Business Model Shootout... Did you buy shares of CB Richard Ellis last week? (Remember the May 4 Dispatch Should You Buy Google or CB Richard Ellis?) CB's initial public offering (NYSE:CBG) was priced at $19 on Thursday, June 10, and has drifted downward in two days of trading to close at $18.20 yesterday, June 14.

Was it a coincidence that the New York Times wrote about Cushman & Wakefield ("Moving Beyond a Base in New York Office Leasing") on June 9 the day before CBRE's IPO? In the article, future CEO Bruce Mosler fired a gentle shot across CB's bow confirming that C&W intends to remain private, "We will be under no pressure to make decisions for quarterly or short-term results."

But ownership structure aside, the large, national service providers are singing from the same hymnal. As the Times wrote, "In a business where star brokers have often carved out nearly independent fiefs within companies, Mr. Mosler said, businesses like Cushman & Wakefield will look more like consultants in the future. Brokers, he said, will have to operate in teams, with consultants advising clients how to structure transactions."

Similar themes were echoed at Realcomm's "Brokerage Model Shootout" panel in a discussion between Jeff Finn at NAI, David Frosh at Sperry Van Ness and Art Hall at Cushman & Wakefield. Finn argued that NAI's network business model had seen a "100% improvement in productivity" with increases in metrics like "profit margins, desk costs, revenue/agent, client satisfaction and market share."

According to Frosh, "Our customer is the broker." SVN places a "maniacal focus on automation technology" to knit together its 415 brokers in 40 states. Frequently SVN will have over 200 brokers tuned into its internal webcast. C&W's Hall described how "Smart Portal" technology supports its knowledge base. As C&W expands nationally and internationally, some markets are best served by C&W's Alliance Members, which currently number almost two dozen.

--Peter Pike