Creating a Culture of Flexibility and Empowerment

ATLANTA— The commercial real estate industry competition is cutthroat. Employees make the difference between a sound strategy that succeeds and fails.

GlobeSt.com caught up with Bryan Gershkowitz, COO of RADCO, one of the nation’s top opportunistic multifamily investors to get some thoughts on how to create a culture of flexibility and empowerment. You can still read part one of this exclusive interview: RADCO COO Reveals Structural Challenge Strategies.

GlobeSt.com: How do you create a culture of flexibility, so your organization can pivot when opportunity arises?

Gershkowitz: Three components create a culture of flexibility at RADCO: being able to adapt, innovate, and evolve by ensuring our employees understand the fundamentals of our business; empowering employees through training and promoting from within; and creating an environment with a strong entrepreneurial tilt.

We focus on deep knowledge of the fundamentals of this industry. With these basic building blocks, our employees are more equipped to execute on the nuances of our business plans and be able to adapt our plan along the way as opportunities arise.

Focusing on the fundamentals also feeds into how we empower employees through training. We have implemented a best-in-class rotational analyst program for recent college graduates that teaches the components of the investment cycle that drive our business. This broad introduction to the investment cycle gives our investment analysts the building blocks to understand how different decisions impact investments and the company as a whole.

GlobeSt.com: How does RADCO empower employees to succeed at high levels?

Gershkowitz: Additionally, we have a truly unique 18-month program for new property managers, called the LEAD program. This program arms recent college graduates with everything they need to know to be successful, through both course learning and hands-on experience. The program covers not only RADCO’s operations, but also provides insight into the investment cycle, thereby bridging that gap between the investment and operations sides of our business.

We further empower employees by promoting from within and allowing them to take risks. Giving our people greater authority and responsibility as they grow with the company creates leadership among those who already know our culture.

Finally, our entrepreneurial tilt encourages our employees to think broadly and ask the tough questions. We champion those who bring new ideas to the table to test, rather than just sticking to the same standards. One example of this is the LEAD program itself. This was an idea incubated internally by staff; one that has come to fruition and helped drive RADCO’s success.

GlobeSt.com: How can you use your company’s departmental diversity as an advantage?

Gershkowitz: Our departmental diversity has created clear vertical and horizontal structures that allows the company to see our departments both individually and as a whole. This has provided us with the opportunity to create a consistent, company-wide culture, promoting greater collaboration throughout the acquisition and ownership cycle, efficiencies in communication, and consistency in decision-making.

Ultimately, our departmental diversity has added value to the company by creating more capacity for our employees and has added value to our investments through better and more coordinated execution of our business plan.