Secret of Success

Friday, March 12, 1999 | 10:28 a.m.

The head of the company that built the most expensive hotel in the world and an extravagant new resort opening on Mississippi's Gulf Coast next week chose not to talk about either in a seminar on success.

Mirage Resorts Chairman Steve Wynn instead discussed a high school graduation.

"Elaine (Wynn, his wife) and I got to go to a graduation ceremony recently," Wynn told about 8,000 people who gathered Thursday at the Thomas & Mack Center for Peter Lowe International's "Success 1999" program.

"It was for one of the housekeepers at the Golden Nugget and she proudly wore her cap and gown as her children watched her receive her GED," Wynn said. "To see the joy of self-fulfillment in her face ... that was success."

The Golden Nugget is Mirage's downtown Las Vegas hotel-casino.

Wynn used the story to illustrate his own viewpoint of why Mirage was ranked last month by Fortune as the nation's most admired company in the hotels, casinos and resorts industry. Wynn frequently has told audiences that he owes Mirage's success to the company's personnel.

It wasn't any different on Thursday when Wynn took the same stage as Elizabeth Dole, Gen. Colin Powell, Lou Holtz and Joe Montana and modestly acknowledged accolades with his trademark grin.

"It's all about HR, human resources," Wynn said. "It's not a department, it's THE department."

Wynn described how he "turned all our hotels into a campus" to allow employees to better themselves. It's one way, he said, that Mirage encourages its workers to feel better about themselves. That, he said, will translate into a better effort for the public.

"If people feel good about the enterprise, they will feel relaxed like an athlete and they will achieve their own aspirations," Wynn said.

"You want employees who say, 'Wow, this company has a new way of doing things,' instead of, 'This company hasn't told us anything.' "

Feeling good about the workplace, Wynn said, is what motivates him every day.

"Sometimes I just come in and draw a new hotel," he said. "That's one of the benefits of the office I hold."

Wynn credited Bellagio hotel-casino President Bobby Baldwin with keeping his management team motivated to find new ideas to enthuse employees about their work.

"When you're a manager, your job is to be popular, to be a cheerleader," Wynn said. "You have to have the ability to come up with ideas to keep people happy."

Part of that, he said, is to encourage employees to do good things for the community and Wynn is proud of his company's political clout.

"We have 100 percent voter registration," Wynn said. "Voting is a right thing to do and we have 90 percent of our people go to the polls. A little side effect is that we represent about 10 percent of the total electorate, so a lot of people pay attention to us."

Wynn uncharacteristically didn't talk about topics he's fond of addressing publicly -- his properties. Bellagio, the $1.6 billion resort that is the most expensive hotel in the world and has helped lead a resurgence in Las Vegas tourism in the past five months; and Beau Rivage, the $650 million resort opening Tuesday in Biloxi, Miss., have buoyed Wynn's life recently.

Wynn also made no references to the gaming industry.

But Lowe, whose Las Vegas seminar focused on success with integrity, made it clear that putting a local business leader on the agenda was no accident. The partisan crowd gave Wynn a standing ovation.