Forward to the Future... Can an outsider lead in the "clubby" real estate industry? That was the question raised in last week's Dispatch, What Would You Tell Your New CEO? (July 27), which generated numerous reader comments.

Tom Gille at REAL Systems in San Francisco, CA, writes: "The genius of great organizations outside real estate is to create corporate cultures driven by an agreed upon mission and values. Like GE, they discourage hierarchy and operational silos that result in an internal focus rather than an external focus on the market and the customer. This would be a major change in the real estate industry that has a stratified hierarchy of brokers, managers, construction and other support level people who rarely share any mutual goals and are often in conflict."

Will Marks at JMP Securities writes: "I liked your advice for the JLL CEO. I would also tell him to be very careful when making large acquisitions. They are always more costly to integrate than you initially expect. LaSalle's acquisition/merger of Jones Lang Wootton took years to integrate and led to at least 2 years of weak earnings performances."

Gary Helminski at Jones Lang LaSalle in McLean, VA, welcomes the change: "I think most of us at Jones Lang LaSalle embrace someone who will bring a fresh outside perspective to the company. We think of ourselves as a management consulting/financial services firm doing business in the real estate market, not simply a transaction-oriented firm."

Spread the Word... Many thanks to Jim Woidat at Kingsley Associates for sponsoring this week's Dispatch. Kingsley identifies industry benchmarks and applies best practices. If you would like to tell Dispatch readers about your services, send e-mail or call 415-461-4703.

--Peter Pike