These are turbulent times for Real Estate and Facility Managers. There are significant developments in their field of work that heavily influences high-level business practices. In addition, RE & FM departments are becoming more and more expected to contribute to the overall business objectives within their organizations. We view these trends to be of a positive nature. By keeping up with these trends, you can anticipate uncertainties and turn them into strategic advantages.
Following an interesting conversation with René Buck (Founder & CEO of BCI Global) about how external factors today are influencing the choice for a new business location, we carried on another discussion with a thought leader in the field – Dr. Marie Puybaraud, Global Head of Research with JLL. She has shared her key takeaways on how to prosper in the future world of CRE. The tone of our conversation was set at the very beginning, when Puybaraud put forward an important call to action:
“Don’t be distracted. We have got to pay attention to the relevant trends, we have got to experiment with them, and respond with our real estate strategy to meet them. We must dare to try, try and fail, fail and learn, learn and grow.”
Puybaraud elaborated on the contemporary disrupting trends for CRE, like digitalization and workplace flexibility. She stressed that the most interesting development nowadays, is that the people inside organizations are expecting more and more to be given an optimal and unique “human experience” within the workplace. They want to be engaged, they want to be fulfilled, and they want to be empowered by their employer to take control of their own work environment. “This is a big shift in priority setting, beating financial performance and operational excellence,” Puybaraud shared. “Leaders in CRE realize that this trend is a key area for them to add value to an enterprise.”
Puybaraud, states that with the awareness of these changing employee needs, comes a different mindset. In the world we live in today, we should no longer focus on the notion of employee productivity. “Productivity is a word of the past, and we should redefine what we actually mean by that.” Instead of talking about optimizing employee productivity, we were talking about optimizing “human performance,” as this notion incorporates a commitment by the organization to do something in return. In other words, it implies efforts are made by the organization to create the best possible working environment, boosting the “human experience.”
In creating the optimal “human experience,” real estate has a significant role to play. Marie Puybaraud gave some sound advice, which you can listen to in full in our podcast. There are three important things for Real Estate Managers to be retain from this conversation:
These are some specific takeaways Marie Puybaraud shared. However, there are some hidden gems as well. If you sign up on our website, you will be able to listen to our complete discussion for free. In addition, you will also get access to all the other podcasts that are a part of the series.
As the future belongs to those who prepare for it today, we want to support you by delivering more podcasts with thought leaders around topics relevant to real estate. We aim to provide a multitude of views and perspectives to prepare for future growth.
Stay tuned.
