On June 10, 2009 ULI Toronto hosted two of Canada’s most successful business leaders as they sat down with ULI members for a fireside chat at the National Club in Toronto. Ned Goodman of Dundee REIT was interviewed by his friend and colleague Michael Cooper. The format was informal and allowed the audience to observe a casual, yet dynamic exchange between two old friends.

Over the course of the evening, Ned shared his wisdom on a range of topics and experiences. Ned’s sincere and straightforward insight was well-received by the crowd. What came through most of all was his passion for his work and the people who work with him.

The following is a selection of our favorite moments.

ON THE BEST LESSONS LEARNED FROM GEOLOGY…
After completing a degree in geology from McGill, Ned began his career as a geologist for Noranda. He relates a lot of his business practice to the resource industry including his education on “discounted present value of future cash flow.” While fundamental in business today, in the early 60s discounting was not a regular process, though it was critical to the business in geology.

ON EARLY SUCCESS…
Ned started his first business in 1967, Beutel, Goodman & Company Ltd., pioneers in money management. The company began with only $700,000 and grew to over $10 billion in assets, by “shying away from the Nifty Fifty stocks.” As Ned said, “We were contrarians. We looked into gold and took advantage of the right macro theme at the right time.”

ON RECESSIONS…
The current recession was naturally a hot topic for event participants, but Ned is taking it in stride. “I’ve been through several recessions beginning with the 1959 resource recession. It was worse in the 1970s, it was a lot worse.” In his words, he likes to “swim against the tide.”

ON PARTNERSHIPS…
“I work with friends, who are partners, equal partners.” Ned has a star studded list of past business partners – Beutel, Lessard, Schulich and Zell. Ned says that the common theme among his relationships is that “every partner I’ve had, which would include you Michael, has become rich.” This response drew a smile and subtle acknowledgement from Michael and laughter from the audience.

ON WORKING WITH FRIENDS…
One of the audience members asked what Ned thought of the adage “never work with a friend.” Ned answered that “he and his partners always gave the same and took the same, and all came out a lot wealthier.” Michael agreed, asking rhetorically, “who else would you want to go through problems with if not your friends?”

ON LOOKING BACK…
Ned provided a modest vision of himself as a regular guy, saying “though I have probably made thousands of mistakes, I don’t look back – I will probably make even more mistakes.”

ON LOOKING AHEAD…
When asked how the next 25 years will look, Ned explained that “the 19th Century belonged to UK, the 20th Century belonged to the United States and the 21st Century belongs to the developing world.” In particular Ned shared his feeling that next 5 years look fantastic, and encouraged the audience to “watch where the wind is blowing” in Malaysia, China, Korea, Brazil etc. Ned emphasized that the wealth creation will come from the growing middle class in these countries.

ON HOW TO INVEST IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD…
When asked by an audience member where to invest in the developing world, Ned smiled and kept it simple: “It’s hard to know what to buy on your own…invest with Dundee.”

ON WHERE TO INVEST…
“Commodity markets are going to have a field day… we need time to extract the commodities out so the prices will go up to reflect reduction in short term supply.” When Michael asked Ned where one should invest if just starting out now, Ned recommended the resource industry. He also noted that real estate in Alberta is an investment that will grow in the future.

ON JOB SATISFACTION…
Ned said that he derives job satisfaction from “when you do your homework, you buy something and you win.”

ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT…
Ned explained that the key to environmental action is making it financially viable, stating that a “sustainable environment still needs to make money.” He recommended that audience members read Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller by Jeff Rubin.

ON THE SECRETS TO CONTINUED SUCCESS…
When asked whether luck had been central to his success, Ned responded “It wasn’t luck, it was persistence.” He believes that one of the secrets to successful money management is being able to predict human behavior. He eschews budgets and business plans which cause people to stop thinking for themselves. “People start working toward the budget instead of what they should be doing.” Instead Ned prefers to respond to trends and behaviours. He went on to say that he doesn’t feel as though he has yet achieved all that he can, and emphasized his aspirations to become even more successful in the future.

ON AVOIDING PITFALLS…
Michael asked Ned “is there anything you wish someone would have told you about, so you didn’t have to go through the pain?” Ned answered that “the biggest mistake is staying too long, believing too long” in a good thing. He admitted that in hindsight, it couldn’t have gone any other way for him than it did.

By Laurie Payne and Adrienne Smith