Category — Leadership

My new iPhone 4s arrived finally arrived this past weekend. My oldest son and I opened the package with much anticipation and we immediately dropped what we were doing to configure the device. Among the many new features made part of the 4s is Siri – the speech recognition device which, as Apple advertises, “Understands what you say, knows what you mean, and takes dictation.” So, gone are the days when I have to manually type a query into Google to search for a nearby Sushi restaurant, find directions, or, get this – type to text or email. From now on, all I have to do is talk. So, over the weekend I dictated and had Siri read aloud roughly 100 text messages sent and received. I quickly grew so accustomed to iPhone dictation that I became annoyed when I had to manually type an email on my Mac later that evening. On one hand, I felt more efficient, on the other hand I questioned if I was simply becoming lazy…

Recent events in the market, including the drawn out debate over the budget ceiling, Friday’s downgrade of the US credit rating and today’s downgrade of Freddie & Fannie by Standard & Poor’s, coincide with new data that show the broader economic recovery has slowed in recent months. Bet I’m not telling you anything that you didn’t already know.

These developments, alongside heightened volatility in stock markets, have obviously prompted concerns about the resilience of the commercial real estate recovery. In assessing what all of this means for the investment outlook, our clients are looking to us for leadership and a more balanced, long-term assessment of the future. Along those lines, and while I could certainly fill this post with a summary of the downside risks stemming from recent events which have recently imbued the blogosphere, the following is a different but pragmatic take on the road ahead – the market is currently sensitive to the downside risks, but it is also prone at this juncture to discount positive information. There is some good news, which stands apart from the cacophony of recently sounded panic alarms.

Today’s post won’t be long, but I think perhaps brevity is well suited for the message. It was Shakespeare who said “brevity is the wit of soul.” – I tend to concur. While today’s message is specifically directed at our Advisors, I hope others that read it will take away positive, actionable insights as well.

For nearly 20 years, Sam Zell, the grave dancing, yet eternally optimistic public and private entrepreneurial investor, has issued hard hitting prognostications. In typical, creative, Zell fashion, he delivers his predictions for the year ahead in the form of year end gifts – bronze encased music boxes. Redesigned each year with a new look and feel, their one commonality is that all of the boxes share one feature – when you press a button, you are rewarded with the music of a popular tune, accompanied by lyrics, written (but not sung) by Zell, wherein he expresses his current view of the world.

My question today is a simple one: What’s your vision for the future and what are you doing about it? Much has been written about surviving the downturn – what to do now, the “new normal” and other tips for how to navigate current market conditions. And while I certainly have no gripes about being in the moment from a tactical perspective, I’m concerned that as an industry we don’t lose sight of the value of looking forward. In today’s post I’ll share my thoughts on the importance of looking forward.

Are you a commercial real estate specialist or generalist? As the CEO of one of the country’s largest commercial real estate firms, I’ll share with you that your answer to the aforementioned question is very telling to your peers, clients and employers alike.  Your answer will have a direct impact on your credibility, earning power and your ability to survive market volatility over the long-term.  In today’s post, I’ll weigh-in with my opinion on the age old debate of “generalist vs. specialist.”

While I don’t normally share specific company performance information in this venue, I thought many of you might enjoy the opportunity to learn more about the company I lead.  The above video highlights some of my comments from the recent Sperry Van Ness State of the Company address. Those of you familiar with, or who have interest in the commercial real estate industry will find our company performance over the last year to be nothing short of remarkable.  I’m truly honored to lead such a wonderful and talented group of Advisors, whose differentiated, “Client’s Interests First,” operating philosophy has created amazing benefits for our clients and for the Sperry Van Ness brand. I would invite you to read a press release further describing our plans for the future. Given the recent market dislocation, and the current commercial real estate industry landscape, a focus on growth, driven by smart and creative acquisitions, is an initiative that we feel will yield strong returns for all of our constituencies.

While commercial real estate markets are not static, I’m always surprised by the number of so-called “professionals” that operate as if they were. As the landscape around them changes, rather than understanding and adapting to new market drivers, many just prefer to pretend as if it’s business as usual. It is those practitioners that adapt to the fluidity of the market that become innovative market leaders, and who thrive during even the toughest of market conditions. Likewise, it is those practitioners who refuse to change with the times that push themselves into irrelevancy, and eventually become self-inflicted casualties of the weeding-out process.

Today’s post may be short in length, but I hope you’ll agree that it is powerful in terms of content. I’m not going to pontificate about the state of the current market, nor am I going to prognosticate on where I believe the market will trend in 2010. What I am going to do is pose the following question: “What will YOU do differently in 2010?” You cannot simply repeat your 2009 performance in 2010 and expect the outcome to be any different. The message today is a simple one…The market doesn’t matter, but YOU do!

As a former commercial real estate practitioner, and the current leader of a national firm, I have been exposed to thousands of transactions and have witnessed countless examples of professionals doing the wrong thing for their clients, and what they consider to be the right thing for their pockets. There is a huge difference between doing the right thing and doing things right. A bigger problem is that there seem to be fewer people who recognize this difference. In today’s post I’ll share my thoughts about these two similar sounding, yet often very different positions.