Central Buying While the training and development program earns more property management business, Quay has also looked for ways to cut costs outside of streamlining his corporate team.
In the purchasing area, he studied how the company purchased supplies. “We have a company and properties that are worth about $2.5 billion,” he says. “In a given year, we will develop between $150 million to $250 million in new products and brands. We were not leveraging that buying power.”
So, he created the position of director of procurement. The new director determined that Village Green was a very inefficient buyer.
Individual properties and departments were doing their own purchasing, which left the company with seven suppliers for maintenance supplies and 35 brands of cleaning supplies. “You cannot leverage costs when you have that type of inconsistency in your purchasing,” says Quay.
The director of procurement centralized the buying functions, choosing a preferred vendor for things like building products and day-to-day maintenance supplies. Over the last two years, the company has saved 33 percent on essential items.
Cutting Through It
Three years into his training and customer service initiatives, the company is still not quite where Quay wants it to be. “Until I can no longer compare us to a real estate company but can compare us to a hotel company or a great manufacturer with ISO 2000 certification, we won’t be where we need to,” he says.
Those who know Quay don’t doubt that his drive, passion, and meticulous nature will get Village Green where he wants it to be. “He finds a way to solve problems, and he just gets things done,” says Bob Luby, asset manager for The Mayerson Co., a real estate management and investment firm in Cincinnati that uses Village Green to manage some of its properties. “He just cuts through it.”
Cutting through it is what every executive must do. No matter what hand is dealt, he or she must move on. Or, as Quay likes to say, “Don’t be a victim.” If Quay had a mantra, this one, which he learned working for numerous executives throughout his career, may be it. He spreads this message throughout the organization, and he obviously practices it. This is a major reason why Village Green enjoyed an increase in net income and in revenue in a very shaky economy. And it’s how Quay became the 2003 Multifamily Executive Executive of the Year.
