After writing my post a few weeks back on dangerous data, I kept coming back to this mental image of what is actually happening within our workplaces that makes the data so misleading and untrustworthy. Dangerous data does not simply spring forth from nowhere, it is the result of circumstances unlike those that came before….
Operations are always both deep and wide and should significantly influence your strategic plans
One of the most important aspects of any strategic plan is understanding how it will impact actual day-to-day operations. If a strategy cannot be reflected through the daily work that happens, nothing will actually change. The thing about operations is that while many think they understand it, no one person can actually know everything that…
Thinking about Return on Investment (ROI) and Corporate Real Estate
Return on Investment is an important concept in finance. It is a key tool for someone investing money to figure out whether that investment is a good decision. A positive ROI means that there is more money coming in for the investment than going out. When comparing two possible investment opportunities that are otherwise equal,…
Considerations for the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday conundrum in corporate real estate planning
One of the truisms for most corporate real estate teams (whether project management or facilities) is that more people are in the office during the middle of the week than the start or end. This effect is more pronounced in certain businesses and countries, but is fairly consistently seen everywhere. It has existed for multiple…
If you are evaluating Work from Home against Work from Office, you are looking at the wrong problem.
I am astonished at the number of articles and think pieces that continue to come out comparing the pros and cons of WFH to WFO. Somewhere, the world collectively decided these two concepts are mutually exclusive when the truth is the opposite. It is entirely possible for companies and individuals to maximize the collective benefits…
Too much real estate data is not always a good thing. Data is dangerous when misunderstood.
As an Industrial Engineer, I love data and all the things I can do with a good, high-quality data set. As a Real Estate professional, I am completely used to working in a world with limited, fragmented data. These two worlds actually come together surprisingly well historically because understanding what to look for in a…
6 big predictions on where Corporate Real Estate is heading over the next three years.
There is a general sense that the world of Real Estate (both Corporate and Commercial) is due for massive change. The pandemic has shown that the way work was done before can dramatically change leading to more work-from-home days and smaller corporate workplace requirements. This then could have a knock-on effect on commercial real estate…
Learning patience is a process that never ends for me.
Patience is not a personal quality that I come by naturally. There is nothing more difficult for me than having a week at work where there is nothing happening, nothing imminent, nothing needed, nothing, nothing, nothing. For most people, this gives them an opportunity to step back and enjoy some well-deserved work/life balance. For me,…
Change, change, change. Workplace occupancy has returned but only when measuring across new time windows.
Are we officially post-pandemic yet? No? One thing we are past is everything we used to know and understand about corporate real estate and how people use the space their companies provide to them. If headlines are any indication, workers are not returning to offices as expected. Companies require a return (Apple x2, Goldman, Tesla)…
I have struggled to get back into writing. Can I rip the bandage off and just go again…?
I thought I was going to be back in April. That was almost five months ago. Before that, I thought I was going to be back in August 2021 with my 10-year anniversary of writing. That did not work out either. My 11th anniversary came and went in a pandemic-era blur. Multiple people have asked…