difficult teams first. We got to the final and won by one goal, in overtime, only to find out that Ross’s handicap had been raised from 0 to 1 goal prior to the tournament. It was a tremendous letdown. We could’ve been disqualified, but the Houston Polo Club [Darren Livingston and Tim Kelly] were gracious enough to let us keep the trophy. Thanks guys, we’ll see you next year!”
 Vaughn and his wife, Dena, have six kids. Greg and his wife, Kim, are expecting their first child in May, a boy. The Millers hope to maintain their winning ways, and the way they’re going they should have no problem.
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