Archives for June 2010

Having laboured for over a year at this blogging lark, and having built up a pretty solid readership, I have been thinking about what I could do to enhance the blog.

One of my aims in setting up a blog was to encourage debate by seeking comments from readers - to date there hasn't been very much of this. As some will know I don't give up easily and I have hit upon another way of trying to start a conversation within Workplace and beyond.

Over the coming weeks I plan to publish a series of blogs based on my conversations with a member of Workplace: somebody who works at the coalface, who faces the demands and challenges experienced by the vast majority of our 2,000 strong team. This person is prepared to engage in an open and honest conversation and has promised to tell it as it is!

In keeping with editorial best practice I will be respecting my source's desire for anonymity and we have agreed to use the following nom de plume 'The Source'.

Having chatted with The Source on the shuttle bus today, we agreed that starting next week, we will kick off a dialogue around the following themes:

 - Why are people afraid to take a decision themselves?
 - What do team members think of me?
 - Why does it take so long to get a JAFF approved?
 - What are the real day-to-day challenges?
 - Do team members feel that their views are being listened to?

If anyone in Workplace wishes to join in the conversation you can do so by using the comment function or by sending me a question for us to debate - the choice is yours.

Last Tuesday I participated in a discussion panel at the British Property Federation's annual conference. The theme for the day was 'New Perspectives' and I contributed to a debate about the Landlord and Tenant Relationship. I thought it may be interesting to talk about the position I took as a representative of the consumer.

What relationship I asked myself?

Does the term tenant have any real relevance to me outside of the legal meaning? I'm a consumer of real estate, a customer of the services provided by members of the BPF. How can one explain the absence of any real meaningful relationship outside of the purely contractual, adversarial one that is the norm today?

Why do end users complain about their advisors, their landlords, their estate managers? Why does it take so long to get landlord approvals? Why is leasing space a torturous, time consuming and expensive activity?

My contribution to the session was to call for a real discussion about the changing nature of our world in order to get a few more people engaged so that we can all start thinking about our own industry and its future in the 21st century. This is driven by three factors:

1. The relationship between the provider and consumer of commercial real estate hasn't moved on for decades
2. The fundamentals of the economic supply demand equation may well be changing due to:
 - Nature of how we work is changing
 - The sustainability agenda wont go away
 - The dominance of the Western economies and world is getting flatter.
3. The absence of any relationship is not all the landlords' fault.

Taking the L&T relationship, or rather the lack of it, is a huge lost opportunity. The supply side of our industry is far too introspective. There are some exceptions. To outsiders it appears as a cosy club-like world where nothing much has changed in decades, if not centuries.

Take for example the 1954 Landlord & Tenant Act - almost 56 years old and came into being when Roger Bannister ran the mile in under four minutes, Churchill was still Prime Minister and food rationing had just ended.

Another example is the language used in property leasing, for example, quarter dates for rental agreements originate from medieval times. Why do we still contract to pay rent on Christmas Day?

The industry really needs to take a long hard look at itself and recognise we're now in the 21st century.

For many people there will always be tenants and they will also need space in the UK. I posed the following questions to the audience;-

Are you up to speed with the changing nature of work and the impact it will have on how much space users will need? At the BBC we now know how all our major buildings are used, when they are used and what they cost. It has come as no surprise to us that we can cut almost a third of the estate as we get smarter about space utilisation.

Are you aware of the growing importance of sustainability - not only environment - at Board Level?

Are you seeing a real shift in emphasis away from the Western economies to take into account the emerging economies of China, India and Brazil? What will this do to demand for space?

Whilst this may appear to be more Landlord bashing let me say that the consumer side needs to sharpen up its act too. At the BBC we're focusing on how we become an intelligent client. How do we engage with the industry? What is best practice? Where can we drive more efficiency into what we do? We as end users need to get better organised. We need good metrics, need to demonstrate alignment with the organisations we support and understand how the business works. Also we need to think of the industry as part of the supply chain and manage it accordingly to get the best solutions.

As stewards of the built environment we need to drive efficiency into the system in a better, smarter, faster way while doing so in a much more sustainable manner. We owe it to the generations that follow us to stop the talking and to take action now.

I hope Tuesday's discussion prompted some in the audience to consider a new perspective.

All work and no play is not good for any team especially one that has the job of delivering the BBC's new home in the North at MediaCityUK, plus helping BBC Wales create a new Drama Village, plus a range of other activites the length and breadth of the country!

Last Wednesday Alan Bainbridge and his merry men and women took to the Salford ship canal to compete in a dragon boat race in aid of the charity Crash. The event raised over £15k.

By participating in events like this we have the opportunity to show off not only our physical abilities but, if you take a look a the photo below, this dragon boat racing takes a lot of concentration and working together to get the rhythm right.

Food for thought as we all strive to do a better job as One Workplace team?

The Empire State Building is a real icon in New York's skyscape and is known the world over. When construction was completed in 1931 it became the world's tallest building. The landmark is currently undergoing a $500 million refurbishment and the end result will generate a 38% reduction in energy costs. At long last we have a real live example of how our industry can really get energy savings from a building. Click here for further details on this case study.

The most striking thing for me was we now have a live example of a project with a three year payback plus the building owner can make a profit!

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to meet its owner -Tony Malkin as the BBC hosted a briefing session at Broadcasting House on this important subject. For more details about Tony have a look at his YouTube video interview.

He is really leading the way on the sustainability agenda and was in the UK to share his message with us that we should focus not on greener buildings but on cutting consumption! Rather than waxing lyrical about this, have a look at the video story on the JCI website.

For another perspective on this session have a look at Peter Bill's piece in the Estates Gazette of 15 May 2010. It was good to see Peter call on the UK property industry to do things 'for the good of the planet'.

If our American colleagues can get their act together isn't it time for the UK to get really serious about the need to cut carbon emissions?!