Back
in 1982, management gurus Tom Peters and Robert Waterman took the corporate
world by storm with their thought-provoking opus, In Search of Excellence. This
best-selling manual examined the management practices of America’s best run
companies with the aim of uncovering the factors that made them successful. The
book detailed the duo’s pilgrimage in search of excellence that took them to
Amoco, Avon (NYSE: AVP), The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS), Frito-Lay, HP
(NYSE: HPQ), IBM (NYSE: IBM), P&G (NYSE: PG) and 36 other companies. Peters
and Waterman popularized the term ‘management by wandering around’ (MBWA),
where management opens informal lines of communication with staff. It’s been
over 30 years since In Search of Excellence hit the charts, but Glenn Sanford,
founder and CEO of eXp World Holdings, parent company of cloud-based real
estate firm eXp Realty, recently followed its precepts. He hit the trail in a
43-foot, class-A Winnebago RV to practice MBWA.
The
real estate Inman site gives an account (http://nnw.fm/fu5E3) of Sanford’s MBWA
trip around the country. In September 2015, he undertook his adventure to
‘touch base’ with eXp Realty’s 1,000+ agents and brokers spread over 31 states
in the U.S. eXp Realty now has representation in 40 states. Sanford’s excursion
has given him unparalleled insight into the current state of the residential
real estate industry, which, coupled with his experience (he has been a broker
himself), endows him with a unique ability to mentor and coach. On the road, he
shared his observations in a presentation titled ‘How to generate online leads
without using Trulia, Zillow or realtor.com’, which was so well received that
it led to a ‘lunch and learn’ series open to all industry professionals.
Sanford said at the time:
“We
have adopted that concept (MBWA) into our cloud office environment, only we
call it ‘management by avataring around.’ And now that I am on the road, we’ve
added ‘management by motor coaching’.”
Sanford’s
safari took him to 10 states, and he covered a distance of over 6,000 miles.
The
objectives of MBWA are to listen, to respond to problems and ideas, and to take
effective action. Action is intrinsic to the MBWA approach. Indeed, one of the
eight characteristics that excellent companies were found to possess was ‘a
bias for action’. The best companies were not afraid to sometimes ‘ready, fire,
aim’. Excellent companies also stay ‘close to the customer’, taking a genuine
interest in finding out what they want. The best companies foster autonomy and
entrepreneurship. They allow employees scope for professional development and
encourage them to think like businesspersons. These are all principles you will
find at work at eXp World Holdings.
The
Agent-Owned Cloud Brokerage offered by its wholly-owned subsidiary, eXp Realty,
is a full service national real estate brokerage platform. Since it is
cloud-based, eXp Realty avoids the costs associated with a brick-and-mortar
establishment and so allows real estate agents and brokers to operate at
significantly lower costs than traditional brokerages would. The online
environment offered by eXp Realty operates in a 3-D mode that will be familiar to
those who play online games. The platform actually employs a gaming software
engine. On eXp Realty’s cloud campus, agents can not only transact business but
also educate themselves and communicate with their mentors. The platform is as
much a support system for agents and brokers as it is transactional. In
addition, agents have ‘skin in the game’ since they are owners, which, no
doubt, plays a key role in eXp World Holdings’ continuing success.
For
more information, visit the company’s website at http://investors.exprealty.com
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