A Principles-Based Business Model for Long-term Growth

Advance made the fundamental decision to move from a company that was purely reactive to one that is strategically guided, based on these principles:

• Begin with the end in sight. Know where you’re going or you’ll never get there. Launch every project, enter every negotiation, form each new relationship, make every decision with a clear picture of where you want to end up.
• Develop responsibly. Accept responsibility for the impact of your enterprise on the quality of life of the community, including its economic, social, environmental and aesthetic well-being.
• Through today’s designs, meet tomorrow’s needs and control tomorrow’s costs. Maintain an uncompromising commitment to “Best Practices, Highest Grades”. Keep your properties at the leading edge of technology.
• Appreciate the value of your stakeholders. They are your tenants, investors, strategic partners, brokers, lenders, community leaders, associates and advisors. Be sensitive to their needs and look for ways to help them succeed. They all have a stake in your business, as you do in theirs. In high stakes real estate, you need high quality stakeholders.
• Invest in your top people. Make them owners and empower them to make decisions. Get the best executives you can find, give them the parameters, and let them take the lead. This business is about people, not bricks and mortar. Encourage them to grow. Outstanding people make it all happen, particularly when they work as a team.
• Be an owner who owns up. Own and manage Class A properties in Class A locations. Meet or exceed commitments to tenants, brokers and communities. Raise the bar. Invest continually in property enhancement. Understand every tenant’s business so that you can provide higher-performing facilities that satisfy every requirement.
• Control your own destiny. Strike a balance between stable, cash-flowing properties and higher risk acquisitions and development projects. Where possible, diversify risk. Vary the nature and location of investments. Take on strategic partners and spread debt among different lenders.
• Though the marketplace is cyclical, it is the force that drives your business. Take the long view for every asset, every initiative. Seek long-term equity growth with every investment.
• Apply “Informed Intuition”. Assess opportunities from your experience and intellect, as well as a scrupulously researched knowledge base.
• Operate as an entrepreneurial organization, but with the governance of an institutional company. Think and act with a sense of urgency, and a relentless focus on productivity. Anticipate and adapt to chance events, discontinuous change and unintended consequences.