It's early June in Italy.
Surveying the infinity view from a rock ledge over the Mediterranean, I see a panorama of opportunities that might have been, or still could be.
I'm standing on Punta Caruso, at the Northwest tip of Ischia.
There's a storm a-sea in this otherwise placid palate of sun, salt air and teal water.
The crashing waves symbolize the chances we've had, individually and as an industry, to 'jump to the next curve' in an industry change sense. The waves are like those curves. They crest, and we pass them by - at least in most cases.
Ischia is an 18-square-mile volcanic 'isola' a short ferry ride from Pompeii, Naples, Sorrento or other towns on the Amalfi Coast. As inviting a location as it was for strategic and economic reasons when the ancient Greeks first came in the 8th Century B.C., earthquakes curtailed their expansionary ambitions here.
So this metaphor spanning the horizon of our work and our careers from the cliffs here; what's it about?
In a pointed way, it's about another sort of transformation; that some, if not many, people in CRE have always wanted to do: Become a true leader in the still understated campaign to make CRE an enterprise driver; or to become a strategist, not just an order-taker. It all underlies a compelling opportunity if not mandate to change our industry model. This tension between status-quo and new directions fuels the storm at sea in our own world, the domain of corporate real estate.
I happen to be with one of them, Ray Hoover.
Ray is the principal of Atlanta-based TVS Design. Three years ago, I spotlighted Ray's early effort to reduce risk by expanding on international staffing outside of North America. Risk reduction through talent diversification in emerging markets was the message. Since then, Ray began living in Dubai and has diversified the firm's client base so that business acquired in China, Africa and even Egypt have helped TVS stave off an otherwise disastrous two-year cycle for most architectural and design firms.
In his own way, Ray showed what it means to 'carpe diem.' He personifies the choices we have today and tomorrow to reinvent ourselves as an industry.
My thoughts wander off the isle to other CRE professionals I've talked with and learned from these past few years. I'd like to appreciate and recognize some of them, too, for what they have collectively dubbed as "the strategic mindset."
Call it the Industry Tracker Hall of Fame if you like. Each one told a compelling story inside Industry Tracker or LEADER Magazine, at Global Summits, in Discovery Forums, through State of the Industry Reports, or other channels like the Global Innovator’s Award.
In his or her own way, each occupies the 20 percentile in the 80/20 rule of early adoption on CRE’s supply side:
Rob Osgood, Flad Architects
Sven Govaars, MCR, SLCR, Gensler,
Keith Perske, Group 5 Consulting
Rex Miller, Mindshift Consortium
Kim Burt, Original Creative Coop BV
Craig Gillespie, Manhattan Software
Lori Brown, MCR, Brown Real Estate Advisors
Maureen Welch, MCR, Ernst & Young
Bill Knox, Cushman & Wakefield
David Mourning, Interior Architects IA
Despina Katsikakis, DEGW
Michael Graham, Titanic Quarter
Clay Nesler, Johnson Controls Inc.
Mark Gorman, Newmark Knight Frank
On the client side, we’ve tracked and profiled corporate occupiers who also understand the significance of effectiveness, starting with the strategic mindset:
Chris Hood, Hewlett Packard
Brian Schwagerl, ESQ, MCR, Hearst Corporation
Peter Doran, Nokia Siemens Networks
Jane Hamilton, ANZ Bank
Nigel Harris, MCR, Chevron
Lee Utke, MCR, Whirlpool Corporation
“The issue goes beyond CRE to the core of the company,” these forward-facing thinkers keep telling us.