We are getting closer to having an approved program. The end of the approvals process is in sight! We will soon be allowed to do what we do best: deliver projects! It may feel like we have been selling the program for months already, but now is the time to sell the final program. You…
Author: dmusic604
Creating a Real Estate Program [Part 4] – Iterating (over and over and over and….) your business case
It may feel like you have now gotten yourself to a point where your program feels real. Unfortunately, now is when the real work begins to ensure you have what you need for your program to be successful. Your draft business case has been reviewed and at least partially vetted by some key business leaders….
Creating a Real Estate Program [Part 3] – Crafting a business case from your forecasts
You now have the goals and framework of your program, along with several initial forecasts of what you could deliver within that program. Now, you have to start making commitments to what you can deliver. This leads into what I consider the most important part of building a program: creating the business case. It is…
Creating a Real Estate Program [Part 2] – Forecasting your opportunities (crystal ball not included)
Let’s talk about the building blocks of a real estate program: the potential projects. Across my experience, the best programs start by assuming every single site, lease, workplace, or real estate service could be a possible project. Every single location should go into the analysis bucket to be evaluated for what may be possible. Yes,…
Creating a Real Estate Program [Part 1] – Setting (realistic) goals for your program
The first step in any business program is identifying the rationale, goals, and time horizon you are working with. These will form the basis of all your decisions and reviews that come after this point. If you do not have a solid basis for why the program should exist, what it is meant to do,…
Creating a Real Estate Program [Intro]: A series of posts on what it takes to do it right.
Welcome friends and strangers to the first of seven posts on Creating a Real Estate Program. Over the past few months of conversations, I have heard a common refrain from real estate consultants, corporates, service providers, and technology companies: real estate occupiers have data, they know generally what needs to be done, they may even…
The words we use impact how effectively we are communicating.
We need to be more precise when using the terms hybrid, remote, and return to office. These terms are holding back the conversations we are trying to have across corporate real estate by greying out the middle ground strategy options. Hybrid – It’s a word we all landed on during the pandemic to describe something…
Why I love corporate real estate
It’s been almost two months since I started on a change in path and stood up 4th Spaces. In those two months, I have received one question more than any other: what do you like doing most? At first, it was a tough question to answer on the spot. There is so much that goes…
Battles over encryption matter more than AI over the next decade
The Verge had an article last week titled “Apple ordered to open encrypted user accounts globally to UK spying.” I stopped everything I was doing as I read it. Read it again. And then read it a third time. As I understand from this article, the UK has demanded that Apple create a back door…
Considerations for Moments of Spark and Connection in the office.
The single best reason I come across for why offices are still critical to business strategy is that they are enablers of collaboration. Specifically, when people are together, it can generate moments of spark and connection, leading to innovation and creation. I cannot fault this reasoning because I have personally felt and experienced those sparks…