September 26 2014
Two events in the last month gave rise to the focus of this month's article. The first involves a Millennial generation fellow I have known for a considerable period of time who is currently practicing law with a firm that represents large clients in the financial services industry. The second involves an Generation X female executive who, by any definition, qualifies to be called a digitally native CEO and has recently assumed a new position with a major brokerage firm.
What both of these individuals and situations have in common is that (1) they are both engaged in industries that are being heavily impacted by digital disruption (law and real estate); (2) they are both, by culture and training, driven to make things better wherever they are and whatever they are doing; and (3) they are both making significant career course changes based upon the failure of their civic or Boomer generation employers to acknowledge their desire to be collaborative within their respective organizations.
Despite the formidable amount of business (including real estate) literature that has been given over to the subject during the last two years, digital disruption remains a relatively obscure concept for most industry executives, managers and workers. While such a lack of knowledge might not normally have major consequences, in this day and age unawareness will be cataclysmic.
Neither of the above mentioned corporations could rationally claim that they have not received notice of the existence, nature or impact of digital disruption in their specific industries. Having assisted both of the individuals mentioned above to learn about digital disruption, there could be no question regarding either their knowledge or their commitment to assisting their employing entities to meet the challenges of digital disruption.
So, what happened? Both of these folks approached the principals of their respective firms and indicated their concerns and observations that the firm was not keeping pace with current developments in their industry. Both called attention to the fact that the attorneys and agents over which they had supervisory responsibility were not confident in the firm's ability to meet ongoing challenges. Both were told that such matters were not within their area of responsibility. Both have now moved to firms that are tackling the challenges of digital disruption head on and both of their former firms have lost individuals who would have been key to their future success.
How does this happen? One would suspect that arrogance and fear played a role. But beyond such simplistic observations, how is it that so many brokerages across the country are meeting the digital disruption challenge by sticking their heads in the sand and engaging in denial?
Digital disruption isn't a black swan that sneaks up on an industry overnight. Rather it is a magnetic force whose origins can almost always be traced back a number of years. It attaches itself to unnecessary friction between consumers and businesses caused by redundancy, broken trust, limited access, waste and unnecessary complexity.
The solution to digital disruption isn't panic or denial. The fact is that your digitally empowered competitors are depending upon such responses in their efforts to overtake your market position. The solution to digital disruption is digital transformation. Digital transformation is the process through which the brokerage first undertakes to understand how digital disruption impacts the brokerages consumer experience and next moves to cover the disruption with a countervailing force.
Digital transformation is a result of brokerages working to adapt to the assault of disruptive technologies that affect agent and consumer behavior. As disruptive technologies become a permanent fixture in the real estate transaction, brokerages must update their legacy technology strategies and service packages to mirror how the marketplace is evolving. The need to do so is no longer optional. The following brokerage best practices represent the foundation of this process.
This last issue returns the story to its point of beginning. What happened to the attorney and executive whose adventures inspired this article? The attorney is with a new firm that, as a condition of his employment, has created a strategic management committee that includes young lawyers. The highly productive, spectacularly talented, former agent has been named CEO of a new 450-agent office that is working hard to create the perfect consumer experience.
We can do this, we have to do this!
To view the original article, visit the RECON Intelligence Services blog.