I feel like I write a version of this post two or three times a year as I try to come back to the core of what CRE really is. To paraphrase an old adage, focus on the things that you can control. Those controllables should be the fundamentals of what you work on. If you are working on other things, you are trying to work on things that you can’t control.
This is hard in corporate real estate because the practice touches so many parts of a business. CRE involves aspects of business productivity, HR (recruiting/retention), IT (infrastructure/AV/office tech), Finance (capex/depreciation/taxes), and more. Yet, most of those things are stakeholders as opposed to controllables.
Corporate real estate fundamentally is a bridge building function.
CRE is about bringing many disparate stakeholders to the table to create collective solutions. Our job is to balance the needs of many diverse groups that do not care about or want the same things. Our job is to do all of that while managing financial outcomes. Our job is to do all of that while planning two years into the future.
Yes, we need to be able to find the right markets and buildings, but that is completely useless if we cannot understand why the site is needed in the first place.
Yes, we need to be able to design a productive workplace, but that is completely useless if we do not understand how the people work that will occupy it.
Yes, we need to be able to negotiate leases and work through site financials, but that is completely useless if we do not understand what a good financial outcome looks like for the business.
The hardest thing we can do in life is to try to herd cats, but that’s what CRE is at its heart.
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