Strategic Management: Keller Williams Real Estate - Case Study Example

Keller Williams Real E is a real e franchise company in North America that is dedicated to help the agents to build their own brands and grow their business profitably other than just selling real estate in the form of residential and commercial properties. The strategic direction of the company is to offer best training and coaching at every level in the industry that addresses success in real estate. Thus, being a franchise company, Keller Williams Real Estate is committed to develop its agents in the real estate industry. Indeed, no organisation whether it is starting up as a new enterprise or formulating a new direction can venture into the future without knowing its direction (Pearce & Robinson 2009). Therefore, it can be noted that the core business of the company is to offer services that are meant to develop the agents in the real estate industry through innovative learning. The company’s customer base is comprised of thousands of real estate professionals. It also has more than 79 000 associates and nearly 700 market center in North America. At the heart of this strategic direction is the model based on the notion of succeeding in the real estate industry which emphasises its winning models through training, coaching, educational events and best selling publications. All the above mentioned aspects of Keller Williams Real Estate set it apart from the other organisations and these are leading principles in its chosen direction. These aspects are embodied in the mission statements and vision of the organisation. Thus, the mission for Keller Williams Real Estate is: “To build careers worth having, business worth owning and lives worth living.” Through this mission, the organisation seeks to differentiate itself from the other players in the real estate industry in that it offers training services that are meant to enhance the agents’ ability to develop business which in turn improves life. In essence, it is not only concerned about financial gains alone but the betterment of life of several of its stakeholders. The vision for Keller Williams Real Estate is, “To be the real estate company of choice.” In the future, this company seeks to establish its core business as the preferred choice in the real estate industry. This can be achieved through transforming the real estate industry by imparting the best knowledge to the agents in order for them to build formidable businesses in the future. This will help the organisation entrench itself in the industry in order to become a force to reckon with. In principle, Keller Williams Real Estate’s operations are guided by values which encompass culture, social responsibility and ethics. The culture of the organisation is mainly shaped by diversity where caring for different people is seen as a virtue. Through this kind of culture, associates as well as market centers commit themselves to finding and serving the higher purpose of business and is united by cohesive understanding of the company’s mission, vision, values as well as its perspectives. At the heart of the company’s culture is the aspect of caring. The company has a public charity, KW cares, which was specifically created to reach out and support others in need especially during times of extreme and unexpected hardships. This sums up to the concept of corporate social responsibility outlined below. According to Strydom (2004 p.11), “Social responsibility is the concept that maintains that businesses are part of the larger society in which they exist and are accountable to the society for their operations.” In other words, there is need for the organisations to strike a fine balance between the needs and interests of customers, needs of the environment and the need for businesses to realise their financial goals. This goes hand in hand with the concept of ethics, which is loosely defined as an attempt to differentiate between something good from bad as far as human behaviour is concerned and special attention is given to issues of morality and professional conduct in business (Schultz 2003). The aspect of corporate social responsibility hinges on the philosophy that agents are partners and stakeholders in the success of business and Keller Williams Real Estate has created a profit sharing program in which about 50 % of every center’s profits every month are returned to those who have contributed to the market center’s growth by attracting productive associates. This greatly helps in building mutual trust between the organisation and the associate. The organisation is also guided by the principle of believing that business is in the communities hence the need to put measures in place that are meant to ensure that a relationship through the agents is created between the organisation and its stakeholders. Thus, Keller Williams perspective is that real estate is a local business driven by individual associates and their presence within their communities. It’s a perspective that comes from Gary Keller’s understanding that the agent, not the company is the brand, and that the company’s primary role is to help agents to build their own brand and grow their own businesses which is beyond simply selling real estate. The vision of Keller Williams Real Estate plays a major role in guiding its operations towards its strategic direction which is to offer best training and coaching at every level in the industry that addresses success in real estate. This is what they want to achieve in the future and they are guided by their vision of becoming the real estate company of choice. This gives a general description of the direction in which an organisation is moving. The ability to achieve this common focus and vision for the way things should be done in an organisation is the heart of its success. Each organisation has goals and objectives to achieve and this can only be attainable if there is a clearly spelled direction which essentially means that the element of vision plays a significant role in the operations of Keller Williams Real Estate. The mission for Keller Williams Real Estate also plays a major role in its operations towards the attainment of its strategic direction. In short, this is a summary of the organisation’s existence (Rossouw 2003). The main purpose of a mission statement is that it describes the purpose of the organisation in such a way that performance can be measured and controlled. It becomes easier to streamline the operations of the organisation so that they do not go astray. On the other hand, the values of an organisation play a very significant role in that they shape its culture which it turn determine the behaviour of the employees. Values often guide the strategic direction of the organisation in that they act as yardsticks to measure the standard expectations the organisation sets for itself. The organisation addresses customer needs through offering what they think is the best compared to the thousands of systems used by the highest producing agents in North America. Keller Williams has created the model which is concerned with showing what it takes to succeed in real estate and it reinforces its winning models through training, coaching, educational events and a best-selling series of publications. No other organisation has this strategy in place and this is a competitive advantage for Keller Williams Real Estate. It can be noted that Keller Williams Real Estate is the only major real estate franchise company in the North America to experience positive growth in 2009 (Entrepreneur Magazine 2009). This bears testimony that Keller Williams Realty’s time-tested models and systems can establish a framework for profitability in any market which is a competitive advantage. References Pearce, J. A. II, & Robinson, R. B. (2009). Strategic management: Formulation, implementation, and control (11th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Schultz et al 2003. Organisational behaviour. CT. Van Schaik Publishers. Strydom J. (2004). Marketing. 3rd Edition. Cape Town. Juta & Co Ltd. Thompson, A. A., Gamble, J. E., & Strickland, A. J. (2006). Strategy: Winning in the marketplace: Core concepts, analytical tools, cases (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Rossouw D (ED) (2003). Strategic management. CT. NAE. Read More