“As we accelerate out of
this cycle, we see the
opportunity to capture
significant market
share with our
additional
investments.”
DOUG FRYE
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
Cassidy Turley—and FirstService REA generated combined revenues of $1.9 billion,
according to company figures.
One principle that differentiates Colliers
from its competitors, say Frye and Taylor, is
an operating model that allows local offices
to retain equity in the business while inte-
grating them into the global operation.
“Our structure allows us to attract and retain
the best people in the industry, because it’s
not an employer/employee model,” Taylor
says. “It really is a partnership model.”
To Tom Hynes, CEO of a 135-year-old
Boston-area services firm that became part
of the Colliers/FirstService network in late
2007, the local/global format is “really the
best of both worlds.” Known as Colliers
Meredith & Grew until the worldwide
rebranding late this month, the firm’s
principals sold a majority interest to
FirstService because “we wanted to have a
strong global platform and deeper services
within our business areas.”
Thanks to the global reach of Colliers/
FirstService, Hynes says, CM&G was able to
secure office space for a major law firm not
only in the Boston area but also in Europe
and around the world. Additionally, it landed
a multiple-building investment sales client
through working with Colliers partners in
the UK and other European countries.
“Those are opportunities that we just
wouldn’t have been able to handle before,
because we didn’t have the infrastructure,”
says Hynes. The larger organization’s integrated services, though, “very much allow us
to be in business” on a local, regional,
national and global basis.
The company’s technology platform is an
important vehicle for implementing that
approach. As an example, Taylor cites an
internal tool that works “much like
LinkedIn.” If a Colliers professional needed
to locate a colleague who could speak
Mandarin, for instance, “you could search by
skill set, or client relation-
ship or any other parame-
ter” to find a match.
“Our structure allows us
to attract and retain
the best people in the
industry, because it’s
not an employer/
employee model. It
really is a
partnership model.”
DYLAN TAYLOR
PRESIDENT AND CEO,
US OPERATIONS
plan” for an integrated services platform
domestically and globally. “Clients on both
the corporate and institutional investor
side are demanding more services in a
more integrated fashion,” he says. “We see
that demand only increasing. Therefore,
