Governance

July 12, 2024 Published by Golden Horseshoe Chapter - By Dave Williams

The Condo Industry… a pathway towards renewal for CCI-GHC [Opinion]

From the Volume 20, Summer 2024 issue of the CCI GHC Condo News Magazine

Organizations are strange organisms. They can be expansionary, planful (or not), they can be for-profit or not-for-profit, dictatorial or democratic… well you get the idea. One thing we can say for sure is that they survive successfully, (or not), by the behavior of those managing them.

While it can be argued that there is a big difference in managing a “for-profit” versus managing a “not-for-profit,” there is not… a big difference that is.

Peter Drucker said this about the “Five most important questions you will ever ask about your not-for-profit organization?”

• What is our mission?
• Who is our customer?
• What does the customer value?
• What are our results?
• What is our plan?

If you haven’t asked similar questions about your organization, in this case CCI GHC, and been able to answer them, then you may be missing a lot. I have been associated with CCI Golden Horseshoe for several years now and have never heard of any organizational self-assessment or plan for that matter, being carried out.

So why is this important?

Organizations get “bogged down” over time… same old same old syndrome. Suddenly, they wake up one day to find that they are not replacing members, or the annual membership renewal rate is diminishing. Worse still, no new members are being recruited.

Recently, the president mentioned the need to recruit new members. To do this one needs to consider the “value statement.” The third consideration according to Drucker. In other words, what value can we provide for new potential members and to a point who are these new members? More lawyers? More property managers? More Condo Boards? What is our retention rate so far?

What the big guys do.

I love watching Proctor and Gamble. A few years ago, they purchased, very quietly, the products within the brand “Old Spice.” They had a plan. The plan was merry the “Old Spice Brand” with the “Head and Shoulders Brand.” All done very quietly but check out the “shelf presence” today. Two mature brands were modernized and now have a greatly enhanced share of the market. You can tell by the shelving. (Retail stores grant more shelving space to successful brands.)

You can be assured they researched everything carefully to determine what the customer valued. They are now brand-extending to more premium versions of the two famous brands.

Another interesting consideration is General Electric. A few years ago, the company expanded their business in many different directions. Too many possibly. Profits declined as did the stock price.

Today, many of those businesses have been spun-off but the jet engine business is flourishing. Moral here? GE shrank the business and is far more profitable.

I can hear the naysayers going, what has that got to do with Golden Horseshoe?

The issue is this, you cannot stand still and succeed… for-profit or not-for-profit.

The “Brampton Community Foundation,” a not-for-profit is now the “Brampton and Caledon Community Foundation.” They expanded the geography to attract new donors. It is a change.

CCI Golden Horseshoe

So, what is the answer here? The Chapter is standing still to a point where people are calling for new members spelled… “we need new and/or additional revenue.”

Going back to Drucker, what do customers value?

Boards are looking to connect with legal experts, engineers, or property management companies. Lawyers are looking for clients; engineers, accountants, landscapers are looking for new community customers.

The one forgotten group that yes, also pays the bills, is the resident. Hard to understand why they have not been attracted to buy memberships. Is it a “they don’t know about CCI?” Is it a “they have looked and didn’t see the value?”

I was a resident for 12 years. I am no longer in that category. We, in our community, were never apprised of CCI, their programs or their educational opportunities for residents if in fact any existed.

It is not hard to understand that they (resident owners) could potentially bring in a lot of new (membership) revenue.

Back to Drucker and the value statement. What would the average resident consider as a valuable service, sufficiently enough to pay $100 bucks to join? Maybe a resident membership fee of $50 would work.

Education and Information (transparency?)

It appears that the CAO, (Condominium Authority of Ontario) is getting closer to being the educational provider that the industry requires and needs. How does the information they have developed aid the resident/owner when the availability is not passed along to residents*. I believe that CAO might be utilizing social media to reach out but more is required to bring the education to the potential user.

*For clarification, I believe CAO wants to expand availability but does not/cannot advertise.

Here is the “thing” folks. CAO has no fewer than 19 guides available on their website. We the public, yes, the condo lawyers, the property management companies, the individual condo boards and directors have paid for this. (Taxes). Why are we not making sure our resident owners are not only aware of this information but utilizing it?

Is it a syndrome of “keep them in the dark?”

There is a long list of failed companies in Canada. Eaton’s, Simpsons, Bad Boy (twice)… The list goes on. One does not have in-depth knowledge respecting these failures. It is, however, safe to say that someone took their eye off the ball and failed to accept the fact that change was occurring. It is why the five simple questions that really boil down to an exercise in “introspection,” are of “lifesaving” importance.

Hoping, in and of itself will not make necessary change happen. Planning, identifying your customer and his needs then executing, does!

There are, however, two more ingredients needed to close the loop successfully. One is the will to accept and not fear change. The other is development of what we could call the chain or pathway for the information to flow.

CAO has developed “the educational tools,” so no cost there. The pathway begins with successfully disseminating the information through CCI Chapters, to member Property Management Companies to resident/owners and encouraging them to read it, understand how it affects them and then contribute to the operation of their building/community.

There is a saying “Happy Wife… Happy Life.” We could probably extend this a bit to read “Happy, informed resident owner… Happy CCI Life.

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Dave Williams is a retired corporate executive and graduate of York University. You can reach him at williamsdavem7@gmail.com. We encourage your comments and would love to hear what you have to say on our topics.