Thursday, July 28, 2016

eXp World Holdings (EXPI) is In Search of Excellence with its Agent-Owned Cloud Brokerage

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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