Manhattan-based NAI Global is one of two major companies boasting the most CCIM designees—Coldwell Banker Commercial is the other. For NAI president Jay Olshonsky, the designation is a critical part of his business. "We can pretty much guarantee owners and end users that they will have a CCIM-designated professional anywhere they need help," he tells Real Estate Forum. "The designation gives us a competitive edge. It means our people are bringing a certain level of background, training and credibility to an assignment."

In fact, it is such an essential part of the NAI culture that, despite a killer travel schedule, Olshonsky says that he is eager to be a keynote speaker at the group's upcoming Thrive annual conference in Austin. Thrive will also be the time for Steve Moreira to take the helm as 2016 president, accepting the gavel from Mark Macek, CCIM, owner of the Macek Cos. in Great Falls, MT.

OF SHOULDERS AND GRINDSTONES

"We offer commercial real estate practitioners the opportunity to elevate their business practices through focused education and networking, and the use of proprietary technology that works in conjunction with that education," says Moreira, who gained his CCIM designation in 1997.

But it's not easy. And maybe that's the point. The incoming president explains that the core coursework involves "160 hours of education, plus electives." He adds that members seeking the coveted designation typically take up to five years to complete the intensive curriculum. He likens the workload and the intensity to an MBA program. (The coursework required for the CCIM designation is comprised of four core courses and two electives.)

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In addition, those seeking the designation must submit a portfolio of qualifying experience that documents at least five years of continuous commercial real estate experience. "The portfolio is a standardized means to verify the quality of potential designees' work as commercial-investment professionals," Moreira says.

The upside—and this too is a point stressed by all of the CCIMs we spoke with—is that it's real-world education taught not by pedagogues but by real estate practitioners, boots-on-the-ground professionals. And because of the nature of work, as well as the technology now available, students have a choice of how they learn and can choose from online or live-class courses, or versions blending both.

A sampling of titles provides a sense of both the rigors and the breadth of the program: Real Estate Financial Analysis, 1031 Tax Deferred Exchange, Preparing to Negotiate, User Decision Analysis for Commercial Investment, Cross-Border Demand and Corporate Services Representation. The more than 40 courses listed in the curriculum are all categorized under one of six headings: Investment, Market Analysis, User Decisions, Business Practices, Economics and Taxation.

But the opportunity for education doesn't end there. Any member, in fact any commercial real estate professional, can keep up with market changes through the continuing education series offered by CCIM's Ward Center for Real Estate Studies. Typical workshops range from a half day to two days in length and are also offered in a variety of online and in-person venues.

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"As Steve said, our mission is to elevate our members to the highest level of success," says Robin Webb, CCIM, managing director for NAI Realvest in Orlando and 2016's president-elect. "And that means being able to speak whatever language your client engages in." A CCIM since 1984, Webb also sits on NAI Global's leadership advisory board.

But it also means flexibility, he adds: "The market has shifted. We have to train students to adjust to those changes and trends and understand product within those parameters [See Sidebar]. We'll educate almost 10,000 students this year, and about 4,500 of those will be in our core courses. So we have to keep the curriculum current and constantly reorient and change case studies."

Macek agrees that keeping up with the rapid-fire pace of industry issues and trends is critical to the very relevance of the association. "It's important that the strategic plan and its objectives are constantly evolving," he says, "because the world is changing around us; the economic environment and outside influences are changing all the time. As a result, the needs of our members are changing. So we have to be constantly vigilant that we're evaluating all of those things and making sure we're providing the best value for our membership that we can."

Summing up the goals of the educational initiative, Walt Clements, CCIM, the Institute's chief executive and EVP, says simply that the goal is "to teach the students the language of real estate," no matter how those above-mentioned trends redefine the practice of the craft.

GLOBAL, GRANULAR

At the end of the day, the goal is to cover the market, essentially to be there—wherever "there" is—and be ready to answer client questions. "Eighty percent of our membership is in secondary and tertiary markets," says Moreira, "which is really important because today, Wall Street owns Main Street, USA. We have boots on the ground in Albany, NY and St. Paul, MN as well as all the primary MSAs."

It's no surprise, then, that ongoing member support is also a critical part of the CCIM platform, reaching well beyond the classroom and into the field. Given the emphasis on a strong bench strength in markets of all sizes, that means reliance on other CCIMs for their expertise and robust local data analysis.

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To fill that first need, the Institute offers an online roster of CCIMs that any member—in fact any owner or user of real estate—can reach out to in markets across the globe, in cities of all sizes. "The designation is recognized for what it is," Moreira says, "a standard in commercial real estate excellence with a network of folks who can be depended on for their expertise in all markets and serve as a full-service resource to the institutional investor."

CCIMs filling that advisory role elevates (to invoke that word again) the industry beyond a simplistic transactional focus. "We aren't in the real estate business," says Clements. "We're in the information business. The information just happens to be about real estate. As service providers, our role is to gather the most information about any real estate decision and serve it up in a compelling and understandable format so our clients can digest it quickly, make a decision and move forward."

Two vital partnerships have helped CCIM achieve the goal of collecting and providing rock-solid information. One is with data provider Xceligent (a GlobeSt.com Thought Leader) and the other is with ESRI, a leading supplier of geographic information system software, web GIS and geodatabase management applications.

"Through the site, members can share commercial property information, intelligent maps, photographs and detailed property information," explains Jay R. Lucas, CCIM, a senior director of Cushman & Wakefield in Dallas. Both the ESRI offering as well as Xceligent's database offering were last year integrated into an umbrella technological platform called CCIM Tech.

That support, both in terms of classwork and ongoing services, doesn't begin and end in this hemisphere either. And while Steve Moreira does state frankly that the quality and accuracy of available data in other nations takes a deep dive in comparison to that available stateside, the degree of support offered by CCIM does not. The same level of education and networking backup is as strong in Asia as it is in Europe or Austin, TX.

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THE NEXT GENERATION

The technological emphasis is also important to CCIM's ability to reach all market participants in the face of another major shift--the rise of the Millennial. "As a senior instructor, I have lots of first-hand experience in the classroom with brand-new MBAs sitting on one side and 50-year-olds who haven't been in a classroom for 30 years on the other," says Webb. "The educational environment is very different today. We'll have 450 new designees this year, and two-thirds are under 40." Furthermore, nearly 60% of the total student body are 45 years old or younger.

And while one would assume that the technological aspects of CCIM speak especially to Millennial members, Clements takes a different view. "In order to join our faculty, you have to have a successful business of your own. And if you have a successful business, you're in technology."

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What Clements, and by extension the Institute, does embrace is mentoring. "We're training our faculty on how to train the Millennial members through ESRI," he says. "The younger generation is very good at finding data. But they need to marry that with the older generation's understanding and use of what these numbers mean."

And toward that end, CCIM created the University Alliance program, "an organized mentoring model where we connect experienced professionals with the younger generation in an effort to guide them along their early career paths," he explains (See Sidebar).

We mentioned at the top that you'd hear a lot about elevation when discussing CCIM. But there was another common thread expressed by virtually all the professionals—inside the organization and out—and the concept was trust. And of all those we spoke with, it was probably best expressed by Robin Webb:

"When I'm valuing a property, it's easy for me to call not only an NAI member but an NAI CCIM, which makes all the difference in the world in terms of trust. We know they have the skillset and ethics or they wouldn't carry the designation."

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