"Be a good leader" and a decision-making masterclass

The energy in the room was electric as Brian welcomed attendees.

“What a thrill it is to be here and feel the momentum we have together at this marvellous event,” he said.

“We want to be your springboard. Our job is to put spring in that springboard, for you to jump on. The harder you jump on us, the higher you are going to go.

“One of the most incredible breakthroughs my family has ever had was meeting Boris Groysberg,” Brian said.

“He has given us the confidence to go for it, have ambition, and constant determination. Nothing could be better than opening our conference today than hearing from Boris.”

Boris, a long-time friend and advisor to the White family and author of a Harvard Business School case study on the Ray White Group, reflected on his time with the family, both inside the classroom and out.

“I’ve had Brian and his three sons in my classes and it has been an absolute privilege,” he said.

“One of the things Brian has done so well is know how to make decisions, which is where this session was inspired from.”

Groysberg brought a global lens to the conversation, pointing out that only one out of 200 companies survives more than 100 years, and only one in 1,000 CEOs leads a business for more than 50 years. Ray White, remarkably, has achieved both.

To explore leadership under pressure, Boris took the audience back to 1961 and the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba. The United States, reacting to Fidel Castro’s rise to power, trained 1,500 Cuban exiles to try and overthrow him. It was a disaster. Hundreds were killed or captured, and the world was left stunned.

“Fifty of the best and brightest made this decision,” Boris said.

“The decision ended up being really bad. While some might ask how they could be so stupid, the better question is, how could they be so human?”

He explored the flawed tactics used: economic sanctions, low-level sabotage, and even fabricated incidents to justify invasion. These were hallmarks of groupthink and poor framing, mistakes that have defined some of the worst decisions in modern leadership.

Drawing the contrast to Ray White’s own history, Brian White walked the audience through one of its most defining turning points.

Brian’s father, Alan White, once received an offer from LJ Hooker to buy the business and turn Ray White into LJ Hooker Queensland. It was a moment of enormous pressure and soul-searching. After weeks of deliberation, Alan stood up in front of the team and declared, “I have an announcement to make, and I have decided not to sell.”

Shortly after, Alan appointed Brian to lead the company, following the passing of Brian’s mother. His parting words were simple and powerful: “Be a good leader.”

Fueled by that moment, Brian embarked on a journey to expand the business nationally. He travelled to America, studied global real estate models, and eventually formed a partnership with ERA, securing an international brand presence that gave Ray White legitimacy beyond Australian borders.

“People would ask, ‘Who is Ray White?’” he said. “ERA gave us credibility, but it was our marketing and our auctions that made us unique. We’ve never drifted from that belief.”

He emphasised that success has never been about luck, but about consistency and clarity. “When people ask me why this has worked out so well, I always put it down to our belief in marketing and auctions. We’ve made an effort to drill that home. We understand that there are just cycles in this industry. Our belief in auctions has never wavered.”

Boris then returned to the broader topic of decision-making, outlining the essential ingredients of wise leadership. Among them, the importance of framing problems broadly, applying time pressure to sharpen decisions, and avoiding psychological traps such as escalation of commitment, when leaders continue on a path even after clear signs it isn’t working.

He also warned against some of the most destructive patterns in decision-making: intimidation, detachment, role confusion, and above all, groupthink.

“Groupthink is probably the biggest destroyer of effective leadership decisions,” he said. He showed archival footage and audio from the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, illustrating how close the world came to nuclear war, and how critical decision-making frameworks made all the difference.

“Had the missile crisis occurred before the Bay of Pigs failure, and had JFK made the same kind of decisions, the results could have been catastrophic,” he explained.

The final takeaway was powerful. One poor decision, like in Cuba, cost thousands of lives. One great decision, like the choice not to sell Ray White, safeguarded the future of an iconic company.