Prioritizing Your Core Business

The last few years have been so challenging. I mean, we’ve had the pandemic. Now we’ve got an uncertain economic condition, and we’re currently in that tough economic environment. A number of companies have had to lay off workers. Compass is no exception. What would you say is a dominant work challenge you’re facing right now? And how do you strategically think about the best ways to navigate that challenge?

I think the preeminent question on a lot of leaders’ minds is: how do we sustain this business through an economic downturn, through a recession of any depth and duration? There’s so much uncertainty right now in the world.
And to me, you have to have those strategy conversations. But what’s strategy? Strategy at this moment is actually what you choose to say no to, not what you actually do.
What do you deprioritize? What is your core? What are you going to double down on? Because it’s easy in times of growth and success to try to launch a new business or think about a new investment or a new product or a new market you should enter a new customer segment or insert whatever example.
But I think during these challenging economic times, the best businesses are the ones that double down on their core business and that know how to focus and don’t press their teams to do more with less, that press their teams to strategically do less with less so that their fundamentals are stronger on the other side of an economic downturn. And so I think the biggest challenge that I’m thinking about right now is: what are the things that we can strategically say no to in the short term, in the medium term, so that we can go a lot deeper and get stronger in the things that really matter.
Thuy: And so may I ask, what are some of the things that you’ve had to say no to for the time being?
Neda Navab: There are great product ideas that we have had at Compass that we are going to have to slow down or pause altogether. Our core at Compass is how do we build the platform and services to enable our real estate agent entrepreneurs to be successful? But an extension of that is how do you build great products for their clients, for a buyer or seller to have great experience?
But right now, we’re redoubling our efforts just on the core platform for our agent. So, when we’ve talked in the past about building things for their clients, for the buyers and sellers, that’s something that right now can’t be as high of a priority for us.
This is when we just need to focus and deepen the value that we’re going to give to our real estate agents because they’re our core customer at the end of the day.