It was always going to be something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The Strata Futures Roundtable report has landed… exactly where expected. There’s one clear, overarching, and urgent recommendation: establish a national strata futures taskforce immediately.
The national taskforce recommendation is well reasoned, and sits first among 64 recommendations in all. The recommendations comprehensively address all the big issues facing the sector. Separate laws, different regulators and conflicting approaches. Professional standards varying wildly between regions. Business models under fire. Data not shared. No research agenda. Peak bodies conflicted or under resourced.
Most critically, the report concludes there is no national coordination. In a hard hitting, but fair and constructive criticism of SCA, the report observes stakeholder criticism of the peak body’s response to crisis issues as conflicted, fragmented, reactive and inconsistent. A case of too little, too late.
SCA will be hurt by this, but it needn’t be. In the proposed national taskforce, there is a place for them. Their rightful place: a professional association for strata managers. Not the space they currently occupy: to be all things to all people in the sector. That’s a space that is impossibly conflicted.
The proposed taskforce would have specific measurable objectives, coordinate immediate action across the sector, build consensus on priorities, and most importantly, develop a business case for a sustained research and innovation program. No fewer than 36 of 64 recommendations are identified as requiring research.
The report estimates the cost to seed the taskforce is $500,000 to $600,000. A pittance in the scheme of things, the report asserts, where the economic impact of strata is more than $10B annually, and the CSIRO estimates any sector should envisage investing between 1 to 3% of revenue. The CSIRO advises this returns $3.50 for every $1 spent on research and development.
The Roundtable organisers, Kate McHugh and John Minns, must be commended for advancing their primary recommendation with cost and return on investment estimates. It sets the tone for a realistic conversation about next steps. This is exactly the type of big, fresh thinking we need.
The strata sector has spent too long waiting for someone else to solve its problems. Government regulation won’t fix systemic commercial issues. Individual companies improving their practices is a start but there’s much more to be done. Peak bodies fighting amongst themselves achieves nothing.
What’s needed is collective leadership driven by a sense of serving the public good, not partisan considerations.
What’s also needed is cash. Does the sector have money for more than golf days, high teas and junkets? For the public good, let’s hope so.
Disclosure – my company supported the Roundtable by purchasing a copy of the report for $1,500, and I was a panellist in one segment. You can support the work of the authors too by purchasing a copy of the report here.
Michael Teys advises strata management businesses on improving profitability through professionalisation and streamlined operating systems.
He has more than 30 years’ experience as a strata lawyer and academic and has owned 11 strata management agencies throughout Australia. He has a Master of Philosophy (Built Environment) and Bachelor of Laws. He lectures and writes widely about strata management issues in Australia and internationally.
