Avoiding Secondary Disruption With Strategic Design

A significant number of past commentaries from this column have discussed the various aspects of digital disruption, both from the perspective of being the disruptor and of being disrupted. The fact is that disruption is a primary factor affecting almost every aspect of the current brokerage scene. Most compelling brokerages are either in the process of responding to disruption or creating innovative disruptions of their own. Sometimes these disruptions are external and impact the brokerage's competitive position in the marketplace. In other cases, the disruptions are internal and impact management and operations.

While disruption as a business factor for real estate brokerages is too new to have evolved a classic tactical or response pattern, certain matters are already clear. Chief among those is the absolute necessity that firms adopt and implement their own strategic and innovative course rather than adopt a response strategy that forces the firm to respond anew to each incursion of internal disruption and/or external market or competitive forces as they occur. With few exceptions, response strategies equate to being led around by a leash with a blindfold. It is hard enough to anticipate the challenges of one's own strategic intent, let alone trying to track and prepare for the unknowns of another's.

The essence of strategic design requires taking a "total" or "big picture" approach. Brokerages that have a strongly articulated strategic intent set and maintain their own course. While the activities and actions of the market or competitors may require occasional course corrections, they do not result in major shifts in strategic course or tactical deployment.