Cup of Joe: Change ... The Uncomfortable Gift

As humans, we’re driven toward stability. Our hearts and minds crave the known, the predictable. We see this manifest in our relationships and in our businesses, where certainty and reliability serve to build much-needed trust.

Yet, within the workplace, change is as inevitable as it is uncomfortable. Whether it's a shift in leadership, the adoption of new technology, a departmental restructure, or a transition to hybrid work models, professional environments have always been in a state of constant flux.

While change often brings a sense of disruption and varying degrees of resistance, it also carries immense potential for growth, innovation, and long-term success.

A few weeks ago, I celebrated my 39^th year in global mobility. While time seems to be accelerating and the state of our industry often feels as unsettled as it has ever been, when I take a breather and reflect on my nearly four decades of tenure, I see how my own career journey has been indelibly marked by change. Here is a summary of my career path, which, I’m sure you’ll agree, features an abundance of unplanned changes!

• I began my career in 1986 in Norwalk, CT, with one of the early precursors to what is now Sirva, Merrill Lynch Relocation Management (MLRM). Growing up and living in the shadow of Manhattan, it was impossible not to be aware of the most prominent stock brokerage firm in the country, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith. In the spirit of full transparency, when I arrived for the initial interview, I expected to hear more about the financial services industry. However, as I left the office and began my drive home, I was trying to understand what had just taken place and why the two people I had interviewed with had only spoken about “relocation,” home sales, and the reconciliation of real estate closings. They must have been in dire need of a body, as I was hired nonetheless!
  
  
• In 1989, Prudential Insurance Company of America acquired MLRM, which led to significant uncertainty and change. I was a 25-year-old professional with no experience or context to help me make sense of the broad dynamics associated with such a significant acquisition.
  
  
• In late 1989, I was contacted by a former MLRM executive who had left the company just before the Prudential purchase. He had joined a much smaller, fast-growing company called Coldwell Banker Relocation Services (CBRS). I was offered a position as an Account Executive at CBRS's Norwalk, CT office, and with great excitement, I quickly accepted. Over the ensuing six years, CBRS experienced breathtaking success, providing me and many others with exciting career growth and experiences that I still draw upon thirty years later.
  
  
• In 1996, HFS, a large hotel and real estate franchise firm, acquired Coldwell Banker Real Estate and CBRS. Just a few months later, they purchased one of the largest relocation companies at that time, PHH Homequity. PHH and CBRS were instantly merged to create Cendant Mobility (later rebranded as Cartus). This was a tremendously complex, intricate merger of two very large global employee relocation firms.
  
  
• In late 1998, I was contacted by a former CBRS executive who had left during the initial phases of the PHH-CBRS merger to join Prudential Relocation. I was being offered the role of co-leading Prudential’s large Midwest operations center, located in Schaumburg, IL. My wife and I hail from the same town in Connecticut. We went to the same high school and had a very large network of friends, as well as large families all living within short drives of one another. We were suddenly contemplating a move, a relocation of our own, to Chicago-land.
  
  After several months of thought and discussion, we decided to accept the challenge of moving away from our support network to relocate with our two young children to the northwest suburbs of Chicago and rejoin Prudential, the firm I had left a decade prior.

• We closed on our new home in the summer of 1999. Less than two months later, my manager (the same executive who brought me to Chicago and back to Prudential) informed me of Project Firebird, Prudential’s plan to close all of the regional operation centers in North America and create a mega service center in Scottsdale, Arizona.
  
  Thankfully, we had a full twelve months to weigh the option of relocating to Arizona or remaining in Chicago to work from home in an Account Management role. We took every minute of the twelve months to ultimately decide to accept this latest, unscripted challenge to move to Arizona and play a lead role in the execution and establishment of what was, for all intents and purposes, a new company. In the fall of 2001, my wife and I closed on our new home in Scottsdale and, along with roughly 200 other employees, completed our relocation to Arizona. We also hired well over one thousand employees. As we rang in a new year in 2002, Prudential was fully operational in its consolidated and contemporary Scottsdale service center. (Another fun development was the birth of our third child just 45 days before settling into our home in Scottsdale!)

• The following 24 months brought a dizzying degree of change and disruption, including the departure of several key leaders, many of whom were my peers and friends. The cumulative impact of all the changes began to take a toll on both the business and personal aspects of life. I chose to resign, and my last day of employment was just a few days shy of my 40^th birthday in May of 2004.
  
  
• After a brief period of self-examination and career exploration, which included the possibility of moving back to Connecticut to be reunited with our network of friends and family, I joined the largest provider of insurance and claims management services in the relocation industry, UNIRISC. This allowed me to remain in Scottsdale and work from home.
  
  
• In the spring of 2006, a chance encounter in Augusta, GA with the owner of a small relocation firm based in Phoenix ultimately led to my departure from UNIRISC in March of 2007 and my joining Bristol Global Mobility as its President.

Whew! 39 years filled with measures of randomness, unexpected challenge AND opportunity, anxious moments, sadness AND joy, feelings of defeat AND great accomplishment. I often wonder how this journey would have unfolded had I never accepted the CBRS offer in 1989. Throughout my entire career, change and corresponding opportunities were consistently presented to me, and a slight shift in decision-making at any point would have undoubtedly resulted in a very different outcome.

Our industry continues to toss buckets of change our way, while promising ever more with ever-increasing pace. Industry providers are actively adjusting and will need to become increasingly comfortable and more adept, embracing a posture of readiness and acceptance of change.

Earlier this year, Bristol initiated the boldest and most comprehensive transformation initiative in the company's history, Project Kairos. Kairos is an ancient Greek term used to describe the opportune or appropriate time to do a particular thing. While innovation has always been a core feature of our company, Bristol will now maintain a permanent, regimented orientation toward change and continuous improvement.

There is not a week that goes by without an opportunity for change crossing our paths. If we’re honest with ourselves, the vast majority of change we encounter is unplanned, unexpected, and in many instances, undesired. However, if history and my career journey can offer any comfort, leaning into opportunities for growth, innovation, upskilling, and strengthening resilience typically produces benefits that far outweigh the anxious moments that always accompany change.

I am fascinated and at times confused, dismayed, and frustrated as I experience some of the ways our industry (and particularly RMCs) is being forced to change. However, I can also recall many moments over the past 39 years when I felt that same level of confusion, frustration, and anxiety. As was the case in years past, I am equally energized and inspired by the resilience of our business and the people who choose each day to rise to the occasion and wholeheartedly embrace the unknown with optimism and an unwavering passion for innovation. At Bristol, we integrate these behavioral characteristics into our core commitments, which are to be Reflective, Connective, and Human. It is indeed our passion for innovation and embrace of Kairos, coupled with our devotion to our core commitments, that propel us toward delivering on our promise to all our constituents, which is that they, and we, will all be Better with Bristol.