Alistair Elliott is one of those people who exudes an air of bloody good bloke. Charming, polite and so decent that anyone with an ounce of cynicism might question just how he has got to where he is today. After 30 years at Knight Frank, Elliott took over the top job earlier this month and it may come as a relief to hear that his career-progressing methods have not always been totally beyond question.
“When I first started here there was a very prolific partner in the firm with the initials AC Elliott – which are the same as mine,” says Elliott in his new, boss-man office. “This meant I saw lots of his post and, on occasion, it gave me some significant tips as to what was going on in the market. I remember there was a time when a speculative letter was sent to him about a big new requirement and I thought ‘there is no reason I shouldn’t know about that first’ so I picked it up and dealt with it. It was probably dreadfully mischievous.”
That’s one way of putting it. And all that after having no intention of working at the company for more than six months in the first instance and missing the deadline for the graduate training scheme – “I was late and the scheme was full but I was told if I was prepared to start on £500 less a year than all the others an exception would be made. I said ‘yes please’ immediately, which perhaps suggests I wasn’t the best negotiator back then.”
Having established that not all heads of business had their sights set on the top job from the word go and that even nice guys need to employ a bit of questionable tenacity to get ahead, Elliott is ready to talk business. In his first interview since taking on the role of senior partner at one of the UK’s best known surveyors, Elliott talks about major international expansion plans, doubling the group’s turnover and why – and more importantly how – he always has an empty e-mail inbox.
Growing global
Elliott begins by altering expectations over the group’s growth. It was reported in February that Knight Frank was aiming to double turnover from £334m for the year ending March 2012 to £620m by 2016, but Elliott admits that market conditions are likely to dictate that this takes a little longer. “It will happen,” he says. “But I would say by 2018 is more realistic.”
As to how he will achieve such a dramatic turnover increase – albeit a couple of years later than anticipated – Elliott’s top priority is to ensure that Knight Frank is increasingly recognised in key cities across the globe in both the residential and commercial property markets. He aims to increase the group’s overseas turnover from 50% of the total to 75% in the next three to five years. “Raising our global profile is a current weakness,” he concedes.
“It is one I readily admit to and for which I am often chastised. We have absolutely got to raise our global profile. There is a default position that some of our competition is everywhere – though I won’t name any names. We have got to make sure that people know about our global reach. We now have 12,000 people in more than 360 offices around the world.”
He adds that while partners in the group’s New York-based affiliate Newmark Grubb Knight Frank account for around 5,000 of those employees, that still leaves 7,000 people in 350 offices owned by Knight Frank LLP.
“When someone goes to Malaysia or Sydney or Singapore – or indeed if someone comes to London – we want them to think of us,” he says, before explaining his strategy to raise awareness.
He has a hit list of nine cities he is focussing on that he wants Knight Frank to “make our own”. These are New York, London, Paris, Madrid, Moscow, Mumbai, Singapore, Sydney and Hong Kong and the group’s future hubs to focus on within the next five years are the UAE, Shanghai, Munich, Frankfurt and Geneva. These 14 cities have been selected based on future growth projections and Elliott confirms he will be moving some 20 staff members a year around the globe – from London to the aforementioned hubs and vice-versa.
“Global movement will be crucial. We have already seen, for example, Stephen Imrie from investment go to Melbourne, Anthony Havelock has gone to Nairobi, and Joel Burgess will be moving to Jakarta. I will be encouraging young people to think about working abroad. I am reticent to just say ‘you go to Hong Kong’ and hope for the best. So I will be sending six people from the London office every year to another region where they have a meaningful interest. Then, when they come back and report on their experiences we can work out if there is a full-time role for them there.”
He adds that Africa will remain a key focus area as the region is “unique for us in terms of footprint as we have 350 people in 19 offices. We have the infrastructure, forethought and planning in what is becoming a really happening place – investors all over the world are suddenly interested in Africa”. And the group is also planning expansion in India.
Home turf
Back in the UK – which Elliott is quick to insist will not play second fiddle to overseas expansion and where he also wants to increase turnover – he says that on the agency side at least, the focus will be on London. “The resi business in London is in a superbly fortunate position,” he says. “Last year we did 1,000 deals and £2.7bn and sold 500 units in the international arena. The business engages with 85 different nationalities compared to 25 five years ago. I think we will see massive growth in London in resi lettings.
“Across sectors more generally we mustn’t forget alternatives. We have made significant headway in student accommodation, healthcare and hotels and, having been an office agent for 20 years, I have plenty to say on that sector. In the 1980s everyone said the office would soon be dead. I think now everyone appreciates a proper HQ has never been more important.
“When you see Google coming into London it reminds us that even a company at the leading edge of technology needs a proper base. On that note – I must admit I thought the tech bubble was a bit flash in the pan. Having looked into it properly I can see now that it’s a market with real depth and the whole world must gear up for what appears to be a massive driver of change.”
Order obsessed
Elliott certainly has a lot to be getting on with and he takes some time to explain how he is managing his burgeoning workload: “I am obsessed with being in order. I have a completely empty e-mail inbox.” To prove it, he turns his computer screen around to reveal an inbox of just seven messages that have come in during the interview.
“I am very disciplined. When an e-mail comes in I either ditch it, deal with it or delegate it. I have around 600 electronic files stacked full of the details of these e-mails but nothing makes it into them unless it has been sorted out. Everything ongoing I print and sort into plastic wallets on my desk.”
He also reveals that he has kept every single day book since 1983. A quick check in one of his office cupboards reveals this is, indeed, the case. Stacked obsessively neatly in chronological order, the diaries of Alistair Elliott – a bloody good bloke who knew when to employ a bit of questionable tenacity to get ahead.
