Ray White learns from the best

Ray White’s Chairman’s Elite business owners enjoyed a case study session with renowned Harvard Business School Professor Boris Groysberg.

The Boston-based professor led a highly interactive session on the Gold Coast with 320 Ray White members who had travelled from all over Australia and New Zealand.

He teaches courses on talent management and leadership in the school's MBA and Executive Education programs.

He has won numerous awards for his research, which focuses on the challenge of managing human capital at small and large organisations across the world.

Later this week Ray White’s corporate team will get treated to the same high level educational session with Professor Groysberg to help them all hone their team leading skills.

Ray White Managing Director Dan White said the Leadership Academy was one of the most important events on the group’s calendar.

“We all have a duty to keep developing our leadership skills to provide the best environment for our people,” Mr White said of the 122 year old property giant.

Mr White said the confidence that Professor Boris Groysberg had given the group was his greatest gift.

“He challenges all of us to be better in the leadership space and he believes in us. His stature and standing and his belief in us, is a great gift that he has given us. He has given us a lot of confidence to help the growth of our business,” Mr White said.

“The Harvard case study method is now firmly implemented at Ray White as part of our learning process in our corporate team and with our business forums. We use cases now to take a wider perspective and I hope all our owners employ case study learning inside their own teams and inside your own businesses. That is why today is a special day.”

Dan White first met Professor Boris Groysberg more than 10 years ago in Boston at Harvard Business School.

In his eighth study tour to Australia, Prof Groysberg called the Whites “a learning family”.

“Out of all the different families I know, the Whites are running a business that spends by far the most amount of time on learning and development,” Prof Groysberg said.

“This is an investment in your balance sheet.

“Ray White is a learning organisation and the Whites are a learning family. In fact they are the most learning family I know,” he said.

“People probably don’t realise that Ray White is actually a very complicated business within its industry.

“It’s gone through a tremendous transformation but one of the things that amazes me over the years is even though they do have a leading position it’s that it’s not complacent. Ray White is always trying to stay ahead of things.

“I am privileged to be here again but for me it’s a two-way street and I have learned a lot about franchising from Ray White.”

Ray White Cottesloe | Mosman Park director Jody Fewster said that as a graduate of the Harvard Business School she loved learning from Professor Boris Groysberg.

“He’s wonderful. He’s got the best sense of humour and I like how he gets the whole room involved.”

She said her key takeaway from the academy was to ensure that everyone in your organisation understands where you are going. “There’s so many benefits to ensuring that your entire organisation understands where you want to go, and why, and how you will get there. That’s the key.”

Ray White Stocker Preston principal Louis De Chiera (top right with Mike Tucker) said he had loved his first Leadership Academy with Professor Boris Groysberg. “It’s been a privilege for us to be here and learn from all the other business owners’ experiences and get some great takeaways to take back into our business. I loved the discussion about team engagement and we’ll be utilising some tips to help with what we are going through in our business. Mental health is also an area that we are conscious of working on too.”

Ray White One Group sales agent Kelly Qualtrough said she had loved her first Leadership Academy since joining the group in January. “I didn't understand the history of the family so it was wonderful to understand how the group started 122 years ago. And Professor Boris is just so knowledgeable, what a great welcome to get to learn from him,” she said.

Ray White Blenheim director Braden Stanton said he had loved the opportunity to connect with other business owners across Australasia. “It’s a real comfort to know that we can all lean on each other if we have problems. Boris’ session has been great. He obviously has a big brain and he’s made me reflect on myself, to allow yourself the time to do that because you give a lot of yourself to other people. Think about yourself, your family, your friends. I think that’s been the most important takeaway for me,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ray White Blenheim director Angela Bowers said she enjoyed meeting so many other business owners inside the group.

“I have loved hearing the learnings from other members, sharing their problems and how to solve them. Boris’ session reminded us all to focus on ourselves, our health and wellness is related to your business’ health. Looking at your own well-being is important.”

Lachlan O’Keeffe, managing director of RWC Retail, said the first session with Professor Groysberg reminded him to focus on his well-being - both mentally and physically.

“The key takeaway from Professor Groysberg’s session about Michael Phelp’s journey was around really making the effort to focus on your mental and physical health because you aren’t able to perform at your best if you don’t prioritise health,” Mr O’Keeffe said.

“Another key takeaway was just writing down your objectives and making them clear so that you focus your energy towards those.”

Ray White Diamantidis Group principal Peter Diamantidis has seen his single office business grow to three businesses spanning western Sydney since joining Ray White three years ago.

Not only was Mr Diamantidis named the number one principal in the group internationally for number of sales last year but also achieved several property management milestones in his business.

“The best thing I took away from today was probably a focus on mental health,” Mr Diamantidis said.

“It's one thing when running a property management and sales business that we don't really talk about enough.

“So things that we could do to implement and help, especially our property managers, who take the brunt of getting complaints and deal with a lot of negativity, that's probably the best thing that I've taken out of today.”