Last week, I had a rare opportunity to hear two mayors from two different cities on two separate occasions tell how they created significant change.  Those of you who read me regularly know that I tend to be a realist about how quickly the commercial real estate industry reacts to change.  At least the kind of change that comes along with doing things differently as a result of technology and processes.  And since these meetings were full of commercial real estate professionals, I left each of these meetings with a pretty big smile on my face even though the change being talked about had nothing to do with technology. 

 

I heard Rick Baker, the recent mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida who came from an industry that isn't known for its technological advances and or processes, talk about what he did - requiring measurements, reports and metrics; a big change from his predecessor.  Then there was Tom Murphy, former mayor of Pittsburgh, who described the City of Pittsburgh as "hell with the lid off" when he came into office.  Tom took over as mayor of that fine city in January of 1994 and served through 2006 (3 terms). 

 

What I like most about Tom is that he is and was a man of big ideas and because of that he had some big successes and some significant failures.  For instance, he had overwhelming public opposition when in 2001 he secured $1 billion, yep $1 billion, of funding for the development of Heinz Field, PNC Park and a new convention center.  Overall, he transformed more than 1000 acres of abandoned industrial land into new uses and oversaw the development of more than 25 miles of riverfront trails, urban green space, etc.  On the downside, his initiatives drove the City to the brink of bankruptcy, and at one point was declared, "distressed" by the State.  Talk about taking risks.

 

What I like most about Rick (and it isn't that, like Tom, he came into office with a law background), is that he brought levels of process and measurement that had been sorely missing within the City for some time.  As he told the audience, something as simple as a pothole repair was taking almost 2 years and he reduced that to what I believe became an average of 2 days.  Just think what each of us could do if we achieved anywhere near that type of reduction in the time it takes to get something done.  The other thing I like about Rick is that he knew about the power of making a customer happy.  He consistently and methodically moved forward by putting people and their wishes and needs first.  He played a huge role in moving St. Petersburg from a sleepy retirement community to a very vibrant, one that in some circles is now known as an "urban resort".

 

So here's what I learned.  These two leaders ran completely different cities, but both recognized the value of and implemented workable measurements and metrics and as a result were able to do great things.  I hope by my telling you their stories you, like me, are both surprised and motivated by seeing how government works to streamline and implement for the good of its "customers".  It wasn't easy to accomplish what they did, it never is.  They implemented solid processes and worked through both public and internal opposition.  Recognizing their issues were much larger than most of us have to deal with when implementing new software or processes and seeing how successful they were, we should be ashamed if we don't get the things done we want to.  Hmmmm.

 

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