Over the course of my career, I’ve been fortunate to work in several industries during periods of extraordinary change. I’ve experienced those transitions from different perspectives — as an employee inside the organization, as an outside consultant helping leadership teams adapt to changing conditions, and sitting across the table from executives trying to determine what the future might look like for their business.
Those experiences took me into airlines, technology, healthcare, telecommunications and, most recently, residential real estate. While the industries were very different, I was struck by how similar the conversations became once change started accelerating.
Much of the discussion in real estate today centers on firm mergers, customer portals and data ownership, listing transparency, artificial intelligence and the future role of agents and brokerages. As Executive Vice President of Brokerage Services for one of the country’s largest real estate firms, these weren’t abstract industry debates. They influenced leadership decisions, recruiting strategies and the way consumers ultimately experienced the buying and selling process.
I’ve heard these conversations before.
Every industry has its own circumstances. Technology changes, competitive pressures evolve and regulations shift. Even the language people use to describe the challenges is different. What has surprised me over the years is how often those differences lead to the very same discussion.
Leaders naturally focus on the disruption. They debate new competitors, emerging technology and changing business models. Those are important conversations, but they can also become so consuming that they crowd out a more important question. What do our agents need to succeed, and how are the consumers they serve changing?
Looking across the industries where I’ve worked, the organizations that adapted most successfully weren’t necessarily the ones that predicted the future most accurately. More often, they were the ones that recognized changing customer expectations early and adapted accordingly.
Different industries, similar conversations
Every industry faces its own challenges, but the underlying questions remain remarkably consistent.
Who controls the customer relationship? How is measurable value created? And what happens when consumers gain more information, greater transparency and more choice?
Those are the questions I’ve watched reshape industries throughout my career.
One of my earliest experiences with industry disruption came at Pan American Airlines and its WorldPass loyalty program as deregulation transformed commercial aviation. Long-standing assumptions about pricing, competition and customer loyalty gave way as consumers gained more choices and competitors operated under an entirely new set of rules. Success was no longer just about operating an airline well. It was about recognizing that travelers suddenly had more options, and with those options came new expectations.
Later, while working at Cohn & Wells in San Francisco, one of my clients was Borland Software. Few companies seemed better positioned to shape the future of personal and business software. History had other plans. It was an early reminder that innovation alone doesn’t guarantee long-term success. Great products matter, but companies also have to evolve with the way customers want to buy, use and receive support for those products.
I saw a similar pattern while working with Pacific Bell as the telecommunications industry evolved. New competitors entered the market. Wireless technology changed consumer behavior. Companies reorganized, merged and reinvented themselves in response.
Mindset over tech advances
What I remember most, however, wasn’t the technology. It was the mindset. For decades, Pacific Bell had been the dominant provider in many of its markets. I heard more than one executive ask, “Where else are they going to go?” Market leadership had created a false sense of security. The assumption was that customers would continue behaving the way they always had simply because they always had.
As it turns out, they didn’t.
Once consumers had meaningful alternatives, many of the assumptions that had guided the business no longer applied.
Years later, after launching my consulting practice, I worked with major healthcare systems, including Memorial Hermann. Patients increasingly behaved like consumers. Access, convenience, communication and transparency became just as important as clinical outcomes in the way people evaluated their healthcare providers. The organizations that recognized those changing expectations early were far better positioned to respond than those that assumed yesterday’s approach would continue to meet tomorrow’s needs.
My final industry experience brought those same lessons into residential real estate. During my years at @properties, and later through its integration with Compass, I watched the company navigate one of the most disruptive periods our industry has experienced. Technology, recruiting and competitive strategy were all important discussions, but they consistently came back to a simple question: How do we create a better experience for our agents and the consumers they serve?
That, to me, was the difference. Disruption was never ignored, but it was always viewed through the lens of the customer. Innovation wasn’t the strategy; it was a tool to better serve agents and the consumers they represent. In my experience, that’s one of the reasons the company has continued to thrive through a period of extraordinary change.
Looking across these industries, they appear to have very little in common. They were shaped by different technologies, different regulations and different competitive pressures. Yet beneath the headlines, I kept seeing the same pattern.
Consumers had more information, more choices and their expectations evolved.
Technology accelerated those changes, but it wasn’t the technology itself that determined which organizations succeeded. The companies that adapted most effectively were the ones that recognized how customer expectations were changing and adjusted their business accordingly.
After seeing that pattern repeat itself across several industries, I no longer think it’s a coincidence.
What that means for real estate
Real estate will work its way through this period of change just as every industry eventually does. Some of today’s issues will prove to be transformational. Others will become less important over time. There will also be challenges that few of us see coming. That’s true of every industry.
The organizations that struggled weren’t usually the ones that failed to recognize disruption. They knew exactly what was happening around them. The challenge was that disruption gradually became the center of the conversation.
Throughout my career, I’ve participated in leadership discussions about technology, competitive threats, changing business models and regulation. Those conversations are both necessary and valuable. What I’ve learned is that they produce the best decisions when they’re informed by the voice of the customer. That’s the perspective that helps leaders distinguish between meaningful change and temporary distraction.
Our customers experience the quality of the service we provide, not the disruption we’re managing behind the scenes.
For brokerage leaders, that means listening carefully to two voices. One is the voice of the agent deciding where to build a business. The other is the voice of the consumer deciding who to trust with one of the most important financial decisions of their lives. Both continue to evolve regardless of what’s dominating the industry’s headlines.
Looking across the industries where I’ve worked, the companies that navigated disruption most successfully weren’t always the ones with the newest technology or the boldest strategy. More often, they were the organizations that kept the voice of the customer at the center of their decision-making.
That’s the lesson I’ve carried with me. Markets, technology and business models change. The voice of the customer should remain the constant.
Thomas Downing is a strategic advisor to top-producing real estate agents, brokerage leaders and real estate organizations.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s editorial department and its owners.
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