Although there was not a right or wrong answer, the question I posed to Peter John Holt, executive vice president and general manager of Holt Cat in San Antonio, wasn’t necessarily fair.
“So if you had to choose between hunting for a muy grande or sitting courtside at a Spurs play-off game, which would you choose?”
Holt, whose family owns majority interest in the San Antonio Spurs, countered, “Playoff game or finals?”
“Finals.”
“That, then, is a very good question,” he said. “Fortunately, though, I’ve been blessed to harvest my share of big bucks because deer season in Texas doesn’t run into June and overlap with the NBA Finals.”
Laughing he admitted that he’d actually been on the horns—or the claws as it were—of that particular dilemma. It was 2013 and the first time the Spurs squared off against the Miami Heat in the finals. The series directly conflicted with a long-planned and long-awaited Montana bear hunt with his closest friends.
“The bear won—literally,” Holt, who is an avid bowhunter, said. “We walked about 10 miles every day at 10,000 foot altitude and never pulled the bow. It was a life lesson in patience.”
Holt, a self-described “go-go-go” guy, cherishes his time in the wilderness because it allows him to slow down and focus on the things that are important.
“The trip was such a good lesson in the importance of the journey, not the result,” Holt said. “I was with my best friends. We saw moose wandering around, elk calving and trout rising from pristine streams. We were in nature and in the moment.”
He added, “Now don’t get me wrong. I will pick a different outfitter, go back to Montana and God willing get a bear—but it was a very good trip.”
In 2016, Holt and his sister, Corinna Holt Richter, began the process of buying their parents out of Holt Cat, the largest Caterpillar dealership in the nation. As they take the helm of a business that can be traced back to their great-great grandfather, Benjamin Holt, who developed and manufactured the first track-type tractor, Holt is aware of the legacy.
“It’s an honor to carry on the business,” Holt said. “Stewarding a legacy business is akin to stewarding a legacy ranch: we’re providing growth and stability so that the next generation can participate.”
The Holt family has a long legacy with the land. Peter Holt, an avid outdoorsman, was born in Peoria, Illinois and reared in an industry that was directly tied to land. He came to Texas when his father opened a Caterpillar dealership in Corpus Christi, which the younger Holt eventually expanded into present-day Holt Cat. Julianna Hawn Holt grew up as part of a farming and ranching family who split their time between Nueces and Gonzales counties.
“My mother and father were the ones who showed me the value of land ownership and land stewardship in a very personal way,” Holt said. “My mother introduced me to production agriculture—and the very important idea that humans can benefit from the land and give back to the land. My father taught me the same lesson about wildlife and its management.”
The elder Holts knew that life on the land would teach their children life lessons and help instill values such as honesty, innovation and commitment. They lived on a ranch in Blanco and commuted daily to San Antonio for work and school.
“In hindsight, it had to have been hard on my parents, but it was great for me,” Holt said. “I got to grow up with horses, cattle and hunting. I was a bad little kid, who probably got a Red Ryder BB gun way too early.”
Hunting, whether it was joining family and friends at their ranches around the state, or getting outdoors on their own property, was central to the Holt family experience. His childhood was filled with multi-family jaunts on quail buggies, where the kids chased lizards and rabbits while the adults set out after a covey of bob whites, and a lot of early mornings and late afternoons in deer blinds.
“I really liked hunting with Dad better than Mom just because Mom was so serious about it,” Holt said. “She loves hunting, but she’s also very goal-oriented.”
One afternoon Holt, who was eight or nine years old at the time, was hunting with his mom on the Prade Ranch in Real County. They had gotten themselves situated in a traditional rifle blind set up in close proximity to a corn feeder. When the feeder didn’t go off as scheduled, his mother dispatched young Holt to set it off. Her final instructions? “Act like a deer.”
“I thought she was teasing, so I just took off walking across the pasture to the feeder until she opened the window and made it clear she was not joking,” Holt said.
The youngster took her at her emphatic word.
“I put my fingers up like antlers and started walking slowly—starting, stopping, sniffing the air and arching my back,” Holt said. “I finally made it to the feeder and set it off.”
His ruse worked. Later that afternoon, the duo harvested a doe.
“My mom said, ‘See, I told you. That doe wouldn’t have come in if you’d bumbled over there like a boy,’” he said. “In hind sight, hunting has never been just about the results, it’s always been about the good times.”
Good times tied to the land are experiences that Holt and his wife, Lauren Kate, actively seek out for their own daughters, who are one- and three-years-old.
“They already have their own boots,” Holt said. “One of the greatest joys of my life is taking them out to our place in Blanco. They don’t know what a fire truck is, but they can identify a corn feeder.”
The explorers load up in the ranch truck to search for skunks, foxes and deer, they are always on the lookout for some water to splash in or mud to play in. It’s not uncommon to stop and have a visit with the foreman about the status of the grass.
“When one of the girls says, ‘That’s a Hereford,’ it makes me smile,’” Holt said. “I try to expose them to ranching and the outdoors as much as I can, so they’ll love it as much as I do.”
Even this early in their lives, the land is leaving a mark.
“It’s fascinating for me to see the positive correlation between the time they spend on the land and their behavior,” Holt said. “When we spend time together outside, they’re happier, they eat better, they sleep better—and they get up ready to do it again the next day.”
While the land ownership is definitely pleasurable, Holt embraces the responsibility that is part and parcel of the privilege.
“As a land steward, my responsibility is to strive for balance in all things,” Holt said. “Balance, whether it’s introducing livestock or managing wildlife or optimizing the habitat, is the key to attain the elusive win-win-win-win-win for the environment, for wildlife, for agriculture, for society and for the family.”
Being a good steward and working for the greater good resonates with Holt.
“What’s the point of making money, having a great family and going on incredible hunts, if you’re not actively participating in life’s journey and striving to achieve a higher purpose,” Holt said. “You have to aim for a higher purpose for life to be truly worthwhile.”
CORE VALUES
The Value of Values-Based Leadership
At a time when many American businesses measure their success on sheer size and short-term financial gain, Holt Cat chose another route. Under the leadership of Peter Holt, the company developed an operating philosophy that measures success against a series of ethical principles.
“As a privately held company we have the ability to do things that a publicly held company can’t such as running our company based on our family’s core values,” Peter John Holt said. “We don’t have to blow in the wind because we have a set of values that guide every decision whether it’s hiring, compensation, collaboration, expansion or any other issue of day-to-day business.”
Values-Based Leadership, the company culture, is embraced from the top down and the bottom up.
“Values-Based Leadership is how we are expected to lead and make decisions and it is how we expect others to lead and make decisions,” Holt said. “Some people might argue that core values complicates doing business, but actually it simplifies it. There is a checklist and clear standards to weigh every decision against.”
Because the operating philosophy is built on ethics, its influence reaches beyond the company’s walls.
“My first conscience is God, my second conscience is my family and my third conscience is Values-Based Leadership and these core values,” Holt said. “If I’m at home and trying to cheat the lawn man out of $50, how can I stand in front of our employees and ask them to embrace our core values? They are something we live with every day in every aspect of our lives.”
The approach has been so successful at Holt Cat, the family has now created a consulting firm to share the operating philosophy with non-profits, schools and other organizations that could benefit.
“In business—and in life—doing what’s right is never a bad thing,” Holt said.
Peter Holt on the Texas Wildlife Association
“My dad served on the Texas Parks & Wildlife Commission. During his tenure, I learned in more detail what it takes from the public side as well as the private side to continue our legacy of conservation—and I encountered TWA for the first time.
Initially, I was involved in the fun stuff like the convention and the magazine. Then, some good folks on TWA’s Board of Directors reached out and invited me to serve on the Executive Committee. I’ll admit that I’ve been on a learning curve, but am preparing to give back hopefully.
In my life, I’ve been blessed with some really good mentors, including Larry Mills, who worked with my dad and grandad for more than 50 years. Larry helped us prioritize our hearts’ desires. For me those desires are wildlife conservation, improving youth through education and general community progress.
I only join organizations that hit those marks and where I feel that my skill set can help the organization achieve its mission and make a meaningful difference. TWA and I are a good fit.”
This article appears in the spring 2017 issue of TEXAS LAND magazine. CLICK HERE to read more and subscribe to future issues.