Change Agent: Peter Senst, CBRE

Connect CRE Canada has launched a new leadership series in which we interview Canadian commercial real estate industry leaders about emerging trends, keys to their companies’ success and other factors that enable them to be difference-makers.

Today’s interview is with Peter Senst, president of Toronto-based CBRE’s national capital markets business. During a career that has spanned more than three decades, Senst has completed about $150 billion worth of joint-venture and advisory assignments covering all commercial property sectors.

Here, Senst explains how he leads a large team of brokers located across Canada while dealing with rapid change.

What are the essential elements for achieving significant progress within your organization and the industry as a whole?

To me, it all starts with a true high performance culture, and building a high- performance culture means you have to have everybody on the same page. So, every level of your company has to be clear on what that means. They have to be committed to what that means, and everybody has to feel they’re going in that direction together. So, if you want your company to change, if you want to go in a different direction, you have to have that.

A high-performance culture all comes from hiring the right people as well. It’s really everybody sharing in that idea that you’re there to help others, and it’s not just something for your company. This is how you affect other people’s thinking and how you’re delivering results in the market.

Looking forward, what critical changes do you foresee for the industry in the coming years? What advancements do you hope for?

These kinds of challenging markets really make your company better in the long run. When I think back to what we went through in the ’90s, I see how much stronger and the companies and the people that were successfully navigated came out. They became better thinkers, better corporations, and maybe the biggest thing is: The balance-sheet focus and capital allocations became much clearer.

We all go through these kinds of times and realize that you can overstretch your balance sheet. You can do things that you regret. Your biggest mistakes are made in the good times. In a firm like CBRE, we go through these with the expectation that markets will change. We’ve always positioned our company in a way that we can deal with these changes. And, I think the whole industry will be thinking differently once we get through this rapid interest-rate increase.

Now, it’s settling down. You watch where we get to in the next two or three years. This is a whole industry. The real estate sector will be better-positioned, more thoughtful, more careful, and better positioned.

As you get your company, and as you get the industry, looking more fiscally thoughtful, it attracts bigger and bigger capital sources to our sector. And, I think we’re in a position where companies will de-lever, do a better job on capital allocations and, again, when we’re compared to other asset classes, real estate will ultimately screen even better, which again, will drive more money to our industry.

As we acknowledge the industry’s rising stars, what guidance can you offer them to become catalysts for positive change?

With this next generation, the level of desire and willingness to help others will drive companies and cultures into the future. I would say that the results from great companies will come from great effort and great willingness to work.

Great willingness to work means a willingness to work in different ways. The desire and willingness to help others will drive a culture and that will ultimately drive results for a company. Great companies are where the communication is clear, it’s consistent, and everybody’s on the same page.

I would say the best advice is to stand out. To differentiate. To do things at a scale that’s just different than anyone else. That’s what will drive your career to different levels. That’s what’s going to get you promoted to the next level. Because we’re all looking for who stands out, who’s willing to do things at a different level. Because we all want to design the next generation of each and every company in the real estate space to be able to withstand these kinds of challenging markets and thrive.

Not just survive.

Click here to see the full Change Agents: Leaders Driving Progress series.