LENNAR
Dfter the deal of the century, production bends over backwards to create value for itself and its customers, with a clear focus on what comes next.
These three words together today set an almost mystical barrier of expectations for billions of people who exchange value, value online and in the real world of commerce. Action, reaction, transaction. What if consumers could click "add to cart" to buy their next home?
We're not there yet," says Stuart Miller, CEO of Miami-based Lennar Corp., who spent the last 21 years as the company's CEO before moving to this newly created leadership position in April. A path there, as seen in the diagram drawn by Miller himself, includes a step-by-step breakdown of the main moments in a customer's chain of decisions and purchase explorations, from buying a wedding dress, for example. It starts with a milestone in the consumer's life and progresses from there.
"If we can identify that moment of engagement and start a dialogue based on how to educate a customer, about what they need, and turn it into an exchange; where we learn more and more about our customer, so that we can personalize an offer for them, we'll soon get to the point where we're there," says Miller. "We'll be able to send them a digital envelope that allows them to see an all-inclusive version from their own home, and that eliminates all the parts of the buying process that are of no value to them or a pain point for them. "
This experience, seemingly light years away from today's home-buying experience, makes Miller and the Lennar leadership team (including Rick Beckwitt as CEO and Jon Jaffe as president) happy that today's operational performance and tomorrow's innovation preparations are equally critical as each other.
Lennar's intelligence manages to remake its business model from the simplicity of a digital purchase moment, when a buyer clicks "add to cart", the model can begin to resemble the logic and elegance of an Amazon. That's where logistics, complexity, physical movement, workflows and time itself disappear, leaving only a buyer ready, willing and able to purchase the home he or she wants.
"We became a pure-play builder when we spun off our real estate business, all we want to do is assist our core homebuilding operations and remove all the expenses in our process that don't offer value to our consumer," Miller says. "That's what we mean when we talk about building a better mousetrap. Our business at that point becomes more completely about the value we create, that we can control and maintain control over, and less about areas that we don't impact. "
The search for a faster route, the instant shopping cart, an iconic shift that puts the consumer at the top of the buyer-seller value chain, explains why Lennar's Miami headquarters pulses like a technological central nervous system. One floor of the space would be hard pressed to distinguish any Silicon Valley web product development center from one on Wall Street. Flat-screen monitors track the color-coded performance indicator and measure real-time data submitted by the company's 38 residential construction divisions across the country.
This moment of truth that changes the business model, the "aha" for a home buyer, speaks volumes about what Lennar is and what it intends to be as any achievement of its leadership team. That includes the $$ 9.3 billion shockwave that Lennar sent through the industry on October 30, when it announced its plan to merge CalAtlantic, homebuilder No. 5, into Lennar. The deal, closed on February 12, makes Lennar the number one construction company in the USAaccording to gross revenue.
BUILDER honors Lennar's strategic and operational team of associates as Builder of the Year 2018For much more than what they have achieved in the last 12 to 18 months, pooling resources, talents and land as one of America's greatest builders.
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