The Economy As An Excuse

By Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growthI don’t know about you, but I’ve heard far too many commercial real estate professionals use the current state of the economy as an excuse for whatever hardship they are currently facing. It was comforting to read a blog post by Kevin Maggiacomo, President and CEO of Sperry Van Ness entitled “Leadership in a Down Market” call a spade a spade…Not only is Kevin one of the few commercial real estate CEOs who has jumped on the social media bandwagon, but he also doesn’t mince words when assessing the current landscape (a man after my own heart). Kevin’s post eludes to a premise that I want to further flesh out in this week’s column, which is , that good businesses flourish regardless of current economic circumstances.Not only do good companies survive bad markets, the best run companies expand market share and brand equity with greater velocity, and in a more dominant fashion during down economic cycles. Furthermore, the market gives us daily examples that good deals get done even in the worst of times. My point is that while down markets will adversely impact the ill prepared, and even weed-out weaker players, the same is not true of well run companies or tier-one talent. As Kevin points out in his blog, and I concur, the real players do what they need to do to adapt their business models and market approaches to reflect the current times.In the brokerage sector, CBRE, Colliers and Sprerry Van Ness were quick to adapt their business models and operating practices to place a strong emphasis on the government and financial sectors to position themselves to serve the needs of the distressed assets community. In the transaction management industry, Real Capital Markets has developed an innovative platform to increase exposure and transparency associated with the marketing of institutional assets, and ARGUS and Yardi continue to pioneer financial analytics and business process automation. These are just a few examples of companies that continue to innovate and grow rather than complain and dwindle…If you’re thriving in this economy because of innovation, leadership, and professionalism leave me a comment, and if you think I’ve been too harsh vent away, but whatever you do, stop using the economy as an excuse and do what you need to do in order to position yourself for sustainable success…