RICS Business catches up with Andy Martin, Head of the Commercial Division of Strutt & Parker and Chairman of Strutt & Parker Real Estate Financial Services.
Q. How would you describe your work?
I have several functions, but most important is getting the business philosophy right. We work very much on a team basis and I guess I’m the manager.
My primary professional work is focused on a number of clients, but I’m probably best known for my work with Arlington on their business park programme. I also chair our financial services business.
Q. How would a typical working day pan out?
There is no typical day. It is a balance between management responsibilities, client responsibilities and catching up with new opportunities, as well as my external functions with the Investment Property Forum and the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign.
Q. What is the most interesting aspect of your work?
The diversity. I enjoy the breadth of my roles and I am lucky in that respect. If I had to focus on just one element, it would be the professional team meetings at the evolutionary stage of a new development project. I enjoy the creative elements of my role.
Q. And the most challenging?
Achieving a balance between functions and delivering a consistently high and proactive service to our clients. The market is both dynamic and increasingly regulated, which keeps you on your toes.
Q. What made you decide to pursue a career in property?
My father started work as an architect and then moved into corporate real estate management. When I was leaving school we were in the midst of strikes, power cuts and three-day working weeks. A vocational degree seemed more appropriate and estate management was top of the option list.
Q. How did you get to this point in your career?
I graduated from the University of Reading in 1977 and joined Bernard Thorpe and Partners’ industrial department. I moved over to the investment side and got involved with their key clients CIS and Possfund before moving to the investment team of Richard Ellis in 1981.
I wanted to expand my business knowledge and so in 1985 I attended the London Business School’s Corporate Finance Programme, at the same time as I moved to Strutt & Parker to work specifically on the expansion of their business with Arlington Securities plc.
This was right at the start of the evolution of the business park market, so we were defining a new sector category. In 1990 I was appointed a full partner, and this year Head of the Commercial Division.
Q. What is your greatest achievement?
There are many events I am proud of in my career. Obviously, chairmanship of the Investment Property Forum last year was a real honour, and being asked by my partners to head a dynamic and highly regarded business must be at the top of the list professionally.
I have been lucky enough to work with a wonderful range of clients and professionals in virtually every aspect of the real estate market – it would be impossible to single out just one transaction or event.
Q. What are your views on RICS?
We increasingly see our business focusing on specialist activities in terms of market sectors and disciplines. A fair percentage of our recruitment is now outside the traditional property specialisations.
I think this is a challenge to which RICS will need to continue to adapt. It is a big organisation but the individual specialisations that businesses like ours now employ will need greater independent focus.
Q. What are your plans and ambitions for the future?
I want to see us continue to consolidate our business around our core market strengths in the UK. We have moved all of our disciplines into a sector-focused arrangement, enabling our clients to receive advice from surveyors focused on one area of the market, working as a single team.
I think this is vital as individual markets become more specialist, and most clients are already working in the same way.
A key area is to boost our resources to tackle the expanding sector of the market that is regulated. This is a new challenge and I am delighted at the placement and financial structuring activity we have been involved with to date.
Q. What is your favourite building?
The one building that in my view has been timeless during my years in London is the Aviva Tower, formerly the Commercial Union Tower, at 1 Undershaft, Leadenhall Street. Not only has it worked commercially, but I think it has a simple elegance that still stands out in an area of the City that has undergone massive changes.
This article appeared in RICS Business, March 2006.
