I’m sure you all receive some set of research reports on a monthly, quarterly and/or annual basis. Even if you don’t you know what they are – those text and pie chart heavy documents that go through the macro trends of a particular topic. In real estate, everyone puts out their own version with a…
The Changing Face of Retail
CNN.com ran an article this weekend on retail “showrooming” by consumers. It’s an article that anyone who’s followed the rise of Amazon.com saw coming more than 5 years ago. Consumers have always chased the best price for an item. Before it was malls – people would go from store store to store looking to find…
Sometimes it’s not about Customer Service…sometimes you just do Right
When you are in consulting you will occasionally come across those times when you have a client who is absolutely wrong and refuses to understand the right way. This is a situation known as no-win and one which you will discover what you’re made of. There are two ways to handle this situation: Support the…
Aren’t Real Estate Services REALLY About the non-Real Estate Stuff?
What is real estate? Fundamentally it’s buildings and space and an address. More metaphysically though it’s the space that supports a business. It’s the gas in the motor so to speak. There aren’t a ton of real estate people (on the services side) that come from operations. Most have always been in real estate or…
Secret (hidden) data gems.
There are sites that have a lot of really cool and probably highly valuable information that is locked away and I’m not even sure that the companies themselves are leveraging. Things like: LinkedIn: Who is the most networked man on the internet? Note that this is probably very different from the person with the most…
Maybe I’m confused on what “innovation” really is…
HBR. They can be hit or miss but somehow I find myself scratching my head over one of their latest posts about US innovation “malaise.” I look around and see all kinds of innovation – it’s just that very little of it is coming out of big corporations. There’s a new dichotomy in organizations. Big…
Say it with authority – and then set expectations
There’s a big difference between the result you really want and the result you know you’re going to get. Shooting for a better outcome than you want to end up with is the best way to hedge against the delta. Once you throw out the high end result it’s then important to manage the process…
70% Complete vs. “Good Enough”
There is a lot out there about pushing product before it’s “complete.” Some businesses and teams are comfortable with delivering a product that is 70% complete and then iterating until it meets the market’s desires. Then there are the teams that release at 70% complete and believe they are done. There’s a subtle mindset involved…
Roles and the chameleon.
Adaptability. That’s the name of the game we play. Real estate markets are always changing. Our clients’ needs are always shifting as their business drifts in different directions. Sales pitches need to be adapted as the competition catches up to what we are doing. Adapt or die to paraphrase Darwin. When you are with groups…
Disclosure of interests
I find it interesting to learn the biases of those that I read. So I thought I’d share a few of mine in the interest of letting you know a few reasons you really shouldn’t be following me after all. 1. Ender’s Game is the greatest book ever written. The Godfather is a close second….