It may seem unnecessary to point out, but we are living in the Information Revolution. It’s spurred on by the increase in digital communications but the simple fact is that our world is all about harnessing information for the maximum return. If Return on Information could be accurately calculated it would likely be the new #1 metric that every business measures itself on.
- Fast food menus are driven by the purchasing behavior of customers. To maximize profits it is necessary to use information to both optimize menu options and prices – ideally by location. A $1 fry may be successful in Georgia but less so in California.
- Brick and mortar retail is size dependent, sometimes big stores are ideal and sometimes smaller stores are. If you are not able to harness your customer intelligence to know which is right for you then you have a 50/50 shot (or less) of guessing right.
- Locating a corporate HQ is dependent upon the labor in the market and the trends for competition for your target skills as well the growth/decline of that skill in the area. Your decision 20 years ago to locate somewhere may no longer be an optimal solution even if it still seems so on the surface.
- Your retail partners, distributors, customer locations, product mix and inventory levels define the optimal supply chain. The mix of all the above likely changes (beyond some threshold) every 3 months or more. How are you using information around each to model the conditions that necessitate a change in location strategy – even if it is simply changing where inventory is pre-positioned. Sometimes having empty space in a warehouse today is the best long-term cost avoidance option.
Information drives everything about real estate. Knowing what is in your lease contract, a given landlord’s financial drivers, the macro and micro characteristics of the market, the labor pool you are trying to tap, future business plans that could impact the decision 3 to 10 years down the road….all of these need to be brought together to optimize any given real estate decision. There’s a lot that can go into a given decision but that doesn’t mean all of it needs to go in. Overkill is a real problem in analysis.
All this to say: invest in knowing how to harness and use information in your real estate decisions. It doesn’t have to all be some fancy, expensive technology (although that may be a component) but it does need to have a rational and consistent approach that meets your needs.