With her soft-spoken, almost meek manner, it seems unlikely Carlotta Landschoot would become a driving force behind a sprawling real estate corporation.
But her outer deference belies an inner tenacity, fondness for number-crunching and keen business sense.
“I’m so glad she’s on my team,” said her brother, Bill Watson III. “When it comes right down to looking at the details, she’s a grinder and she’s going to win. I can’t imagine having to compete against her.”
A 1980 graduate of The Bolles School who is executive vice president of Watson Realty Corp., she began life as an admittedly dutiful child who made her bed every morning and caused few problems for her parents.
“From a parental standpoint, the rules were a little more stringent for me,” she said, alluding to her position as the oldest of three children of William Watson Jr., the founder of the company. “Mom and Dad wouldn’t let me go to a concert. They would drive Bill to them.
“I guess they were tired by that point,” she said.
But the eldest Watson was tireless in his insistence that his children make their own way.
For Landschoot, the drive seemed to come naturally.
From college sororities to her business career, she took on leadership roles wherever she went. It’s not necessarily a drive for success, she said, but a drive to make a difference.
“It makes me feel really good when someone asks me to be a part of their team because they know I’m going to do something that needs to be done,” she said.
She knew her strength was in numbers and data from an early age, so there was no hesitancy when she chose accounting as her major at Clemson University.
After graduating in 1984, she earned a Master in Business Administration from Florida State University in 1986. The choice most college graduates face of whether to go home or strike out on their own never was a question for Landschoot.
“Dad didn’t want to give us anything we didn’t earn,” she said. “He wanted us to go out and prove ourselves. And I’ll tell you, that was the best thing I ever did.”
Landschoot landed a position as a CPA with Price Waterhouse in Orlando. Though the pace was hectic, she cut her teeth in the business world by auditing companies from Disney to Universal Studios.
“I’d call her on Saturdays when she was down in Orlando and she’d be working,” her father said. “I’d call her on Sundays and she’d be working.
“I told her, if you’re going to work that hard, you need to be working for the family.”
Landschoot was living the young, unmarried professional life. Her car was brought to her at airports along with all the other perks that come with working for one of the largest auditing firms in the world. But the breakneck pace was hitting her where it hurt.
“One Thanksgiving — I was closing on her — I got a lucky break,” her father said.
For the second year in a row, she had tickets to Clemson’s football bowl game and would again be unable to attend due to work.
“I said, ‘I can guarantee you that you will get to go to your bowl games,’“ Watson Jr. said.
Many fathers could be expected to do everything in their power to have their daughters home. That was not remotely the elder Watson’s reasoning, according to his son.
“That’s not his style,” Bill Watson III said. “If he didn’t think he was going to get a tangible benefit — not just that she was going to help — you’re not coming.”
Though a desire to have his daughter back in Jacksonville was not a major factor for Watson, the move, of course, was perceived as such by some employees.
At the time, Landschoot was still Carlotta Watson and the nepotism discussion was unavoidable, she said.
“Absolutely, there was that perception,” she said. “On the front end, a lot of people thought I got the job because of my heritage.
“So you have to prove yourself and our father helped us do that,” she said.
Landschoot joined the company as the assistant comptroller working for the chief financial officer. When he retired a year later, she moved to that position. However, where she hit her stride was in the real estate company’s relocation services.
When large corporations pay for their executives to move, it can be a huge undertaking. The moves can include guaranteed buyouts of the employee’s home, moving household goods, house-hunting trips, cost of living adjustments and tax preparation.
That’s where a relocation service like Watson’s steps in.
Her name came with scrutiny, but it also came with clout.
The head of the company’s relocation services found he had much more influence by bringing along someone with the last name Watson when he talked with companies about doing business with the firm.
In addition, Landschoot had managed to turn Price Waterhouse on to Watson’s relocation service when she was employed there.
“When the head of the department made a lateral move, he recommended that I replace him,” she said.
During her 10-year tenure as head of relocation services, Landschoot grew the department and instituted several initiatives, including information phone lines and, later, e-business.
Finally, she made the move to upper management.
For her father, it was an easy decision.
“She’s very conscientious, dependable, but that is combined with a softness to be very concerned about who she’s working with,” her father said, echoing a philosophy for which he’s known. “She can be tough. She will hold to standards, but she’s also very nice.
“If you’re nice to people, you can be a little tougher,” he said.
Landschoot said her proudest achievement has been lifting the company’s profile through Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, an organization with more than 550 member companies in 60 countries.
Watson Realty has won the organization’s highest award four times. One other company has won it five times, with no other firm winning more than once.
At the organization’s convention in Las Vegas a few years back, Landschoot found herself sharing podiums with her father. Watson was chairman of the board and she was head of the advisory council.
“No one knew we were father and daughter until he told them and flashed a picture of me as a toddler at a parade in Downtown Jacksonville up on the big screen,” she said.
At heart, there is a certain portion of that dutiful young girl that remains.
“I still make my bed every morning,” she said.