Back To The Future

Over the last fifteen years, all our lives have been revolutionized by technology in ways we could not even have imagined when the Internet (or World Wide Web as it was known in those days) first came onto the horizon. Business has been profoundly transformed by the transparency inherent in full access for everyone to information about anything. We have had to keep up, as best we could, as change races ahead of us. We are challenged by change not only to stay current but also to sort through its myriad directions and promises to determine what we believe in, what works for us. In other words, one of the greatest challenges of the new millennium has been to embrace change without sacrificing our identities to it. This process, every day and every week, profoundly engages me, my agents and staff.

How do you redefine yourself while remaining true to the values which you most believe in? I think each of us has a different answer, but I can tell you mine, and with it the vision I embrace for Warburg.

First, I believe you have to build on the bedrock of who you are and what you know your values to be. More than anything else I want Warburg to be a values based company. I want us to be known for doing not only the smart thing, but also the right thing. I want us to believe in and support each other, to believe that a success for each of us is a success for us all. And I want us all to remember that, although we are here to make money, money is not always the most important thing. Pride in ourselves and what we represent, in our companies and our communities, both bring success and enable us to savor it.

Second, I believe that we need to embrace the future while honoring the past. We have an extraordinary history as a company going back almost 120 years; each of us should be proud to be a carrier of that tradition and to embrace what remains best about it. At the same time, we need to understand that some traditions need updating. Print ads gave way to online ads, phone appointments to e-mail appointments, cocktail parties to Facebook. Who today can imagine not having a BlackBerry or an iPhone? In three years everyone will feel the same way about tablets. An e-blast reaches more people in seconds than a mailing could in days or weeks. Blogs define the writer as an expert, a go-to person, in a way that has no precedent in the pre-Web 2.0 era. So we need to be thinking, not “ how have I done up until now?” but “how do I see my place in the future, and what steps do I need to take to realize that vision?” Our only successful direction is forward.

Finally, I believe every one of us has a role to play. The vast majority of you will not have your names read this year as having been one of the top earners in your office. So I would like to address this third category to you. There are many ways to be a significant member of our Warburg family. Perhaps you are a great recruiter, spreading the word about what a terrific place Warburg is to work (believe me, we need as many of YOU as possible.) Perhaps you always have great ideas about listings when your colleagues are trying to figure out what to show. Maybe you just brighten everyone’s day a little by saying hello. While we are a business, and we need to function like a business, we are also a little world, and it takes all kinds of skills and personalities to make that world go around. So I honor you all, those who have made a million dollars and those who have not, those of you whose careers are ramping up and those of you who may be slowing down – you are all threads in the fabric of Warburg’s vibrant, evolving tapestry and you have my deep gratitude and respect.

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