Last Thursday, 80 CEOs and leadership executives experienced the impact that management passion can achieve.

It was in Canberra at LDK Seniors’ Living’s Greenways Views retirement village. (See separate story). 

Eight LDK executives gave a detailed explanation of what they had individually done to make this village unique and uniquely successful.

In three years, from a standing start with its first village, LDK built and sold 300 homes in a market that they had no track record.

It is a retirement village operating under the Retirement Village Act but delivers care up to palliative, and most dementia.

Instead of five staff, it has 200.

Instead of a DMF, it has an upfront membership fee of around $200,000.

It is a new village model created on a whiteboard by seven people, including three lawyers who left the law to create this new option.

The striking element of each presentation was the passion. Every executive was all over their brief and just passionate. The energy was palpable.

Two examples of strategic thinking on Day One with the whiteboard.

New CEO and ex-Senior Law Partner Byron Cannon took on responsibility for strategising the values and culture of the fledgling business. The resulting vision and processes would make the largest business envious, yet this was built from Day One.

Marketing Manager Craig Flett and Sales Director Steve Browne specified Salesforce as their CRM from Day One, a platform designed for businesses 50 times larger. They said they jointly analyse the data first thing every morning. Thus, the 300 sales in about 30 months.

My point? If you look around the retirement living sector, name another innovation. Choice of contracts came in about 2012, a slow response to the slow sales, post-GFC market. Vertical villages; these commenced also around 2012 with Australian Unity’s Drummond Place. That is 11 years ago. Land lease? Walter Elliott’s Palm Lake Resort kicked this off about 30 years ago.

Two women have had projects of passion. Natasha Chadwick with her New Directions dementia village and Tamar Krebs, with her Group Homes Australia, both conceived more than 10 years ago.

Thin pickings indeed.

While there are lots of whiteboards kicking around Head Offices, perhaps what is missing is the passion for fresh thinking that LDK has demonstrated. 

The customers are waiting.