Videos

As president and COO of Hughes Marino, one of the country’s fastest growing commercial real estate firms, I’m grateful for many things. We currently have offices in nine markets, with plans to expand into many more. Our smart, motivated team members love what they do, and as a result are revolutionizing the industry, building a bespoke tenant representation firm. However, the thing I’m most grateful for—the thing that is largely fueling all this success—is a set of principles that I absorbed while growing up watching my dad nurture and grow a well-known and well-respected restaurant brand. Subliminally, these acquired principles have guided Hughes Marino’s values from the very beginning, and bolster our continued success.

Each year, commercial tenants collectively spend millions of dollars above and beyond their base rent in operating expenses. Unlike the rental rate that is negotiated and spelled out in the lease document, these operating expenses (OpEx) are subject to each property owner’s operating and accounting procedures. These charges are presented to tenants twice a year—in the beginning of the year as an operating expense budget, and at the end of the year as an operating expense reconciliation statement. These expenses are subject to interpretation, and unfortunately, errors can be made, unbeknownst to tenants who end up needlessly overpaying.

If one thing is certain, our company culture means everything to us at Hughes Marino! Over the years, our culture has grown to be an essential element of our success from two standpoints: it has helped build a team that works relentlessly to help each other reach our goals, and has grown Hughes Marino into a global corporate real estate advisory firm that constantly strives to deliver an elevated level of service and results to our clients.

Before we even opened our doors, Chairman & CEO Jason Hughes and I always knew we wanted to place company culture and the happiness of our team as a top priority. We wanted to develop an environment where our team members would feel more like family than co-workers, where our offices felt more like homes than cold office spaces, and where our teams would be committed to deliver hard work and excellence to clients. We have learned so much over the years and are constantly finding new ways to enhance our culture, which has definitely paid off in so many ways!

Millennials have grown to be the largest generation in the workforce. With a love for technology, personal connections and collaboration, the millennial generation is truly changing the way teams view a typical working environment, and it is critical for today’s businesses to adapt to these needs and desires in order to attract and retain the nation’s top talent. Rather than seeing working and living as completely separate entities, millennials prosper from an environment that combines the two. With Hughes Marino recently being named one of the Best Workplaces for Millennials by Fortune Magazine, and with our experience of working with hundreds of millennial-owned companies at any given time, we have been able to pinpoint exactly what our largest workforce is looking for when considering a company to call home.

In today's highly competitive business climate, creating an outstanding company culture is critical to attracting the nation's top talent. While drawing talent to a company is one battle, an even larger challenge is retaining an amazing workforce.

We believe what differentiates a great company from a good one is a culture that feels more like a family than a place of work. That is what we have always strived to do since we first opened our doors many years ago. Our unique culture is something we take great pride in, and year after year it has led us to be named one of the top places to work in the country. Some of our proudest accomplishments have been the recognition by Fortune Magazine and Entrepreneur as a top company culture, and we are forever grateful.

One of the most impactful decisions a student can make after college is selecting a career path. Stressful? Yes. Intimidating? Definitely. Life changing? Absolutely. But where do you begin? While the feat may be intimidating, the path to getting there is obvious: do absolutely everything you can now to prepare yourself for success in the future. Feeling overwhelmed? You’re not alone! At a recent USC career fair Tucker Hughes shared three valuable tips on how to achieve both a fulfilling professional and personal life.

Entering into a new year always brings about a sense of renewal, and a recommitment to resolutions to be our best selves. At Hughes Marino, we constantly strive to bring out the best in each other and our team as a whole. A few years ago Senior Vice President (and resident life coach) John Jarvis set out on a mission to help our team practice being impeccable with our word. He wanted to create something fun, yet meaningful, where our entire team could achieve one goal a month together, and our inspiring mini goals program was born.

People are always asking us what makes Hughes Marino so special. It all comes back to our amazing team of people and the core values they embody. In creating this video, I wanted to tell the story of the ten core values that define us, and how they came to be.