ibr Search Team Prepares for The 2015 ASHA (American Seniors Housing Association) Annual Meeting

ibr Search team will be attending The 2015 ASHA (American Seniors Housing Association) Annual Meeting in Dana Pointe, CA on January 25-27th, 2015.  With much anticipation and preparation heading into the kick-off to the 2015 conference season, Brian Shuppe (Sr. Director, Research & CIO at ibr Search) and Butch Edlinger (Director at ibr Search ) have been studying Seniors Housing and where this current housing need is headed.  Our team has an interesting point of view being in the industry as a Real Estate Executive Recruiter and working within the Seniors Housing sector.  Both Brian and Butch are looking forward to enjoying networking opportunities during The Annual Meeting and further discussing with you the trends evolving in development, operations and services within Seniors Housing.

Click on the link to read Brian's recent post: Hiring an Athlete
Hiring an Athlete
By: Brian Shuppe 

Click on the link to read Butch's recent post: The next 39 Years...and Seniors Housing
The next 39 Years...and Seniors Housing
By: Butch Edlinger 

Finding the Missing Piece to Your Leadership Puzzle

After graduating from high school, I did not attend college to get a B.S. in Headhunting or Real Estate.  I went to college to obtain a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering.  When I graduated I thought I would solve some of the greatest problems facing the automotive industry.  

However, I graduated three months after the 9/11 tragedy and saw the automotive industry laying people off rather than hiring new talent.

Struggling to find an industry where I fit, I ended up taking a position working in the office for a small, local recruiting firm.  I never thought that the headhunter industry could be a fit for an engineer, but the first company that hired me in recruiting hired me because of my engineering degree   Later, I found out they liked individuals with engineering degrees because of their analytical thinking ability.  At the time I didn't fully understand what that meant because I thought executive recruiting was putting "butts in seats".

Several years into my headhunting career, I connected with Wes Easly.  Wes is the Managing Principal here at ibrSearch.  Working with him helped me finally understand how I could use my engineering thought process to solve business problems.  The problems we solve today are helping companies find that missing piece to their leadership puzzle.

 

Growing up in Columbus, OH made it easy to become a fan of college football.  Most people think I should have been a fan of Ohio State, but instead I went to the "dark side" and rooted for Michigan.  Being a Michigan fan in the 80's and 90's was a great time, but the 2000's were a different story.  Since then, Michigan has been lacking the leadership puzzle piece that they had in the 80's and 90's.  This was not because they hired the wrong head coach, but rather because they hired the wrong coach for their organization.  You can hire one of the best leaders/coaches in your industry, but if there is no "buy in" from the organization it will fail. Michigan saw this with the hiring of Rich Rodriguez who did not receive the support he needed to be successful with that team.  He is now with the University of Arizona and seeing a lot of success due to his new organization "buying in" to his vision. 

You can also hire a person who says all the right things and has the right "buy in" from the organization, but if that person does not have the right leadership skills to move the organization forward, he/she will fail.  Michigan and its fans have seen this play out over the last four years.  After many years of struggle, Michigan has finally got it right with the hiring of Jim Harbaugh.  Harbaugh not only has a proven track record, but also has the necessary "buy in" from the organization.  It might take a few years to see how this plays out, but I believe this could be a match made in football heaven.

When it comes to recruiting executives in real estate, you have to hire the right person who can be the piece that solves your leadership puzzle.  That is where my passion for identifying and recruiting the best possible candidate comes in.  There is nothing better than getting a call from a client 6 months after filling a position saying how much the candidate we helped place grew their company.  That client call always proves to me that engineers really can make it in the real estate headhunting industry.

If you are heading to the ASHA event in January I would love to hear about your career journey. 

Written by: Brian Shuppe Sr. Director, Research & CIO at ibr Search

Why Hotel & Hospitality Executive Hiring is HOT right now

With over 16 years in the executive search and focusing principally the investment real estate space, I’ve dabbled in recruiting for middle and senior level hospitality positions with a few investor clients here and there – but not with the commitment and steadiness of what our company has experienced for the past two years.

And when I say “commitment,” I refer to the true definition of the word, emphasizing the “CO” prefix.  It’s a two-way street!  My team has remained dedicated to filling several very senior level positions on both the development and construction side.  One is for a large, well known, hospitality REIT and the other for a privately held global developer of luxury hotel properties.  In both cases, due to investment tides that sometimes take the hiring team away from the candidate pursuit (and causes delays) or internal soul searching by the executive teams in order to find the right “fit,” have caused the searches to drag-on for close to a year.  And in other cases, my hospitality clients have taken a very “long view” approach to building their mid and senior management teams to be careful of incumbents’ ability to grow & learn as well as identify traits that allow for new hires to complement the existing skills – this means a slower, more methodical hiring approach.  Long story short, major hospitality owners are committed to getting their leadership formula right and in turn, my recruiting team is right there with them!

Why and why now?  As stated in my previous post, “Hospitality Rising” the reasons are obvious.  Limited inventory and supply, increased demand exasperated by other industries that are growing leaps and bounds in an increasingly global economy that has caused a dramatic shortage of professional talent at the 8-15 year level of experience.  Likewise, the long-view approach reflects a generally more optimistic and long term horizon for hotel investors – not simply a “cash grab” for the current economic swing.  Hotel owners and operators seem to be confident that their economic upswing will far outpace the general real estate market, which most experts say is due for a leveling off in 24-36 months.

I’m hoping to catch-up with many of you during the upcoming ALIS Conference in Los Angeles on January, 26-28.  I look forward to seeing you then, but do not hesitate to contact me in advance so that we can schedule 5-10 minutes together.  Until then, Wes

Written by: Wes Easly

Founder and Managing Principal at ibr Search

Seniors Housing Developments and Insights for 2015

With a very successful 24th Annual NIC National Conference we should expect nothing less from the 2015 Annual ASHA event.  Seniors housing development is going strong but what is the plan to operate all the new facilities?  We have been very busy servicing the seniors housing industry in 2014.  It will be good to catch up with everyone at ASHA (American Seniors Housing Association) to share our findings.  What do you think the topics will be of the sidebar conversations?

Since this will be my first trip to an ASHA event I was looking for information regarding other people’s experiences at ASHA’s Annual meeting.  I came across this short video and Steve Monroe’s article on why he always attends the Annual ASHA Meeting.  I found his testimonial to be compelling and a similar interest of my very own.  He states the ASHA conference is "Not just the deals and financings they are doing, but what they think about the business, about the changes will be coming, about what changes should be coming but may not be for one reason or another, and about the people running the companies."  I was also excited to hear the conference is still small enough to network and engage with peers to discuss similar topics on trends and operational impacts within Seniors Housing.  If you or others in your company have not made the decision on whether to attend ASHA, I encourage you to hear from Steve his experience and reasons he continues to attend each year.  It sure has been beneficial for first time attendees like myself.  Steve Monroe is the Partner and Managing Editor of The SeniorCare Investor. 

Additionally, I am looking forward to the Capital Markets: 2015 panel moderated by Arnold Whitman the Co-Founder and Chairman of Formation Capital.  It will be exciting to hear where seniors housing investment will go in 2015 and beyond.  If you are attending I would enjoy exchanging thoughts after the presentation.

What are some of the other ASHA discussion panels you are looking forward to? There seem to be several opportunities and benefits presented such as networking and connecting with peers while attending the 2015 ASHA Annual Meeting in Dana Point, CA on January 25th-27th.  In the meantime, let's get connected and begin the conversations as we prepare for another great year at AHSA!  You can find me on Linkedin here: Brian Shuppe

Written by: Brian Shuppe 

Sr. Director Research and CIO ibr Search