He keeps the real estate agency running.

I have always been an early riser. I like to be at the office at 8 a.m. I begin my day by looking at the sales activity in my branches from the day before. I watch the company call load as well to see if we are getting a lot of incoming calls on our switchboard.

During the week I can gauge what my Sunday will look like in terms of the number of buyers we will expose our properties to. Sunday is the day the public comes through our houses.

After 31 years of running a company I have my own indicators for successful business.

My customer is the sales agent. The homebuyer is not my direct customer. I need to be out with the sales agents seeing what the company is doing right and what the company is doing wrong. The things we may have made mistakes at, I want to catch early on. I want to address whatever may keep the agents from being productive. The only way to do that is to hear from them first hand.

I spend a lot of my day going to branch offices and talking to sales agents so I am always in touch with the market and our market divisions. I have 1,300 or 1,400 sales agents and I speak to between 50 and 100 a day.

I think that they really appreciate it. They appreciate the fact that the president of the company is available to listen to their direct input about how the market is going and how advertising is being received. The fact that there is someone that they can connect with is very important to company culture.

I'm president of Prudential offices from Coachella Valley, through L.A., up to and including Santa Barbara, Luckily, I have a driver to take me to the offices so I can be productive. I'm on the telephone the whole time. I have an incredible assistant in my office who is on the computer all day, keeping me up to date with what is going on at the corporate office.

Most problems I face are no different from those faced by any other CEO: problems with personnel and equipment. I spend the most time worrying about issues that would affect the culture of the company.

Each company in the business arena has a company culture. Ours is agent-centric. If anyone were to describe a situation as not being agent-friendly, that's a problem that I will spend as much time as I need to address.

Usually I'll eat in the car. If not, I'm very prone to having working lunch meetings with a group of agents. I don't have a glamorous life. I'll have sandwiches in the conference room and we'll work during lunch.

On a daily basis, I am dealing with some charitable issue. The company has a charitable foundation. We take money out of every commission check for charity.

I feel that every company should be a friend to the neighborhoods from which we make their living, whether in supporting public schools, seeing-eye dogs, Alzheimer's research, or AIDS research.

I normally don't get home until 7 p.m. at night. I live in the hills directly above Beverly Hills. I might leave the office at night but I will visit an office or two on my way back.

--As told to Sarah Filus

John Aaroe

President

Prudential California Realty

John Aaaroe Division

Back Story: "I built my own real estate company. It became the most profitable company in the United States per agent. I sold it to Prudential and retired. A year later they offered to make me a partner in the company if I came back."

Relaxing: "I go to my weekend house in Palm Springs. I like to bicycle and float in the pool."

Origins: Born and raised in Los Angeles; graduated from USC.

Point of Pride: The $2.7 million his company has given back to the community through Aaroe Associates Charitable Foundation.