
Ep. 46 | When Automation Knocks: Why Operational Excellence Is No Longer Optional
From Multi-Family Grit by Kerri Davis
December 18, 2025 · 58 min · Episode 46
About this episode
Kerri Davis interviews Zachary Guerin about the impact of automation and operational excellence in property management.
In this episode, Kerri Davis, CEO and Founder of Fortress, sits down with Zachary Guerin, Vice President of Residential Property Management at Seldin Company, for a grounded conversation about leadership, innovation, and the realities of running teams in a rapidly changing industry. Listen in to hear Zach: Share how this industry is sitting on untapped potential, why many people are too tired or burnt out to challenge how things have been done, and how he focuses on finding people who will challenge what people have been doing every day for the last several hundred years of property management Break down how AI cleaned up all of our ledgers, how his teams rose to the KPI and AI challenge with a challenge accepted mindset, and how he pushes operations to meet KPIs or risk being outperformed by automation Reflect on treating managers and operators like they are running micro economies, why he wants his company to bet on courage instead of comfort, and how he creates space for teams to become indispensable while navigating burnout, staffing challenges, and multigenerational leadership
People in this episode
Host: Kerri Davis
Guest: Zachary Guerin
Topics covered
- automation
- operational excellence
- leadership
- innovation
- property management
- AI
- burnout
Keywords
- automation
- operational excellence
- property management
- AI
- leadership
- burnout
- KPI
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Fortress, Seldin Company
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