Lambert Smith Hampton has reorganised its leadership and business structure to target strategic growth areas.
The national commercial real estate adviser has committed to a streamlined leadership structure around three service lines: operational, transactional and consultancy services.
The firm’s core leadership group comprises the heads of each service line: Ryan Dean (transactional), Adam Ramshaw (consulting) and Sophie Wisdom (operational) alongside CEO Ezra Nahome and COO Massimo Marcovecchio.
“This flat structure breaks from the hierarchies normally associated with large advisory businesses and frees up fee earners to focus on growing their own businesses and client bases," explained CEO Nahome. "This not only increases efficiency throughout the business but is also a useful point of difference when it comes to the recruitment and retention of key personnel."
The leadership changes have been backed by a number of strategic hires over the past quarter. Recent recruits include Alastair Hilton, Mike Pope and Simon Wilson as directors with the capital markets team.
The firm has also bolstered its national agency team, CoStar News can reveal, with the arrival of Richard Williams and Andy Riach to jointly lead LSH’s Birmingham agency team. Riach was a director in JLL’s national agency team, while Williams is the former head of Colliers’ Birmingham office agency.
Nahome adds that the revised structure, which was trialled during the pandemic, has brought a closer alignment of the national business with the regional offices.
“We believe that we are one of the few national advisors for whom regional growth is a priority rather than an afterthought," Nahome said. "All of our 26 regional offices feed into and are supported by our service lines, sharing resource, expertise and cross-selling opportunities. This is already paying dividends in terms of winning national mandates and is particularly valuable when it comes to pursuing opportunities presented by the levelling up agenda."
Nahome says the close working relationship with parent company, Connells, is also delivering a steady pipeline of opportunities throughout the housing and regeneration arena.
“The real estate landscape is evolving quickly and we are committed to building an advisory business that keeps pace. We’ve spent a lot of time identifying our strengths and structuring the business around them. The result is a more agile, more transparent and more entrepreneurial business and both clients and colleagues are already responding positively to the changes."
Estate agency and property services firm Connells bought LSH from Countrywide in 2021.
Lambert Smith Hampton said it had reported "solid performance" for the 2022 full year last month, as it posted total income of £87.8 million, down from the £95.5 million reported in 2021 and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of £8.3 million (2021: £13.1million).
The group said it had been a turbulent year for markets in general and a year of transition at LSH, with the business adapting to "navigate difficult and challenging conditions".
Nahome said at the time that in his 20 years at LSH the company had continuously adapted to meet the needs of its clients in a dynamically changing market.
"Last year was particularly difficult, not least because of the combination of the impact of the conflict in Ukraine, the growing cost of living crisis, and interest rate increases impacted on all markets but, particularly the transactional sectors. Dealing with one of these factors is tough enough but all three at the same time has been particularly challenging."
LSH operates from 26 offices around the UK and last year invested in new premises in London, Bristol and Milton Keynes.