Bookmarks: 5 Interesting Articles That May Help You This Week

July 23rd, 2018

Each week, I select a few articles that rise above the fray and hopefully help you on your journey in the CRE world. They pull from one of four "corners:" corporate real estate, technology, management science and anything positive. I welcome your comments on these articles.

How Amazon’s Expanding U.S. Brick-and-Mortar Footprint Stacks up Against Other Big Retailers

"Whole Foods locations make up close to 80 percent of Amazon stores across the U.S., underscoring the importance of the $13.7 billion Whole Foods acquisition for the company’s brick-and-mortar push.Thanks to the Whole Foods deal, Amazon is breathing down the necks of traditional retailers like Sears and Macy's, both of which have closed stores this year. However, Walmart dwarfs Amazon's footprint with 5,295 stores across the county. Kroger (2,779 stores), Home Depot (1,981), Target and Best Buy (1,328) each boast a much larger national footprint as well.Unlike many of these companies, which have been building stores for decades, Amazon is new to the physical retail world. Amazon opened it's first brick and mortar store, Amazon Books, in Seattle's University Village mall in 2015." www.geekwire.com[tweet_box design="box_09" float="none"]"Unlike many..companies, which have been building stores for decades, Amazon is new to the physical retail world." #cre #retail[/tweet_box]

Why Theme Parks are Spending Millions to Give Guests Free Wi-Fi

"We are constantly evaluating needs and introducing new technology in the parks to enhance the guest experience,” said Liz Jaeger, a spokeswoman for the Disneyland Resort.

But theme parks are not investing in free internet service just to keep tech-loving guests like Barrie happy. There is big money to be made with in-park Wi-Fi because it lets guests promote the park on social media and it gives the park access to valuable data about visitors.

Enthusiastic fans wait in line to be the first to enter the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood before sunrise in 2016. Wireless internet helps theme park guests post images from such attractions. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 

Industry experts note that videos, pictures and messages dispatched from theme parks to social media sites help promote the parks to millions of potential guests on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, among other sites. Last year, Disneyland was the most Instagrammed location in the world, according to the photo-sharing app.

“There is an entire new industry of people posting pictures, going live, streaming while at a theme park or creating photo reports,” said Martin Lewison, a theme park expert and business management professor at Farmingdale State College in New York." www.latimes.com

The Power of Positive People: Are your friendships giving you a boost or bringing you down?

“I argue that the most powerful thing you can do to add healthy years is to curate your immediate social network,” said..one expert, who advises people to focus on three to five real-world friends rather than distant Facebook friends. “In general you want friends with whom you can have a meaningful conversation,” he said. “You can call them on a bad day and they will care. Your group of friends are better than any drug or anti-aging supplement, and will do more for you than just about anything.” www.wsj.com

What Not to Do When You’re Trying to Motivate Your Team

“When leaders look like they are just applying some “motivational technique” they read about, people see right through the superficial, obligatory effort. It looks like they are checking off the “I motivated someone today” box. Motivation is not something you do to people. People ultimately choose to be motivated — when to give their best, go the extra mile, and offer radical ideas. The only thing leaders can do is shape the conditions under which others do, or don’t, choose to be motivated. But the final choice is theirs.

H.ARMSTRONG ROBERTS/CLASSICSTOCK/GETTY IMAGESUnfortunately, too few managers understand this, and so there is a gap between managers’ efforts and the results they’re getting. A 10-year study of more than 200,000 employees shows that 79% of employees who quit their jobs cite a lack of appreciation as a key reason, and according to Gallup’s 2017 “State of the American Workplace” report, only 21% agree their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work. Here are three of the most offensive forms of “motivating” I’ve seen managers employ, and three alternative approaches I’ve seen work wonderfully.” www.hbr.orgWhy Duke Realty Believes There’s Plenty of Room for Development in the Industrial SectorNREI: What underlies that “pretty good” feeling?(Duke CEO) Jim Connor: You’ve got 4.5 percent vacancy nationwide. It’s the lowest it’s been as long as anybody can remember, and they’ve been keeping records 25-plus years. We keep predicting every year that supply is finally going to catch up with demand, and it still hasn’t happened yet. Based on activity, I don’t see that trend changing. When you’ve got that low of a vacancy rate, it allows us to keep the occupancy rate in our portfolios ridiculously high. Our in-service portfolio is 97.5 percent leased [as of the first quarter of 2018], and with that you get great, strong rent growth numbers.The challenge for us—and there’s always a downside with the upside—is we’re really in favor right now, so there’s a ton of capital chasing industrial. Even though interest rates have gone up 50 to 60 basis points in the last eight or nine months, we’ve seen cap rates on industrial compress 25 basis points, and maybe more in some cases. So, there’s a lot of competition out there. www.nreionline.comYour success blesses others. I wish you a great a hugely impactful week!