• Grainger wants to modernise the business and listen more to the “technology generation”
• JLL is on course to hit “pretty big” European profit targets
Three weeks in the top job at Jones Lang LaSalle and Guy Grainger is in no doubt where his priorities lie. People and technology top the list, chiefly expansion of the firm’s residential and London retail teams. Meanwhile, a review of its London offices looms with, he hints, a move out of Mayfair likely.
But on Wednesday morning, the pressure on him was ratcheted up. Hours before we met, JLL reported record revenues worldwide, and announced it had broken through the $1bn (£0.63bn) turnover mark in Europe for the first time.
Grainger’s bar has just been raised.
Ambition
Is he daunted? “No, it’s an exciting time to take over. I’m not naïve. We are still going to face tough conditions. But we’re getting used to uncertain times and that puts us in a better position to plan our business for the future. I’m pleased to say there’s still a lot of ambition on our global board for Europe, the US and Asia. And while there’s a lot of growth potential in Asia, there’s still quite a lot of risk attached. In Europe, because we’re used to a mature market, we’re trying to be the creative thinkers.”
In turning to Grainger as Andrew Gould’s successor – and to Chris Ireland, who has taken over from Richard Batten as chairman – JLL wanted to send a signal. It has installed two market-facing people to lead the firm. Grainger and Ireland themselves are reinforcing that message. They will sit on the shop floor at either end of the markets team, both determined that their move upstairs does not spell detachment from day-to-day issues.
Neither is a JLL lifer, of course, but more telling than that is the fact that the firm’s chief executive and chairman are both based in King Sturge’s old HQ in Warwick Street, not JLL’s Hanover Square eyrie. This is very much New JLL.
Grainger – who clearly gets a buzz out of the location and has developed a very Sohoesque intolerance for bad coffee – sets out his stall: “We’re doing a lot of things right, but we still have a lot to do. My main aim is to modernise this business, within reason, and to bring it up to a use of technology that is probably unprecedented for advisers in this industry.”
To do so, he wants the firm to listen more to the next generation. “We can’t rely on the senior heads for that, we have to rely on the younger talent.” He’s put in place an “innovate” website where anyone in the business can put forward ideas that are reviewed by the board each month. He won’t say exactly what’s up first but points to his smartphone as something that will play a part.
Grainger is frank about his strengths – “I’m a people person,” he says – and where he needs to develop. He has spent 20 years in retail and is now devoting much of his time getting up to speed with other areas of the firm’s business. “I’ll definitely broaden my horizons,” he says. He’s travelling around the country, and already talks with as much enthusiasm about the Cooperative’s NOMA HQ in Manchester, as LandSec’s Trinity Leeds retail scheme.
And there’s already evidence of a steel that may see him be more outspoken about rivals in future. “A lot of people have cut corners during the recession. We try not to. We’re not afraid to tell clients not to do a deal if it’s not the right thing whereas if times are tough, it’s quite easy to bend those rules and just try and do the simple, quick deal.”
He wants to be seen as a moderniser, as a leader unafraid to take decisions. And he wants to surprise clients with “new systems, new tools and new ways of working”. Ireland shares that ambition: “We want to make changes to style, tone and emphasis, and really look forward.”
Beyond recruiting 25 people into its residential team, including internal appointments, and doubling the five-strong London retail team, Grainger is also looking to build a team focused on airports, transport and infrastructure. Acquisitions are always on the radar, he says, though there is nothing “of scale” on his desk at the moment.
“[Our overall headcount] may rise slightly but we have to be very efficient. We will not get carried away with our cost base. Our working practice in terms of technology will change and our working environment will improve in the coming years.”
Those changes are likely to trigger an office move from Hanover Square and Warwick Street. “In London, we will have an accommodation strategy but we won’t rush it. To a certain extent, we are dependent on the amount of supply that comes through. I don’t think it’s necessary to be in Mayfair any more as a property services company but it is necessary to be in the West End.”
Five-year plan
The firm is on course to hit “pretty big” 2014 European profit targets but Grainger’s focus is on setting up the business for growth to 2020. “I don’t want to be too consumed by the short-term goal,” he says. “I really have a five-year plan to modernise the UK business and hopefully lead the world in best practice – if that’s not too high an ambition. You may as well have big ambitions when you start out.”
