Property Natter: Day in the life of...a Group Managing Director

For part two of the 'Day in the life of' series, I spoke to Peter Kavanagh, who first joined Romans in 1991 when the company had just 10 employees.

In the 27 years since, Peter has been responsible for many different departments, developing his operational expertise which is essential for his current role. 

After the merger of Leaders and Romans in 2016, Peter took on the role of Group Managing Director placing a strong focus building and maintaining positive relationships both internally and externally to ensure the continued success of the company. 

Here's what his typical day now looks like…

7:30am: After making a cup of coffee, I head into my office and start the day by running through my emails and prepping for the day ahead. 

7:45am: Our Mortgage Services Director, Greg, also likes to get started early and so we often use this time to have a chat about how things are going and what can be improved moving forward. After we’ve identified the quick wins and some long-term goals, it’s time for me to start my follow up calls. 

8:00am – 9:00am: First on my call list is Nick Twine, the Managing Director of Cala Homes South to discuss some exciting projects we are working on. After my catch up with Nick, I call another of our property developer clients, Robin Dorran, the Group Land Director at Shanly Homes. We’ve recently completed a land purchase on behalf of Shanly Homes in Binfield and so need to have a quick catch up to ensure the project is progressing efficiently. 

9:00am: With three companies under one roof, I like to ensure that as Group MD I give each brand equal thought and attention and so this morning I’m heading to a meeting being run by Andrew Williams, Boyer’s Managing Director, who is discussing business strategy with the Boyer senior team.

11am: Time for my presentation!  Once a quarter, I meet with each department to present what is going on across the business, what our plans for the future are and examples of how all of our brands and services have been working together to provide our clients with a positive experience.

Today I am meeting with our training academy Romans Direct. This group are the future of the company and so it’s really important not only to the business, but also to their development that they understand how all the different parts of the business work. 

12pm: During the Boyer meeting, I received some really positive feedback about the community engagement projects our Culture and Community Engagement Manager, Vanessa Foot, has been working on. Everyone in the business has been impressed with the relationships Vanessa has been building and the amount of funds she has raised for our charity partners. I pop downstairs to see Vanessa and pass on the positive feedback along with my thanks for doing such a great job. 

Vanessa has some exciting news for me. As part of her work with Sandhurst School, they have invited me to attend their end of year assembly and talk about the career opportunities young people have at Romans. I accept the offer and can’t wait go out there and talk about the NVQ qualifications and apprenticeship schemes we can offer young people starting out a career in estate agency or administration through our Romans Direct Training Academy. 

12:30pm: Time to grab some lunch, catch up on my emails and prep for this afternoon’s meetings.  

1pm – 2pm: I meet with the Build to Rent team which consists of department heads from Lettings, New Homes, Land and Surveyors to run through some tender documents we are putting together for a new client. Build to Rent is a relatively new concept in our area but is a really exciting prospect which we think will revolutionise the lettings industry – watch this space! 

2pm – 3pm: It’s been a really busy day so I need to use this hour to catch up on my emails, review some press releases and marketing campaigns. We’re always trying new things and launching new products and services so I spend a lot of time working with our Head of Marketing to ensure these are rolled out to the right audience, with the right message and across the right channels. 

3pm – 3:30pm: I love talking to people from across the business and seeing what they are doing to continually improve the service we offer. After browsing through LinkedIn and congratulating a number of people who have posted positive results on there, a post from Clare our Branch Manager in Stowmarket catches my eye. 

I give Clare a call to congratulate her on her clever marketing idea - decorating the blackboard outside of her branch with something topical and relevant which I’m sure did wonders for branding in the local area. It’s great to see people thinking outside the box! 

3:30pm – 4:30pm: I’m ending my day on a high, with an acquisition sign off call. When we complete an acquisition, myself, our CFO, CEO, COO and Acquisitions Director have a final sign off call with the business owner to complete the deal and finalise the rebranding plan. We allow existing business owners to influence the rebranding and often follow their advice on the best way to begin the transition to ensure minimal disruption for both staff and customers. 

4:30pm – 5:30pm: I use the last hour of the day to finish reviewing some tender documents and innovation proposals, sign off some press releases and then pack up my things and head home to walk my dogs. 

Top stuff, Peter. Thanks very much for outlining your day.

Until next time...

*Nat Daniels is the Chief Executive Officer of Angels Media, publishers of Estate Agent Today and Letting Agent Today. Follow him on Twitter @NatDaniels.