Leadership
A LEADER’S PANDEMIC PLAYBOOK
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE WAS
ONE OF THE FIRST INDUSTRIES
TO BE HIT BY COVID- 19.
FORTUNATELY THE INDUSTRYIS GIFTED WITH EXCEPTIONALLEADERS THAT QUICKLY STEPPEDUP TO THE PLATE TO COMBAT THECRISIS. HERE’S WHAT THEY DID.
BY INGRID TUNBERG Once it became clear that the nation was shutting down to avoid Covid- 19, many companies scrambled to put processes in place to continueoperations remotely. Not CapstoneAdvisors: the company had already securedcontingency plans for such an eventuality,though its professionals admittedly neverenvisioned the eventual reason needed toimplement them.
“We were set up to be able to walk awayfrom the office building and be fully-staffed and fully-operational and fully-effective in our homes,” says Capstonepresident and founder Alex Zikakis.
The actual reason, though, didn’t matter as the company set up its plans. “Goodleadership is having contingency planningin place” long before you need it, Zikakissays.
Zikakis is among the many leaderswithin the commercial real estate industrywho were able to successfully field a curve-ball that no one saw coming. As CRE wasamong the first industries to be affected,many professionals experienced shellshock, as fundamentals rapidly deteriorated.
However, executives such as Zikakisquickly regrouped and responded as best