Looking Forward

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.

Look around the commercial real estate industry and you’ll find that many practitioners have taken shelter and have even found comfort in the weakened market as far as their low transaction and production levels are concerned. Other slightly more optimistic practitioners are working, but were perhaps late to the restructure game, are in “batten down the hatches” mode and are hyper focused on the “now.” With so much pressure to survive current challenges, my fear is that many will take their eye off the real drivers of long-term success: vision, strategy, and innovation.

There is no denying that the commercial real estate industry has struggled over the past 2 years. It is human nature when things are tough to get very tactical – survival mode requires you to live in the moment. That said, winning the battle does you little good if you lose the war.

Dr. Sam Chandon, of Real Capital Analytics, recently spoke at the SVN national conference, and had the following to say about U.S. sales volume: “Just as we found it hard to believe that 2007′s record setting sales volume levels would appreciably decrease, so goes the common belief that 2009′s extraordinary low sales volume levels will appreciably increase any time soon.” In other words, regardless of how you may feel about current market dynamics, the one thing I can assure you of, is that what we’re experiencing today, won’t be what we have to contend with tomorrow.

My challenge to you is to not confuse surviving with thriving. Take the lessons learned over the past two years and apply your new found tough mindedness to forward thinking actions. Begin to reevaluate your operating strategy, consider increasing investment back into your business, start applying strategic focus to preparing for where the market is going, because it will be there faster than you realize. And while it might be less dangerous to fail to capitalize on a market upturn than to over invest in your business too soon, the former failure is just as tragic – capitalizing on emerging markets, timing upturns, developing strategies that deliver results, and earning are why you are in business.

The bottom line is this…It is not possible to prepare for the future without anticipating the future. In fact, the most important job that I have as CEO of SVN is to describe the future, to anticipate what lies ahead. Your job as CEO of your practice, or as CEO of “You,” is to do the same.

If your comfort zone as a leader has been built around the discomfort associated with current market conditions, it is incumbent upon you to break out of this unhealthy mindset. You cannot grow a business by maintaining the status quo, and in fact, any attempt to do so is an exercise in frivolity. For the good of your business, to the benefit of those you serve, and for the betterment of the industry it is time to elevate your vision and begin to look forward.