Frye asserted that his company has "the most aggressive training program in the industry." About one-third of that training is behavioral, focused on team-building rather than nuts-and-bolts procedural points, he added. He acknowledged that because most of its marketing is done under the Colliers name, FirstService is not widely known--but, he said, it's the fourth-largest commercial real estate services company in the world after CB Richard Ellis, Jones Lang LaSalle and Cushman & Wakefield.

Jaccom predicted a period of growth during the currently turbulent market. "We're in expansion mode," he said. "There will be no layoffs," in contrast to other firms that are cutting back. Jaccom added, however, that new hires at Williams would not be evaluated simply on their deal velocity, but also on their ability to fit into the client-first model. He asserted that FirstService would be the world's number-one commercial real estate company "within five years."

The integration of Williams into FirstService and the expansion of the local company's capabilities will be done methodically, Jaccom said. "We're not going to do it haphazardly and we're not going to cherry-pick," he said. "We're going to execute it like a military maneuver."