Forging Connections

Rob Cutler

Reflecting on my career with the Land Title and Survey Authority of British Columbia (LTSA), I’m reminded of the adage that “plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” I never planned to pursue a career in land administration but, for over a decade, I’ve been committed to achieving the LTSA’s vision of a real property market that is trusted and transparent.

The work has been immensely gratifying as is the opportunity now to make a greater customer impact in my current role as Vice President of Business Innovation and Chief Product Officer with LTSA.

I joined LTSA in 2008 as Vice President of Human Resources, shortly after the organization was created as a statutory authority by the Province in 2005. At the time, LTSA had a solid operating model but needed to evolve the business to achieve its mandate, meet government expectations, and ensure long-term sustainability. What attracted me to the work was the ability to influence change in a business at the initial stages of digital transformation. Over the years that followed, we brought together an extraordinary group of people who have worked tirelessly to improve and modernize our systems and operations.

What motivates me now, and always has, is connecting with people—including colleagues, customers, and friends. For me, business is not just about making transactions but about connecting with people to imagine new possibilities and build remarkable solutions. I’m sure many BC Notaries can relate—the work we do isn’t just about completing a transaction or submitting an application; rather, it’s about the people involved, the advice we can offer, and how we can collaborate together with one another to make our work easier and more interesting. You know, for many years

We are continually listening I have been involved in choral to the feedback of customers and stakeholders through a number singing, and one of the things I value most about singing in a group is being involved of initiatives including advisory in something bigger than just committees, workshops, and customer surveys. myself—the collective musical result is greater than what we could each accomplish alone. I am not a soloist, nor am I a one-man show with the work I do at LTSA; I am part of a team. That sense of connection and collaboration with others is something I really appreciate, both in my work and personal life. Collaboration with our customers and bringing different voices to the table is also of paramount importance to LTSA. We are continually listening to the feedback of customers and stakeholders through a number of initiatives including advisory committees, workshops, and customer surveys.

Customer input can also occur when we introduce a new or changing product. Depending on the situation, it might occur at a number of points in the process; during ideation, through development, or before implementation. Feedback is critical for maintaining accountability, learning how we can improve, and for informing business priorities. As a customer-centric organization, collaboration with customers and stakeholders is fundamental to how we operate and essential for our continued success.

Through our collaboration with the industry, we know our customers are looking to LTSA to help make it easier for them to operate in the real property market. We are working in a couple of different ways to achieve this. • First, we are strengthening our core systems—the systems that real property practitioners and BC’s citizens have come to rely on for trusted information. Technology is everchanging and evolving, and initiatives such as Web Filing are one step toward streamlining our systems and increasing the efficiency, accuracy, and security of our electronic filing system.

We are continuously improving our systems with incremental changes through an iterative process, and striving to ensure that customer feedback is incorporated in each step. • Second, we will grow our business in the public interest by developing new business opportunities and product innovations that solve problems for customers and society at large. We look to engage in opportunities that provide a public benefit and support government initiatives such as increasing the transparency and efficiency of the real estate market.

Whether improving our products or developing new ones, we’re always considering the overarching purpose for the change—what is the customer trying to do and how can we facilitate that?

At LTSA, we’re developing a different mindset on how we think about and develop our systems—instead of starting with LTSA’s objectives, we strive to start with our customers’ goals in mind, to build the process and product from there.

This approach means we’re now thinking beyond simply building functionality for customers to make a specific transaction or to fill in a particular form; we

want to understand what activity or event is occurring for our customers that we can help facilitate. Are they purchasing a house? Are they subdividing a property? Once we truly understand those goals, we can leverage our people and technology to develop products and services that provide easy and intuitive solutions for different customer segments, and present the functionality in a way that’s useful to the customer. For example, both Notaries and land surveyors use LTSA’s systems in their work, but how and why they interact with us is very different. As a result, the interface for our systems needs to be unique Notaries have an important role in providing essential legal for each group so that every customer can easily and simply complete his or her work. services in BC and have always Notaries have an important done so with integrity and role in providing essential legal accountability. services in BC and have always done so with integrity and accountability. Notaries are often relied on to facilitate LTSA transactions on behalf of property owners. At LTSA, we appreciate our working relationship with Notaries, which is built on open dialogue and working to find common solutions that benefit the public. We’ll continue to rely on Notaries to provide us with feedback about LTSA products that they use, and how we can continually improve the process to make real estate transfers efficient, accurate, and secure. In the future, I see LTSA expanding to provide new information products and services that offer unique value to our customers. Much like a realtor who connects property buyers and sellers, LTSA has the opportunity to connect different parts of the industry by building land-based information products to give everyone easier access to data and services. We can offer insights and information for our customers that increase transparency and trust in the marketplace. We want to support the entire real estate value chain and provide customers with an increasingly better experience. There are many chapters still left to be written in LTSA’s journey and I’m excited about what the future has in store. I’m looking forward to working with Notaries and others in our industry to position British Columbia as a global leader in land registration and an innovator in our field. s Rob Cutler is Vice President of Business Innovation and Chief Product Officer with LTSA