Wright Kingdom plans ahead with fresh faces, ideas

BOULDER – To stay competitive in an ever-changing marketplace, Wright Kingdom owners Stu Wright, Lew Kingdom and Gary Collins are bringing “more and younger heads” to their management team.

Founders Kingdom and Wright said their No. 1 challenge is to implement a succession plan. For help, they hired an outside management consultant who advised them in formulating a new, larger management team. The new team consists of the three owners; Wright’s and Kingdom’s sons, Eric and Dan; the company’s relocation director, Marilyn Dalton, and office manager, Sue Wilke.

“Lew and Stu have encouraged different and diverse perspectives under one roof,” Dalton said of the new management team. “When we come together there is a lot of energy and synergy.”

SPONSORED CONTENT

Federal District Court Rules Corporate Transparency Act Unconstitutional . . . But Most Small Businesses Must Still Comply

Lyons Gaddis Real Estate and Business Attorney Cameron Grant shares important details of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA).

“There is a younger generation in the business,” Wright said. “We are reaching out to the next generation to carry it to another level.”

Kingdom sees new people and new business models testing the old business models. For Boulder-based Wright Kingdom to remain competitive, he said they must be vigilant.

“The company needs to be run with vigor and vision,” Kingdom said. “It will take a fresh set of eyes and someone to have that vision.”

Moving forward, Wright and Kingdom said they will continue to look for new opportunities. According to Wright, they are still interested in growing and expanding in Boulder County, possibly by acquiring smaller, existing companies. While they are currently exploring expansion options, there is nothing in the works.

According to Wright, he and Kingdom always have kept focused on the future. Kingdom said a major turning point came six years ago when Wright Kingdom added 20 Coldwell Banker Moore Realtors to its staff.

Kingdom said they had to decide whether to be a “mom and pop” or to compete. After the merger, they found their larger size made a difference in how they were perceived, both by the outside buyer and seller, and the industry.

“We went from a sleepy good little company to a wide awake company with a voice and clout in the marketplace,” Kingdom said.

In the 30 years since Wright and Kingdom founded the company, it has grown tremendously, expanding from a two-person business to employing more than 70 agents.

“In our first year, we did $5.7 million in sales,” Kingdom said. “Now we do that in a week.”

Wright said innovation has been one reason the small company has been able to thrive. One example is the company’s relocation service. Wright and Kingdom started the division 18 years ago. They felt if they wanted to compete with the franchises they had to reach out on a corporate level.

“It was a hands-on service that no one else was doing at the time,” Dalton said. “It created a niche for us in the Boulder area and gave our agents a competitive edge then and still does.” The division has been a big help in an area as entrepreneurial as Boulder County. Wright Kingdom is known for its division throughout the business community.

Wright Kingdom has also set itself apart by remaining independent and locally owned. Wright and Kingdom have found several advantages in being an independently owned company. For one, they can make on-the-spot decisions on behalf of their brokers, buyers and sellers. They also have a culture that is born out of Boulder and the northern Front Range, rather than having a national one that is brought in to Boulder. They are also well positioned in an environment that is accepting of, and even searches for, doing business with local people.

Although the company has a local focus, it has given itself a global reach by partnering with organizations like Leading Real Estate Companies of the World and Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate. “People around the globe can find us with the click of a mouse,” Wright said. Even so, 80 percent to 85 percent of the company’s business is from repeat clients or through referrals.

“We have a very personalized approach to management and sales that attracts people to us,” he said.