by Tony Clegg
In this year’s special lecture, sponsored jointly by the Continuing Professional Development Foundation and Estates Gazette, Tony Clegg examined the threats to the surveying profession and the opportunities that were being presented. This is an abridged version of his paper, which was entitled “New perspectives for the professional property practice”.
This year is the 400th anniversary of the Spanish Armada. It must have felt grand on a Spanish galleon, sailing majestically towards the Channel — all flags flying, colourful and powerful, protected by a phalanx of similar vessels advancing in harmony. But think what happened to the Armada. I have to tell you that some of you are in danger of becoming tomorrow’s past.
The “stately ships” of your profession are fast heading for a reef. Some, before they run aground, will be harassed, savaged, sniped at and captured by their fast-moving opponents in the turbulent waters of the modern property world.
My theme is change and opportunity. Change means opportunity, but we have to act fast to grasp it.
What are the portents which should cause you concern? We live not just in an age of change but of rapid change, even of impending crisis. It is a period of economic growth, almost unparalleled in its scale and duration in this century. It is a period of ageing populations and of social change. It is a period for traders, for entrepreneurs, for financial engineers, for individuals who can display and deploy flair and panache. For many, including many in the professions, it is a time of crisis.
But the Chinese character for the word “crisis” is a combination of two characters. One represents danger, the other represents opportunity. Let me then offer you a few thoughts on the dangers and the opportunities that are before you, first, on your profession’s image.
How have the professions responded to change? How has this profession responded? Yes, we have some chartered surveyors on company boards — my own, for example; yes, surveyors have ventured into tax investment and unitisation; and yes, there are surveyors with a stock market quotation.
But who actually knows or understands exactly what a surveyor does? Does the public? Does your average American or Continental or Japanese businessman? Do they have any inkling of what a chartered surveyor does — and, more importantly, the service he offers? You know and I know what you do, but do most of your potential customers? Your skills and your capabilities are largely a mystery.
To make a comparison, both the public and the international businessman know pretty well what accountants do and what they have to offer. Why, therefore, are you not as well-known as the chartered accountants? The forerunner to the RICS gave the profession a century’s start on the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Why do you not have the kind of statutory position that they have achieved? Why, for example, have you not diversified into general management consultancy?
If a large retailer needs a sophisticated study for a new chain of shops he does not go to a chartered surveyor — at least not for anything more than estate agency particulars. He goes to a management consultant or accountant for the far-reaching advice he needs.
They have set up their own consultancies. They do not compete with surveyors because often surveyors are not even players at the table. They compete with planners, with specialist retail and transport consultants, with people who have not even bothered to qualify as chartered surveyors.
Now, you might well argue that you are better off not trying to tackle the big firms of accountants and the specialist consultants head on. You might well say that you should stick to what you know. But bear in mind that you already have competition even in your own chosen fields. You will soon have more. You know as well as I do what is happening.
The competitors are looking beyond the neutral ground. They are looking at the heartland that was your own. And now they stand ready to advise on building economics, on investment decision-making, on the management of assets. They are using their new technology to value property, new computer and communications systems to pass on information about prices, about values, about opportunities in your field.
Before long the competition will become even fiercer. Look at influences from America and the Far East. The market throughout Europe is soon to open up. Harmonisation will create a unified EEC market. There will be no real barriers to prevent big firms offering their services in all 12 countries, including ours.
In this climate you must compete. I know you are concerned about people who would like to enter your markets. But are they concerned about you entering theirs? Make no mistake, the accountant will not halt for long in front of the state boundary of the surveyors’ preserve guarded by your stately ships. He’ll dart between them and start picking up your clients in your territorial waters.
My advice is to look forward into his territory. Look all around you. Broaden your horizons.
The tremendous forces for change can be summed up — in the jargon — by the “-isations”. We are seeing internationalisation: the global village is now becoming a reality.
There is specialisation. You need to know either more and more about less and less, in which case you are a “specialist”. Or you need to know less and less about more and more in which case, like me, you can claim to be a “generalist”.
And then there is urbanisation. In the past, we created refugee communities who decamped wholesale to new towns. Now we are reversing the clock, and it is vital to regenerate the inner-city areas. But it would also be easy to be excessive — to place so much attention on this issue that others are neglected.
Inner-city regeneration is essential. Our cities and the lives of all of us will benefit from the extra investment. But let us not forget that we are also facing problems of suburban decay and rural deprivation.
As surveyors — more than any other profession — you will be able to bring a balanced and coherent perspective to these problems. You will be able to apply your skills to another of the “isations” — I have in mind modernisation. The modernisation of the built environment. The creation of places where people will live and work in the years to come. How much more important to society is this than the financial engineering involved in securitisation and unitisation — on which, incidentally, I have serious reservations.
A new perspective for you then — a new philosophy? I would say “Think bold … team up … and act fast!”
Think bold
Think bold, because then you can keep pace with change. The life of a building still far exceeds that of the technology that will initially be housed in it. So think far into the future. Maybe we scorn the Lloyd’s building now, but will we scorn it in 10 years’ time?
And in thinking bold, take risks. Do not be afraid to innovate. Above all, remember that in every problem there is an opportunity. It is your job to spot that opportunity.
With boldness, think big. The Metro Centre, Merry Hill, Broadgate, Canary Wharf — these are all bold developments which will leave their mark and keep property moving with the times.
Team up
Team up, because partnership is the way forward. You should not need telling; it jumps out at you from every document — from White Papers, press comments and company reports.
You know property. You should also know the people who use it, the developers, the planning policies, the grant regimes and the market-place. But you have got to have the right horses for the right courses. Blend the other niche operators into your team. Bring unity instead of rivalry; vision instead of introspection; creation instead of confrontation.
Act fast
Act fast — but do not sacrifice thought for speed. For swift action you need to be decisive, but to be decisive you need to think clearly, to be selective.
It amazes me how property people can spend their time in unproductive and uninteresting work when creative brains should and could be thinking about the real potential for sites and targeting their marketing accordingly.
For example, one of Mountleigh’s early deals was the purchase of 800 houses in Suffolk occupied by US Air Force personnel. That deal was completed first and foremost because by the time the agent introduced the deal he had done his job thoroughly. He understood the deal totally and had covered every angle.
At Mountleigh we welcome agents — or any group of professionals provided they spend some time in reconnaissance, planning and selecting the developer first. We must have approaches to marketing which are more like a rifle shot and less like a scattergunning word processor.
Thinking bold, teaming up, acting fast. These are the fundamental principles for the professional property practice.
By applying them, you establish a creative climate. The information is there in a team. Somebody in the team knows the answer so you do not have to dig for it. Instead, you can spend your time in thinking how to use that information. And because you think boldly and in a team you think creatively, bouncing ideas around, exploring the concepts which at first seemed fanciful.
So find a problem and you find an opportunity. Broaden your horizon and you broaden your market.
And remember how the Government has set its sights on the restrictive practices which protected and isolated our professions. See this as another opportunity for bold creative thinking. Do not form a Maginot Line to defend your surveying preserves. And, do not just charge out to try to compete in new markets willy-nilly. Instead, think about mixed practices, about joint ventures, about partnerships. Select your niche, then go for that market; and en route team up with others who know that niche.
If deregulation of the professions is one opportunity, then self-regulation of markets is another. Those of you who have tried the complexities of SROs will doubt whether self-regulation is any improvement. But the markets have taken a major step forward and the surveying profession should be up there with them. Think creatively again. Corporate finance for the property company, securitisation, and many of the roles of the merchants banks are all within reach of the surveying practice.
You have opportunities in the creation of developments which exceed those of any other profession. The accountant who analyses figures and tax law; the lawyer who pores over deeds; the banker looking at cash flows: they are far more poorly placed to visualise the successful developments than the surveyor of the 1990s. You are — or should be — out on the ground, meeting people, seeing buildings and, it is to be hoped, seeing what is going on around them.
Match your local knowledge with an educated mind, aware of social and economic trends, of Government policy and incentives, aware of market patterns and demand, and you will, like as not, have the key to successful developments.
Broader professional education
Why is it only recently that the surveying profession has begun to take business management and marketing seriously? The majority of practitioners have no formal training or qualifications in these areas. You may take the view that they are better for it — education and training can be stultifying rather than mind-blowing. On the other hand, it might give a new dimension to thinking about the future of your firm.
Clearly an emphasis on ethics and integrity is vital. But institutions also have to take a more active role in the professional advancement of their members. You need a programme which will enable you to keep up with advances both inside and outside your field. It is not just those entering practice with a college or technical school education who need to learn but also professionals teaching them “on the job” who should themselves be seeking continuing education and training.
You will only achieve the full potential of your profession if you are exposed to today’s latest business thinking, today’s social patterns and today’s economy.
I am no advocate of long university courses, but I recommend that you should do a little restructuring of the excellent practice you have made of continuing professional education and training. It should, of course, provide the property and construction industry and property investment interests with a technically qualified and up-to-date surveyor. But it should also equip him with the business, management and general knowledge of economic and social affairs to make him — or her — an aggressive professional, motivated to cope with today’s dynamic and fluid environment.
In addition to their own education, I would like to see more surveyors seeking out economic experts, public sector consultants and local opinion-formers as partners.
This, surely, is the surveyor’s niche. By all means obtain information from the accountants and the planners, the architects and the lawyers. They can be your partners in designing, financing and documenting a development scheme. But remember, they can be kept to desks, documents and drawing boards, working for you. Watch out that you do not end up working for them!
There is room for different kinds of practice in the future — the big firm with its interests in many areas of business, offering a comprehensive service to the client; the small, specialist niche operator; the medium-sized provincial firm.
But to be successful you must know your business and see where it is going; create and maintain your image; and lead the team.
Company law requires a firm to keep books of account and to be audited. This has been the launching pad for accountants to spread their wings and expand over the whole range of corporate advice.
Company law also requires companies to produce property valuations. Next time you are invited to do one use your imagination. Think of it as your springboard. Lead an appraisal not just of value but of value for money in your client’s property. Think laterally, recommend changes, do some research, call in other experts. You will find the property valuation exercise leads you further than you had imagined. And the reputation, the new image, will spread.
The single word that I would pick out as the key is “imagination”. Your imagination is your future. Use it to break out of the piecemeal, day-to-day, reactive service provided by many practices. Use imagination to broaden your horizons, to market your skills and to lead the way forward.
Use your imagination to think boldly, to assemble your team and when you need to act fast. Broaden your horizons.
In the problems and the threats, use your imagination to see the opportunities. Don’t follow the other professions, lead them. You can do it. All you need is that spark of imagination to help you create a broader business strategy for the profession, new horizons for your institution, an image for today, and an imaginative future for tomorrow.