What Has Been Core To Keeping Your Momentum Going At Your Real Estate Investment Firm For 75 Years?

The following Q&A was completed as part of our conversational Commercial Real Estate FAQ Interview Series, we hope you find it helpful.

To keep a successful real estate investment firm going for generations, don’t be afraid to look at the past with a critical eye. It gives you a way to see firsthand what worked and what didn’t, and this allows you to keep your momentum going for the future. When making these future goals, get your team involved and get everyone excited about the new challenges ahead. 

Richard Wilson: What has been core to keeping your momentum going at your real estate investment firm for 75 years? 

Leonard Way: As a family owned business we pride ourselves on what we own there, so that helps go along. But quite frankly understand what your business is about. We have always had a defined company mission statement, and we work very diligently to stay true to that mission. In the case of the Beach company, our mission is sustained balance growth by maximizing the value and utilizing premium real estate, and trying to bring impeccable services to bear for all of our investors, our clients, and the stockholders. That as served our family company very well for over these many decades. In terms of carrying momentum forward, you need to be adaptable and you need to be flexible, but just don’t go too far afield. We found that in the 70’s and 80’s we were in a variety of different businesses that had nothing to do with real estate, and we chose to bring ourselves back to a focus. So you need to be cognizant of the past, and always make sure you learn from it. What we do as a company is have a strategic plan, we had our first one in ’97 and we’ve had an update to that plan every five years or so, and that plan is to look out for another 5 to 10 years. It is a living, breathing process for us. What we have found is 1) it keeps us moving forward, it keeps everyone engaged, and the more you get your employees involved in preparing that strategic plan, they both get excited and they both see the challenge for what’s ahead. 

Richard: Right, right. Great.