Kinney Green celebrated 40 years as a firm on 2nd July 2012. Nick Eden, Senior Partner, writes:
When Laurie Kinney started Kinney & Green on 2nd July 1972, decimalisation was the new currency and LIBOR had not yet been invented. City rents per square foot were about half the present rate, and City yields were about double. Inflation was 7.65%, over triple today’s level; the Bank base rate was 6%, 12 times more than now, and the FTSE 100 was only 1/12th of its present figure. The Tories, led by Ted Heath, were in power and unemployment had topped 1 million- low by today’s standards but seen as high then
Laurie Kinney was happily oblivious to the statutory freeze on rents which was still 4 months ahead and he could only guess of the impending the property crash of 1973. He took a ‘different view’; an approach Kinney Green has long cherished.
Maurice Green joined later in 1972, so the ‘different view’ became shared and the name Kinney & Green caught on. Whilst Heath soon afterwards won, perhaps now regrettably, French approval to the UK joining the EEC, and in 1973 we had an oil crisis, these events did not deter the swelling of the ranks with the addition of Roger Taylor and Bob Hurles in 1974. Sadly Maurice Green, who I never knew, died during the 1980s. Simon Seymour-Taylor, who joined in 1975, is though still with us as a Consultant, so he completes the make-up of the Old Guard. Years later, with the computer age upon us, we dropped use of the ampersand in Kinney & Green as it cannot be used in email addresses, and because we wanted to sound trendy, and so the Old Guard is affectionately known as the Ampersand Club
Advising clients for 40 years does not itself make us good, nor that we might be good as a result of which have been advising clients for 40 years.
Indeed it is said that always being good breeds’ mediocrity.
What was drilled into me at an early age was the motto “Good, better, best; let us never rest until our good is better and our better is best”.
That is what drives us. We do not simply value properties (or value only simple properties); the real worth is the value we attach to our clients, whatever the task.
Although Kinney Green has expanded, we are not large intentionally; we like to be fleet of foot: clients chose us, but also we chose our clients, and the instructions offered too. There are horses for courses; we are not all things to all people.
The good, the better and the best is delivered in ways which reflect the individual character of those involved, within the over arching ethos of the firm. We nurture the concept of the ‘different view’ and maintain the attributes of integrity, thoroughness, and professionalism.
We benefit from 40 years’ heritage and will continue to build on the traditional areas of our practice but our past is not our future. To stand still is to go backwards; moving forward is essential in any dynamic business environment.
- Our future is brighter than Orange: it’s Green and it’s exciting. We are now carbon neutral, one of only two firms of Chartered Surveyors to have become so. Out of that we have created new business opportunities.
- We have set-up a dedicated residential consultancy capability within the last few months, and have already gained clients in that area, including the City Corporation for whom we are advising on affordable housing, and on residential development consultancy matters. Also, we are advising other new and existing clients on office conversions.
- We expect to take on new property management work shortly and will continue to have the resources to ensure the delivery we want to give; our continuing strategy is to increase that area of our practice.
- We have also expanded our professional consultancy work, with involvements today often concerned with valuation principles and concepts at least as much as market value. This includes work relating to renewable energy, and telecommunications. Hope values and marriage values are our food and drink.
- The days of pure agency i.e. brokerage are limited; today agency is far more allied to consultancy advice, professional, detailed, and thorough in its approach, but still very much keeping our ears to the ground in our market areas, ensuring that we are on top of our game.
- We have a new emphasis advising clients in the TMT sector which is growing rapidly on our door step, and already we are fortunate to count 50 TMT companies among those to who we are giving advice, principally on agency-led property aspects.
A successful future though depends on doing what we do best, having the right spirit, capitalising on change, listening to those with newer experiences, and applying different views to make the difference in an increasingly homogeneous world.
Our aim is to apply our approach for the good of all, for the better delivery of what we do, and with the best interests of our clients in our heads, and also in our hearts.
We have enjoyed our 40 years of marriage, not merely internally, but generically with our clients, with the market place, against the backdrop of the ever changing challenges which have arisen.
We have enjoyed the hope that has gone with it. Our journey ahead is filled with the expectation that we can build on what has been achieved, remembering that success for our clients is best, and that will in turn make our own better best.
We celebrate the past 40 years, for the heritage which Laurie Kinney began, and look forward to the decades ahead.
Nick Eden
