Both Enterprise arms work together to leverage public and private resources. In addition to the Gulf Coast program, Enterprise launched the Green Communities initiative in 2004, which has since provided $570 million in equity, loans, and grants to more than 300 green affordable housing developments that will preserve and create more than 12,500 green affordable homes all designed to meet its internally created Green Communities Criteria (the only national standard offered specifically for affordable housing).
Not surprisingly, the opportunity to lead an organization with such a breadth of activity and clear mission drew what Harvey describes as “big names.” Koo prevailed because of her passion for affordable housing, devotion to Enterprise, and the board’s ultimate confidence in her ability to get things done. “We had a sensational list of people,” Harvey says. “[But] at the end of the day, the board felt that she was hands down the best candidate, in spite of bigger titles and bigger personalities. She had her finger on what needed to be done.”
New Direction
Koo was poised to inherit a strong organization. But founder Rouse’s influence was still sharply felt, and Koo wanted to blaze a new path. “We’ve had two CEOs in the past 25 years,” Koo says. “We don’t have that charismatic founder’s legacy anymore. Do I just continue Enterprise in its path? Or can I reflect on best practices and look forward to the next 25 years to anticipate some of the challenges as I craft solutions?”
She has decided to look forward. And Koo’s experience on the West Coast gave her a starting point. Under Enterprise’s old organizational structure, big decisions were made at headquarters in Columbia. That often meant that its satellite employees in places such as San Francisco and Los Angeles had to get their questions answered by 2:00 p.m. PST if they wanted to start a project that day.
The easiest way to fix that was to empower the staff in the field and, in some cases, move the decision makers out of the confines of the Columbia office space. While Enterprise is still deciding what is the right percentage of its staff to dedicate to this endeavor, there has been a 53 percent increase in the number of employees in the field since Koo became CEO on Jan. 1, 2007.
