Inaugural Blog Post – Welcome

Welcome to the MaggiacomoBlog – I know, I know, another blog??? And why now Kevin…aren’t you a little late to this social media thing? These are fair questions to be sure, and I’ll do my best to answer them in the text that follows. But before I go any further, I want to introduce myself to those of you not familiar with my background. I am currently the President and CEO of Sperry Van Ness International, the 12th largest commercial real estate brokerage firm in the world with more than 950  advisors in 3 countries, 38 states and 153 markets and having completed more than 39 billion dollars in sales volume on 12,000 commercial real estate transactions in the last 4 years. I worked my way up the food chain at SVN, joining the firm on September 11^th 2001 to help facilitate our national expansion. I later served as VP of our franchise business, EVP of SVNI, and COO before being appointed President last year. Prior to my time at SVN I, I served as an advisor for RTE Group, a telecommunications real estate advisory firm, spent two years facilitating business development for Costar Group, and began my real estate career in 1995 at CRESA Partners, Boston.  Enough about me….

Okay, back to the original questions: why a blog and why now? I happen to possess a passion for two age old disciplines: communication via the written word, and applied critical thinking. With a penchant for these two disciplines, how could I possibly pass-up blogging? It is also important for you to understand that as I assumed the role of President and CEO back in December, I committed to myself and to my board that I’d take an aggressive and active role in expanding my role within the industry, as well as broadening the reach of our voice in the marketplace. While most of my peers have yet to embrace the blogosphere, I’ve never been accused of being bashful, but more importantly, I can’t think of a better way to communicate with my stakeholders. So, after having worked with an incredible team to restructure Sperry Van Ness (we were the first of the nationals to act in Dec, 2007), turning our model into a franchise only, scalable, sustainable and healthy business, I felt it was time to issue periodic commentary and to reach out for feedback.  In my role as President & CEO, I highly value the input of our clients, advisors, lenders, investors, and partners. I therefore felt there was no better forum to communicate this message than via this inaugural blog post…

The world has a few great thinkers, and many a pontificator who thinks they’re great. I don’t really fall into either camp, but in the weeks and months ahead via this medium, I hope to simply bring you a combination of personal thoughts, professional observations, corporate announcements, pithy musings, the occasional rant, and other topical content of interest in order to challenge your thinking and to hopefully make a positive impact in your world. 

So, why the changes you ask? It is important for you to understand that all the recent corporate changes you have witnessed in this first half of 2009 have been in direct response to your feedback and input. The simple truth of the matter is that you have spoken, and unlike many service providers in the market place, we have listened. In the text that follows, I’ll provide you with three representative examples of some of the more noticeable changes, but I’ll also provide a summary of what those changes mean to you, and things you can look forward to in the months ahead:

• Our Tag Line: The bottom line is that we’ve embarked upon the path of reengineering our brand to more closely reflect our attitude, culture and brand promise. The first step in this process was introducing a new corporate tagline. While the spirit of our old tagline “Maximum Competition Equals Maximum Value” remains entrenched in our credo and our methodology, our new tagline “Your Creative Edge” sets a new tone for how we’ll communicate, collaborate, and innovate with our customers and partners moving forward. The new tagline provides a simple, and clearly communicated, direct correlation to providing our clients with a much needed edge in an increasingly tough and competitive market.  There are new buyers, sellers, rules and regulations, and thus the need to be creative and innovative in resolving complex real estate issues will be keys to success for the foreseeable future. In a business known for its self-centered competiveness, we built our business model (and brand) on a very simple premise – a total commitment to a customer centric culture, while breaking the rules of the non-cooperative broker establishment with our philosophy and process designed for clients, not our own self-interests.  This has been our consistent strategy, not one we adopt when it suits our needs, but simply because we passionately believe this is the way it should be – We believe these are the primary value propositions that our clients look for when selecting their professional advisors, and they are clearly two of our main business drivers.

• The Sperry Van Ness Asset Recovery Team: Launched late last year, this group of 65 advisors specializes in distressed asset sales and provides immediate, nationwide  underwriting and disposition solutions to financial institutions and real estate clients with distressed portfolio assets. Sperry Van Ness is the only national commercial brokerage with an integrated auction division, which will play an active, important and valuable role in the distressed asset arena for years to come.  Collaborating with 950 Sperry Van Ness “boots on the ground” the “ART” has coverage in “A” markets throughout the US, but has the most comprehensive footprint in the industry in “B” and tertiary markets, which are homes to thousands of distressed assets.  Sperry Van Ness remains unique in this regard. 
   

• The Sperry Van Ness Magazine: You’ll notice that we have released The Advisor   which is just another example of the steps we’ve taken to add value to your interactions with our firm. Here, we’re making substantial, but smart investments in expanding our efforts at providing you with market data, industry information, and timely advice to better help you manage market complexities.

I realize that today’s post was a bit lengthy given the medium, but because it was my first, I wanted to take the time to lay a solid foundation. In the weeks and months that follow I’ll continue to announce new roll-outs designed to continue our focus on improving your customer experience with Sperry Van Ness. And have no fear…I won’t hesitate to offer my thoughts, commentary and updates on industry current events. As always, I welcome your comments, input and feedback.