July-Aug 2020

Amid Chaos, a Chance for Change COVID-19 Uncovers Need for Updated Workflows By Steve Irwin, President, NRMLA Moving Forward “The future is already here—it’s just not very evenly distributed.” —William Gibson I MUST ADMIT, I have started and stopped this column several times as the news of the COVID-19 pandemic continually is updated. It’s late April 2020 as I write this, yet this column is set to run in July 2020. I understand that I am in the same situation as most of you: We are mostly working remotely and watching a global crisis unfold day-by-day. We are forced to think in the near- term as we ensure our friends, families, colleagues and cus- tomers are safe and well. We find short-term fixes that relieve any given source of worry and then move on to the next issue at hand. I am not sure what the social, technological, political or economic outcomes will look like in the next 30 days, let alone the next three months. As we struggle with keeping our collective sense of worry at bay, we must also consider what longer-term opportunities are presenting themselves at this uncertain moment. How can our current processes be rethought, and what greater efficiencies are to be gained through that evaluation? What innovations will we, as an industry, nec- essarily have to accelerate? What is it that our customers are truly valuing during this disruption? Is that what our customers will value as we come out of the crisis? As a recent survey by Deloitte asks: “What new providers, com- panies, business models and eco- systems might emerge out of this crisis? What capabilities, relation- ships and assets will be important in the new world?” We have already seen certain impediments to success reveal themselves during this disrup- tion. Our arcane processes have relied on in-person interac- tions for too long. The use of printed forms and documents have bogged us down for too long. The over-reliance on out- dated workstreams have created more than a few bottlenecks. We have navigated our way around many of these impediments, but we must be certain that we all take a lon- ger-term perspective and open ourselves to new opportuni- ties or resolve recently exposed risks. We must try to envision a world that could be and begin the hard work of realizing that vision. I look forward to working with you all to move our industry forward as we come out of this disruption. The time is right. I also hope you all remain safe and well and that we get the opportunity to gather and check in with each other soon. We can lift a glass and ask: “You OK?” Thank you all for your support and participation. Steve Irwin REVERSE MORTGAGE / JULY-AUGUST 2020 5