Steve Jobs—3 Insights on Team Building

The California wildfires that have been burning up headlines this year are being ranked as the worst in that state’s history, encompassing to date almost a million acres. Preparation is key, of course, for property managers fending off such crises to minimize, as much as possible, property loss and time through recovery.

Of course, as a two-part feature earlier this year in the Journal of Property Management revealed, wildfires are not the only means of mass destruction in Nature’s arsenal. Earthquakes, hurricanes and floods also can arise, with little—or in the case of earthquakes, no—warning.

Such circumstances make being prepared all the more crucial. This is especially true and especially challenging since, as Robert Tyler, CPM, senior property manager in charge of seven commercial properties and a retail center for Rockwell Management Corp., AMO, told JPM, “Every event, every, building during those events and every tenant, every business in those buildings is different.”

Crisis preparedness will also be a prime theme of “Planning for Disasters,” a key seminar session slated for IREM’s 2018 Global Summit in Hollywood, FL this fall. The session will be held on Saturday, September 29 at 11am. On hand will be:

• Keishi Urata, CEO of Yutaka Real Estate Corp. Keishi, will speak about the impact of the 2016 Kumamoto, Japan earthquakes, which killed at least 50 people and injured 3,000;
• Jennifer Mesey, CPM, vice president of property management at the DCM Group. Jennifer will cover her experiences during the Ferguson, Mo. riots and protests of 2014; and
• Michael B. Simmons, CPM, NAHP, president and CEO of Community Realty Management Inc., AMO. As Michael told JPM, his organization not only had to deal with the devastation wrought by last year’s Category-five Hurricane Maria, which pushed 175-mile-an-hour winds through the Caribbean, but in its wake he also had to deal with the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Their stories will underscore the fact that not all disasters are nature-made, but also that planning—along with a don’t-quit spirit—can conquer virtually any crisis.

Get more information on the “Planning for Disasters” panel session, and on the Global Summit.

About the Author
John Salustri is editor-in-chief of Salustri Content Solutions, Inc., a consultancy focused on enhancing the web and print content of clients around the nation. He is a regular contributor to JPM Magazine and a frequent blogger for IREM's website. Prior to launching SCS, John was founding editor of GlobeSt.com, the industry's premier real estate news website, where he managed the daily output of 25 international reporters, and prior to that, he was editor of Real Estate Forum Magazine. John is a four-time winner of the National Association of Real Estate Editors' Award for Excellence in Journalism.