I’ve been sitting in the car for long periods of time recently and one of the habits I’ve developed is scanning the radio for talk. Not the political stuff or national stuff. But local almost public access style talk. And it’s paid off with giving me lots to think about.
This week while cruising to Atlanta I came across a discussion around “What-if Conversations and Strategies.” I can’t remember where exactly I was or who was talking but it was so very applicable to everything we do in commercial real estate.
The main theory is that just having conversations around possible alternatives makes you more likely to find the ideal final result. It doesn’t have to be anything formal, just a simple 2 or 3 people sitting around a table conversation with the goal of exploring what else could be done.
- What if we actually could stay put in our current building and support our growth? How would that work?
- What if we were to open a new office somewhere else instead of just growing this one? What could we do to support it?
- What if we miss our growth targets after making this investment? Is it still justifiable?
- What if our growth is double what we expect? Do we have the flexibility to maintain it?
Just going through those lists of what could happen will help you to see the other sides of the problem. Our world is multi-faceted (word of the day!) and nothing is black and white. No matter how much we could wish that it was, complications are important to address.