Burning Down The House

Five decades ago, Century 21 was an innovative force in real estate. Now, in an era of new technology and consumer demands, its fresh CEO is attempting to rebrand and overhaul the global franchise. But at a company this size, change doesn’t come easy.

- Emily Nonko

Walk into Century 21’s headquarters in Madison, N.J., and it’s clear the company is in transition.

A few things seem off and slightly out of place. The walls. The furniture. And most notably, the Ping-Pong table—that clichéd symbol of a Silicon Valley startup, which sits awkwardly abandoned in a corner.

The table arrived in 2017, a corporate gift to welcome Century 21’s then-new CEO, Nick Bailey, who took over that summer. He’d arrived from Zillow, one of the very tech companies putting pressure on Century 21, and carried with him no allegiance to his new employer’s past—including its office design. His mission, in fact, was to largely tear the place up: to overhaul what many have come to see as a tired brand, a former real estate giant that lost its way as technology turned the industry on its head.

“Before I was hired, the place looked like a morgue,” he says. “An awful place to work.”

To start, he did what’s become common among tech leaders. He opted out of the corner office, moved into a cubicle a few rows away, and turned his predecessor’s work space into a company war room of sorts. Desks were cleared out to make way for the Ping-Pong table. “We wanted to create a shock factor,” he says. “Leadership has to prove that things are different.”

But this is a 47-year-old company, and, as Bailey is learning, even shock waves tend not to ripple outward very fast. It only takes a quick trip down the hall to see that. Cubicles still rise from carpet-lined floors, and the noise level can best be described as “appropriate.” A party held one summer afternoon for a recently wed employee featured a sheet cake and ice cream, like on an episode of The Office.