Propertymark – Is It Time To Start Again With A New Organization?
Just as Countrywide Plc turned to dust, mainly due to the c-suite disconnect from the grass roots, so too Propertymark with a host of personnel exiting the building seems to be going the same way.
There is a vague hope that maybe the new CEO, who hopefully will have some real estate background, will conduct a survey from its members and ask them what they think of the organisation, and whether it is time for the grass roots to have a voice, and what that voice sees as the future path.
To an outsider the one direction they are taking is – ‘preparation for RoPA’, has anyone told them RoPA is not even on the statute book yet after many years of convincing the members of its imminent arrival.
Maybe a new CEO will bring some honesty and transparency, and stop hounding hard pressed agents to undertake courses and examinations for a ‘mythical’ raft of regulations that are a long way down the present Government’s to do list.
In fact in a recent management analysis – internal navel gazing and focus on regulation and compliance in all industry sectors, both in real estate and outside of it, has sunk from being a 40% core objective to a 10% consideration post Brexit and post pandemic.
In my opinion, time for a new organisation that puts members of that entity at the centre, that equips that member to carry out their profession in a 2030 fashion, understanding the digital pathway all businesses are going, equipping them with the skill set to do their day job.
Rather than frightening them with the horrors of a ‘mythical’ change in government regulatory policy that has not yet come and may never come.
And if it does no doubt there will be years of allowance for sensible agents to ‘google’ from the government website what they need to comply with. A much cheaper option than paying for a Propertymark training course – which was the rationale behind employing the quickly exiting CEO Tim Balcon. (Anyone know why he really left?).
Maybe in the new digital world, ‘Boys Clubs’ are not really the way business grows, and there is a need for a more embracing and nourishing culture to sit at the top of these types of organizations.