Colin Scarlett has worked at Colliers for 17 years doing essentially the same job: helping companies find office space.
A few years ago he realized that he needed to change how he approached his job, both to stay competitive and to keep things interesting.
“If you do the same thing day in, day out, in our business we call it the 10-year itch,” he said. “Sometimes people will move to different firms or they move out of the business completely.”
At the same time, professional services like real estate, law, engineering and accountancy have become increasingly commoditized, Scarlett said, with more practitioners offering essentially the same services. It’s become more important to specialize in order to set a business apart.
Five years ago, Scarlett made the decision to develop a specialization, and now works exclusively with law firms and tech companies.
He used his own funds to travel to other cities to do research, speaking with law firms in London and tech companies in Silicon Valley to find out the latest trends for those industries.
For instance, in London, a third of the law firms now use open-plan offices, a configuration that allows for more knowledge transfer from senior to junior lawyers.
And in Silicon Valley, it’s now common for companies to have an in-house chef as part of their employee retention strategy.
“My context is now global rather than local,” Scarlett said.
“Our clients all have to operate in a global context.”
He said switching things up and making the extra effort to gain new knowledge has made a difference in his own work satisfaction.
“I think I’ve become happier in my job because it’s become more rewarding,” he said.
On making the effort to be creative | “I think the key is, you really need to innovate, and the world rewards people who innovate. For me the real challenge was it’s become increasingly challenging in my market to win business, and I needed to find a way to differentiate myself. Once I realized that, I had to spend a bunch of time, effort and money to try to specialize.”
Has a work or life challenge taught you a key career lesson? Contact Jen St. Denis at [email protected]
