June 27, 2006
Improving the service
I was in California this past week, some business, some time off. I stopped by CAI's CEOMC (Chief Executive Officers of Management Companies) conference to say hi to a few friends that I hadn't seen in a while. Cynics would immediately jump to the conclusion that the meeting was to exchange the best ways to gouge associaitons and owners, but it wasn't and never has been. Usually its about ways to improve the delivery of services.
Whenever I've seen groups of managers talking, whether CEO's or those on the front line, the exchanges of information usually has to do with problem-solving and doing a better job. Yeah, there are always a few horror stories shared, but they're mostly to let the others know that you've paid your dues and put in your time.
This is still too new an industry to have thngs carved in stone, so part of the meetings always deal with what' new and what's working. The one constant of every meeting is finding good people to be managers. This is a major growth industry, with a majority of all new housing being a part of some type of association. We've talked about this in a prior blog and there still isn't a good way to bring people who will make good managers, into the industry.
Anyhow, it was good to see friends, but it was also good to see so many new faces, working to find better ways to deliver better services to their clients. Comments from the attendees were generally favorable, indicating they would be taking some good ideas home to implement. Monitoring the rant sites show many complaints against boards, but relatively few against management companies. Maybe they are doing something right.
Posted by joewest at 11:19 PM
March 14, 2006
The Plateau Principle
I was reminded today of one of the earliest principles of community association management, the "Plateau Principle". This was fostered by one of the few management philosophers I've met by the name of Art Hiban. I can't remember the exact wording of the principle, but basically it stated that "Management companies will grow to the breaking point (plateau), then hire the needed staff which will require the company to move to the next breaking point." In other words, you never really find the balance between staff, accounts and profitability.
I imagine it is as true today as it was back in 1977 when I first heard it. Unless you've determined to stop growing, and stay at a determined size, the cycle never ends. Stretch staff to the limit, hire new staff, find new accounts to pay for new staff, which stretches larger staff to the limits....
I really thought that by now, someone would have come up with a formula that solves this problem, but although people may have figured out a way around it, no one has put it on paper that I know of. Somewhere out there must be a math major turned manager who can make sense of it. All you need to do is figure out the relationship between the cost and timing of adding new staff, add in the necessary increase in company overhead, factor in your increased time supervising and reduced time in managing, determine when and at what rates new accounts will come on and how much time they will take to manage and voila, you have it.
Hmmm...maybe that's why no one has reduced it to a simple formula. If you have, we'd love to hear it, even if its just a hypothesis, we'd be glad to test it, or, come to think of it, maybe just asking that 8-ball on your desk is still the best way.
Posted by joewest at 8:28 PM