AFIRE

For more than 30 years, AFIRE has been the essential thought leadership forum for international investors focused on the US property markets. Three decades of relevance is a significant and laudable achievement for any organization, but maturation comes with challenges as well. The inertia of old habits, for one thing; and the existential discomfort of change, for another. Age is not a license to blindly repeat old formulas, nor is it an excuse to reject all that has worked in the past. Whether we like it or not, the world (and our industry) is changing. The certainty of old habits will always eventually reveal itself to be an illusion, and as many of us have learned the hard way, that revelation often occurs after damage has been done. In the last 30 years, the nature of thought leadership itself has also changed. At one time, only certain kinds of experts were allowed to introduce perspectives or ideas to the general discourse. But as our lives have become more integrated with our professions, and media (especially digital media) has become decentralized and open to all, thought leadership is now a shared responsibility. As Microsoft’s former director of business insights Daniel Rasmus puts it, “Thought leadership should be an entry point to a relationship.” But how new is shared thought leadership, really? Before the 20th Century, when passive acceptance of “experts’” ideas were the rule, thought leadership was more of a group activity. There’s no coincidence that Plato’s ideas come to us in the form of dialogues rather than eloquent lectures. True understanding is revealed through relationships. Shared thought leadership, therefore, is essential to AFIRE’s mission: to help us all become Better Investors, Better Leaders, and Better Global Citizens.