CHICAGO—With the merger between Cushman & Wakefield and DTZ now a done deal, global president Tod Lickerman tells GlobeSt.com, “Now that we’re big, our goal is to remain nimble.” By that he means “big enough to do whatever any client needs done anywhere, to be a major force in all the major markets” while also remaining “nimble and focused on outcomes and results.”

With global headquarters in Chicago and Americas headquarters in New York City, the combined Cushman & Wakefield is now one of the world’s largest real estate firms, counting a combined total of $5 billion in revenue, 43,000 employees worldwide, a management portfolio of more than 4.3 billion square feet and $191 billion in transaction value. Now owned by an investor group composed of TPG, PAG and OTPP, C&W will be led by chairman and CEO Brett White and Lickerman. First announced this past May, the $2-billion merger closed Tuesday evening.

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Its roots dating back to its 1917 founding, C&W is “a venerable brand,” Lickerman says. In line with that history, the company is introducing a new logo intended to highlight the legacy of a trusted global brand, while also positioning the firm for the future. “But we don’t want the brand to be bigger than the professionals who serve our clients. People make the brand come alive, and I think that’s a real differentiator compared to our competition.”

The combined organization has access to a wide range of data “that is transparent to us internally,” and will use it to “offer better insight into the market, whether it be capital flows, occupier trends or rents and valuations in a particular city,” says Lickerman. It’s a matter of interpreting the data in terms of the opportunities it presents to investors or space occupiers, then determining “how we can expose those opportunities to them and how we can help them capitalize on their positions in the market to create real value for them.”

More broadly, he says, “Our service lines are getting together around the world and defining what ‘great’ looks like and the best-in-class for that service. We’re adopting the best from each company, and we’re looking for areas to invest to make each one better.”

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Integrating the two platforms means focusing on talent and culture, says Lickerman. “It’s about putting the right people in the right roles. If you look at our leadership team across the world, it’s a great balance of the best of Cushman & Wakefield and the best of DTZ. It’s getting our teams together and really making the culture work.”

Making that integration easier, he adds, is the fact that “our people are highly compatible. I’ve seen that as I’ve traveled to different countries, and now that this has closed, I believe our clients will see what a compatible culture this really is.”