April 17, 2023

Power Reads: 3 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Month

April 17, 2023/ Ken Ashley

Each month, I select a few articles that rise above the fray and hopefully help you on your journey in leadership and the CRE world. They pull from one of four "corners": corporate real estate, technology, management science and anything positive. Each day we can become a better version of ourselves.

1. Brrrr. The Capital Markets are Frozen Solid!

Strap on your battle armor, we’re about to get into the thick of it. The storm clouds have been building for a while, but we’re about to get into a true battle in real estate capital markets.

“As has been reported in the past couple of weeks, the capital markets for commercial real estate are simply a mess. Things were tense, then Credit Suisse happened and blood pressure from lenders, capital and syndicators went off the charts.”

“I do think you will see banks pull back on commercial real estate commitments more rapidly in a world [where] they’re more focused on liquidity,” wrote Goldman Sachs Research’s Richard Ramsden in a note on Friday. “And I do think that is going to be something that will be important to watch over the coming months and quarters (first reported on CNN)."

2. Breaking Barriers and Shattering Glass Ceilings

I'm thrilled to share the 2023 CREi List of Influential Women in Commercial Real Estate! You can view the full list at www.creisummit.com

“These trailblazing women have made a significant impact on the industry and serve as role models for the next generation of leaders.”

This list was curated in partnership with Barbi Reuter who is an amazing leader in her own right.

3. Location Still Matters

Appropriately, there has been a ton of press recently about office buildings that are in trouble and going back to the lender. Billions of dollars of value is being destroyed before our very eyes.

“This weekend, I drive north out of Atlanta through some ex-urban communities enroute to see one of my daughters. She attends college in a rural North Georgia community.”

On the way up, I shook my head as I drove by 2 and 3 story "pocket" office buildings seemingly in the middle of a hay field. All had "for lease" signs in front of them. And they were very "see through" - meaning they need tenants. I could almost feel the pain of the hapless owners of the assets as I drive by.

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great and hugely impactful month!

March 07, 2023

Power Reads: 5 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Month

March 07, 2023/ Ken Ashley

1. Cuts at Amazon, Other Tech Companies Don’t Spell Recession Yet

Amazon.com Inc.’s halt to construction of a new headquarters, on top of a parade of high-profile tech layoffs, looks ominous for the economy. But the damage will need to spread much further to signal full-blown recession.

“When the U.S. has entered recession in the past, weakness has often started in one sector and then spread like brushfire, pulling down a widening array of industries and the people who work in them.”

Downturns in 2001 and 2007-09 were apt examples. The deflated internet and telecommunications bubble in the early 2000s and then the mortgage and housing crunch of the mid-2000s emanated outward, damaging financial companies, consumer spending and business investment. That ultimately led to economywide recessions and widespread layoffs.

2. Amazon Delays Construction Of HQ2 In Northern Virginia

Amazon has put on ice plans for a 3.2M SF expansion of its second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.

“As the Seattle-based tech giant has continued its aggressive cost-cutting campaign, it no longer expects to start construction as planned on Phase 2 of Amazon HQ2, dubbed PenPlace, the company confirmed in a statement.”

The project calls for three 22-story office buildings and a signature Helix tower in the Pentagon City neighborhood, which was rebranded as National Landing as part of Arlington's bid for Amazon's headquarters. The company received approval for the project in April.

3. Salesforce Deepens Real Estate Cuts, Offloading Space in Namesake San Francisco Tower

Salesforce is making good on its promise to aggressively cut its real estate footprint in its pursuit of more profitable growth, putting another chunk of space on the sublease market as it reduces its stake in a high-profile office tower.

“The San Francisco-based tech giant, the world’s biggest maker of software to manage sales leads, confirmed it has listed six floors, or about 125,000 square feet, at Salesforce Tower in downtown San Francisco.”

The company has enlisted help from CBRE to market the offices, which brings the total amount of space Salesforce is looking to offload in the city to more than 1 million square feet.

4. Companies Still Want Office Space, But They Also Want To Stay Nimble

U.S. businesses are looking to add office space this year, but their planning is more short-term than it used to be, according to a new survey by software specialist Visual Lease of 200 senior corporate real estate executives at companies with more than 1,000 workers.

“Seventy percent of respondents said their businesses are looking to add space this year, but 88% are planning for their space needs a year or less in advance. A year ago, 35% of respondents reported planning their company’s spaces with the same short timeline in mind.”

The survey's results highlight a fundamental shift in tenant thinking in the aftermath of the worst of the pandemic. Namely, senior corporate real estate executives now identify the ability to sublease, as well as having flexible lease termination as an option, as key needs when negotiating leases.

5. As Americans Work From Home, Europeans and Asians Head Back to the Office

While U.S. offices are half empty three years into the Covid-19 pandemic, workplaces in Europe and Asia are bustling again.

“Americans have embraced remote work and turned their backs on offices with greater regularity than their counterparts overseas. U.S. office occupancy stands at 40% to 60% of prepandemic levels, varying within that range by month and by city. That compares with a 70%-to-90% rate in Europe and the Middle East, according to JLL, a property-services firm that manages 4.6 billion square feet of real estate globally. ”

Return to office was even more common in Asia, JLL said, where rates ranged from 80% to 110%—meaning that in some cities more people are in the office nowadays than before the pandemic.

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great and hugely impactful month!

January 24, 2023

Power Reads: 5 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Week

January 24, 2023/ Ken Ashley

Each week, I select a few articles that rise above the fray and hopefully help you on your journey in leadership and the CRE world. They pull from one of four "corners": corporate real estate, technology, management science and anything positive. Each day we can become a better version of ourselves.

1. How Apple Has So Far Avoided Layoffs: Lean Hiring, No Free Lunches

Layoffs have hit the tech industry hard—except at Apple Inc. The world’s largest company has so far avoided the job cuts rippling through peers including Microsoft Corp., Google, Meta Platforms Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.

“No company is certain to avoid significant cutbacks in an economic environment as volatile as the current one, and Apple isn’t immune to the business challenges that have hit other tech giants. It is expected next month to report its first quarterly sales decline in more than three years. Apple has also slowed hiring in some areas.”

But the iPhone maker has been better positioned than many rivals to date in part because it added employees at a much slower clip than those companies during the pandemic. It also tends to run lean, with limited employee perks and businesses focused on hardware products and sales that have so far largely dodged the economic downturn, investors say.

2. Tech Layoffs Shock Young Workers. The Older People? Not So Much.

When Lyft laid off 13 percent of its workers in November, Kelly Chang was shocked to find herself among the 700 people who lost their jobs at the San Francisco company.

“It seemed like tech companies had so much opportunity,” said Ms. Chang, 26. “If you got a job, you made it. It was a sustainable path.”

Brian Pulliam, on the other hand, brushed off the news that the crypto exchange Coinbase was eliminating his job. Ever since the 48-year-old engineer was laid off from his first job at the video game company Atari in 2003, he said, he has asked himself once a year: “If I were laid off, what would I do?”

3. Microsoft to Lay Off 10,000 Workers as Slowdown Hits Software Business

Microsoft Corp. said Wednesday it plans to eliminate 10,000 jobs in response to the global economic slowdown, the company’s largest layoffs in more than eight years and the latest in a string of cuts from big technology companies.

“The software company’s chief executive officer, Satya Nadella, wrote that the layoffs would happen before the end of March and affect less than 5% of the company’s worldwide workforce. The last time Microsoft laid off that many people was in 2014, when 18,000 employees lost their jobs as the company pulled out of cellphones and other noncore businesses.”

In a blog post to employees, Mr. Nadella pointed to the shaky economy, telling employees that companies globally had begun to “exercise caution as some parts of the world are in a recession and other parts are anticipating one.” He added that the company would be taking a $1.2 billion charge in its soon-to-be-announced earnings related to severance costs.

4. These Companies Have Announced the Biggest Layoffs in 2023

Amid an avalanche of layoffs in some sectors of the U.S. job market, particularly across technology, retail, and finance sectors, Swedish music streaming giant Spotify announced Monday that it would cut 6% of its global workforce.

“The news comes day after Google’s parent company Alphabet announced on Jan. 20 that it would cut 12,000 jobs.”

The Google layoffs are the company’s largest ever, accounting for 6% of the company’s global personnel, and comes after a decision to defer a portion of employees’ January bonuses to be paid later in the year. Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s chief executive, shared a memo on Friday via the company’s website citing ill-hiring decisions over the past two years, which aimed to “match periods of dramatic growth.” He said, “To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today.”

5. Georgia Brokers Trek Across Country To Cheer On Bulldogs

Brokers Brooke Gothard and Nicole Goldsmith work for rival firms, but the friends came together in Los Angeles where they cheered on the Georgia Bulldogs to a huge victory over the Horned Frogs from Texas Christian University.

“Gothard, who works for JLL Atlanta, and Goldsmith a CBRE landlord representative, joined dozens of real estate pros from Georgia who made the cross-country trek to watch the 2023 College Football Playoff National Championship at SoFi Stadium.”

Gothard went to the game with University of Georgia grads Kristen Henderson and Goldsmith to support her friends and kick off the new year in a big way.

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great and hugely impactful week!

January 17, 2023

Power Reads: 5 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Week

January 17, 2023/ Ken Ashley

1. Alarmed by A.I. Chatbots, Universities Start Revamping How They Teach

While grading essays for his world religions course last month, Antony Aumann, a professor of philosophy at Northern Michigan University, read what he said was easily “the best paper in the class.” It explored the morality of burqa bans with clean paragraphs, fitting examples and rigorous arguments. A red flag instantly went up.

“Mr. Aumann confronted his student over whether he had written the essay himself. The student confessed to using ChatGPT, a chatbot that delivers information, explains concepts and generates ideas in simple sentences — and, in this case, had written the paper.”

Alarmed by his discovery, Mr. Aumann decided to transform essay writing for his courses this semester. He plans to require students to write first drafts in the classroom, using browsers that monitor and restrict computer activity. In later drafts, students have to explain each revision. Mr. Aumann, who may forgo essays in subsequent semesters, also plans to weave ChatGPT into lessons by asking students to evaluate the chatbot’s responses.

2. White-Collar Recession: Why Job Cuts Are Hitting Professional Workers

As interest rates rise and companies tighten their belts, white-collar workers have taken the brunt of layoffs and job cuts, breaking with the usual pattern leading into a downturn.

“Amazon, Ford, Pepsi, and more from Amazon. These are just a few of the companies that have said they were starting big lay offs in the last year.”

Some job cuts are expected when the economy hits a rough patch, but this is different - not because of the number of people being laid off, but because of who.

3. Tech Industry Reversal Intensifies With New Rounds of Layoffs

A new wave of tech layoffs signals how executives in the industry are pivoting from a growth-above-all mindset to protecting their bottom line.

“After a bruising 2022 in which companies from small startups to tech giants slammed the brakes on expansion, some of the biggest names in the sector are demonstrating that an era of austerity is only beginning, with expenses scrutinized and moonshot projects abandoned. Amazon.com Inc. and Salesforce Inc. both announced plans for layoffs in the past week.”

The job cuts at Amazon, the largest in the tech sector to date, affect more than 18,000 workers, mostly in the retail, recruiting and devices businesses. Devices is an area of scrutiny under Chief Executive Andy Jassy.

4. Bob Iger tells Disney employees they must return to the office four days a week

Disney CEO Bob Iger told hybrid employees on Monday they must return to corporate offices four days a week starting March 1, according to an email obtained by CNBC. In the email, Iger stressed the importance of in-person collaboration.

“As I’ve been meeting with teams throughout the company over the past few months, I’ve been reminded of the tremendous value in being together with the people you work with,” Iger wrote.”

“As you’ve heard me say many times, creativity is the heart and soul of who we are and what we do at Disney. And in a creative business like ours, nothing can replace the ability to connect, observe, and create with peers that comes from being physically together, nor the opportunity to grow professionally by learning from leaders and mentors.”

5. Starbucks CEO Requires Corporate Employees To Return To Office At Least 3 Days A Week

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is mandating workers to come back to corporate offices at least three days a week in an effort to boost camaraderie and productivity.

“The coffee retailer is the latest in a wave of companies that have begun enforcing stricter hybrid work models.”

Starting Jan. 30, employees in commuting distance from Starbucks' corporate offices will be required to come in on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, Schultz wrote in a memo Wednesday, giving individual teams the ability to choose the third day.

6. The Fort Podcast: Ryan Eisenman – Co-Founder of Arch – Building the Digital Admin For Private Investments

Ryan Eisenman is the co-founder and CEO of Arch, a digital solution utilized by over 180 private investment firms to automate the administration and management of tens of $Bs of alternative investments.

“Ryan is a Houston native, graduated from Vanderbilt University, and now lives in New York City where Arch is headquartered.”

On this episode Chris and Ryan discuss the story of how he got the idea to build and execute on Arch, the issues behind managing wealth and private investments, how he raised VC capital, [and] several questions about his career.

7. The Fort Podcast: Chris Powers & Jason Baxter – Fort Capital’s 2022 Year in Review

In today’s episode, Chris Powers and Jason Baxter take a look at the last year for Fort Capital and discuss the biggest wins of the year. How our team and technology have progressed, how we are looking at the market in 2023, what makes Fort Capital so special, and much, much more.

“At Fort Capital, our mission is to become the best real estate operator in the entire world. We’re always considering how we can operate better, acquire more real estate, improve our credibility and track record, attract top-tier talent, and drive more profit and returns to our investors.”

So I’m delighted to say that following off the back of an incredible year in 2021, in which we smashed all of the targets we outlined in last year’s Year in Review, we have stretched even further in 2022 to outperform our initial goals in every metric we set out.

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great and hugely impactful week!

January 03, 2023

Power Reads: 5 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Week

January 03, 2023/ Ken Ashley

1. 16 former PepsiCo executives are now Fortune 500 CEOs

When Laxman Narasimhan was hired to be the next Starbucks CEO in September, he joined a club that includes the chief executives of some of America’s biggest and best-known companies—Brian Cornell of Target, Chris Kempczinski of McDonald’s, Ed Bastian of Delta Air Lines, Al Kelly Jr. of Visa, Ron Coughlin of Petco, Lauren Hobart of Dick’s Sporting Goods, Vivek Sankaran of Albertsons, Dave Kimbell of Ulta Beauty, Mary Dillon of Foot Locker, and Ann Mukherjee of Pernod Ricard North America.

“What do these leaders have in common? They all spent significant time rising through the ranks of the same company. But they aren’t alums of the expected “academy companies” known for turning out leadership talent, such as Procter & Gamble, nor a buzzy tech pioneer famous for its management culture.”

No, these chief executives earned their chops selling fizzy drinks, hummus, and chips at PepsiCo.

2. More Bosses Order Workers Back to the Office as Job Market Shifts

Employers are losing their patience with empty desks in the office. Companies including investment giant Vanguard Group, workplace technology company Paycom Software Inc. and others have sent directives to employees in recent weeks, urging workers to follow existing hybrid schedules or to come into the office on additional days in 2023, according to internal memos viewed by The Wall Street Journal and interviews with employees. In some cases, bosses have told those who fail to comply that they could face termination within weeks.

“Employees at some companies have challenged new directives in corporate all-hands sessions. Those pushing to remain at home say they find in-office work unproductive and commuting inefficient. Employers, meanwhile, say bringing workers back together is important because it helps with issues such as problem solving, training new hires and reinforcing corporate culture.”

“There’s a little bit of a tug of war going on right now,” said David Garfield, global head of industries at consulting firm AlixPartners, who has worked with executives on how to approach return-to-office discussions. “Employers are not having an easy time of it.”

3. As More People Return to the Office, Here’s How the 2023 Workplace May Get a New Look

As employers shift away from remote work and bring employees back to the office, the next phase of pandemic-related workplace design is expected to kick into gear as employers reimagine how and where they bring employees back.

“A new formula for space is emerging as companies shrink their total square footage, swap private desks for collaboration areas and incorporate perks aimed at enticing employees back to physical spaces. And while a crowd of companies was quick to try to offload as much unused office space as they could over the past couple of years, some are beginning to once again reevaluate how much space they need.”

"People are still spending less time in the office than they were before the pandemic, and companies now, especially with rising interest rates, are looking at what they should do with underutilized space as they enter cost-containment mode," Jessica Morin, CBRE's head of office research in the United States, told CoStar News. "Some have tried putting excess space on the sublease market, but other tenants are holding back on putting that underutilized space on the market because there's a fear that they may eventually need it back to support future growth or if they want to increase office attendance."

4. 2022 Was the Year for Working From Home, Will Things Change in 2023?

2022 represented an important inflection point for the work-from-home crowd. The phenomenon moved from being a function of necessity (minimizing the threat of spreading a virus during a global pandemic) to one of entropy, as the work-from-home situation remained largely consistent despite the improving pandemic situation.

“As of September 2022, 16% of companies worldwide were fully remote, growing 91% over the past 10 years and by 44% over the past 5 years, according to CodeSubmit. ”

Now that workers have gotten a taste of the freedom that comes from working remotely, statistics show they want more of it. More than 95% of employees want their work arrangement to at least be partially remote, according to FlexJobs and 74% of professionals expect remote working to become the new normal.

5. Stay for Pay? Companies Offer Big Raises to Retain Workers

Workers who stay put in their jobs are getting their heftiest pay raises in decades, a factor putting pressure on inflation.

“Wages for workers who stayed at their jobs were up 5.5% in November from a year earlier, averaged over 12 months, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. That was up from 3.7% annual growth in January 2022 and the highest increase in 25 years of record-keeping.”

Faster wage growth is contributing to historically high inflation, as some companies pass along price increases to compensate for their increased labor costs. Prices rose at their fastest pace in 40 years earlier in 2022. Inflation has cooled in recent months but remains high. Federal Reserve officials are closely monitoring wage gains as they consider future interest-rate increases to slow the economy and bring down inflation.

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great and hugely impactful week!

December 19, 2022

Power Reads: 5 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Week

December 19, 2022/ Ken Ashley

1. REPORT: Office Tenants Have The Advantage To Get More Demanding In 2023

Commercial property tenants have gained enough of an upper hand in lease negotiations that the structure of new leases will see some significant shifts in 2023, according to CRE software specialist Quarem, a cloud-based commercial property platform that organizes and tracks lease data.

“Specifically, Quarem reports that lease terms for both renewals and newly leased space will continue to decrease and tenants will negotiate hard for more defined force majeure language and expanded concessions.”

Termination options have also moved from popular nice-to-haves to nearly imperative for tenants, especially if a longer-term lease is the landlord's objective.

2. Some Firms Backtrack On Work-From-Anywhere Policies

Last week, software titan Salesforce — which owns Slack, the tool that enabled workplaces everywhere to be “from anywhere” the instant the pandemic hit — joined the ranks of Snap, Twitter and Comcast in telling some employees to return to in-person work after previous work-from-anywhere policies.

“Companies are continuing to tinker with their return-to-office policies, with a focus on which version of hybrid work will help them to retain employees in a bid to boost productivity and revenues as employers anticipate a mild recession in 2023. Workers may find themselves on the receiving end of stricter enforcement of in-person working days next quarter, experts told Bisnow, as employers seek to crack down on remote work in the hopes of boosting productivity and profit.”

“I think a lot of it depends on earnings and how companies are doing, especially with a looming recession," said Julie Whelan, CBRE's head of occupier research for the Americas. "And that's when you'll start to see companies maybe change stance, if they feel that their performance is faltering and that it has something to do with folks that are not coming into the office.”

3. 5 Questions for Business Leaders to Ask in Uncertain Times

These days, it feels like we are living in the business world’s version of Billy Joel’s 1989 hit, “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” Inflation, geopolitical tensions, energy shortages, labor shortages, employees’ evolving expectations, rising interest rates, increasing cyber and data risks, insatiable investor expectations — the list goes on. Just like the song says, today’s business leaders did not necessarily create this economic environment by ourselves, but it is ours to address and lead through.

“In spite of the headwinds, I see many business leaders and those charged with governance leading well. In fact, based on what we see in our client base, I’d argue that the glass is half full. Why? Not because we are naive to the multiple challenges businesses face today, but because we see resiliency, change agility, and innovation all the time and across all industries.”

So, what are today’s leading businesses doing? They are keeping it simple and are focusing on what they can control. They are working hard to grow operating revenues more than they are growing operating expenses. How? As I talk with CEOs, the commonality between companies is striking. Many are focused on the following five questions…

4. Goldman Sachs Plans Thousands of Layoffs, Expects to Eliminate Some Bonuses

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is planning to lay off several thousand employees, according to people familiar with the matter, another consequence of this year’s deal-making slump.

“A person familiar with the situation said the bank will be leaner in 2023, but it will still have more employees than it did before the pandemic. Goldman had some 49,000 employees as of September, up from about 38,000 at the end of 2019.”

Goldman also expects to slash, and in some cases eliminate, the annual bonuses of underperforming employees, people familiar with the matter said.

5. Why Returns on Digital Real Estate Don’t Compute

The internet never forgets. Well, at least it has a very long memory, so that silly selfie from five years ago, your old bank statements and the flight reservations for next summer’s big vacation all have to live somewhere. Odds are they live in northern Virginia.

“Handling the explosion of data and cloud computing are hundreds of nondescript buildings filled with servers, kept at a constant temperature and humidity and hooked up to massive power lines. For reasons including utility connections and zoning rules, the region south of Washington, D.C. is now bigger than Silicon Valley as a host for our digital lives. It is approaching 2 gigawatts of capacity, according to real estate services company Cushman & Wakefield PLC—enough to power 1.5 million homes.”

The biggest creators and processors of all that data are known in the business as hyperscalers—Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Corp.’s Azure, Oracle Corp., Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc. and Apple Inc. They spend heavily on their own data centers, but their needs are so massive that they have also outsourced tens of billions of dollars in investment in digital real estate to specialized investors.

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great and hugely impactful week!

December 12, 2022

Power Reads: 5 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Week

December 12, 2022/ Ken Ashley

1. The New Reason Workers Say They Come To The Office? To Actually Focus On Their Work: Survey

Event space, hotel lobby, living room—companies are rethinking how they use their workplaces, drawing inspiration from non-offices for a new hybrid work era. But while businesses try to design more social spaces, they shouldn’t forget that—more than anything else—employees want a place to get their work done efficiently, a new survey by design firm Gensler suggests.

“The research, released Tuesday, surveyed more than 2,000 U.S. office employees between June 14 and August 7. Workers said the top reason they come to the office is “to focus on my work”—a shift from the emphasis on socializing and meeting face-to-face, and a “surprise to suddenly see,” says Janet Pogue McLaurin, global director of workplace research at Gensler.”

In 2020, U.S. workers had ranked “focus[ing] on my work” just fourth on a list of key reasons to come to the office, Gensler’s research found, behind socializing with colleagues, impromptu face-to-face connections and “working in-person with my team.”

2. From Exit to Entrepreneur

At 4 p.m. on the last Friday of every month, 40 founders gather in Atlanta Tech Village’s conference room with dozens of pizzas, IPAs and wine. A year ago, it was just four people on ATV's roof. Most are buzzed by 6 p.m. It loosens them up. It unleashes their egos — a necessity for founders in this competitive startup scene.

“At the center of it all is Sebastian Builes, founder and CEO of Arcum, who started these monthly “Founders Meetups” shortly after setting up shop in the Village. The idea was straightforward: gather entrepreneurs together to talk of their stories and struggles. It has become more important to blow off steam and build courage as the tech sector goes through the largest wave of layoffs since the dot-com bust. ”

Builes shares office space on ATV's fifth floor and is a fixture at most every local startup event, shaking every hand with a warm grin. He's popular.

3. Investors Grow More Confident Fed Will Pull Off a Soft Landing

A few months ago, Wall Street rebuffed the idea that the Federal Reserve would be able to pull off a soft landing. Now, a growing crowd is betting on exactly that happening.

“Mutual funds and hedge funds managing roughly $4.8 trillion in assets have been putting money into stocks that stand to benefit from inflation cooling, interest rates going down and the U.S. economy avoiding a recession, according to an analysis by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. ”

The investors have larger-than-average positions in shares of industrial, materials and energy companies, Goldman’s analysis found. All three groups tend to be sensitive to changes in the economy, meaning investors’ bets should eventually pay off if the U.S. can avoid a deep and prolonged downturn, or a “hard landing.”

4. Investors Yank Money From Commercial-Property Funds, Pressuring Real-Estate Values

Big and small investors are queuing up to pull money out of real-estate funds, the latest sign that the surge in interest rates is threatening to upend the commercial-property sector.

“Blackstone Inc. last week said it would limit the amount of money investors could withdraw from its $69 billion flagship real-estate fund following a surge in redemption requests. Starwood Capital Group shortly after notified investors that it was also restricting withdrawals in a $14.6 billion fund, according to a person familiar with the matter.”

The Blackstone and Starwood funds are the two largest nontraded real-estate investment trusts, a popular investment structure with wealthy individuals.

5. Decline in Commercial Real Estate Transactions May Just Be Getting Started

Transaction volume has held up well on a trailing four-quarter basis. Across the four main property types, investment activity was only down 6% quarter over quarter as shown in the chart above, and volume was still quite positive year over year in the third quarter. However, the past four quarters incorporate record sales volume reached in the fourth quarter of 2021. On a straight quarter-to-quarter comparison, commercial real estate transaction volume in the third quarter was about 25% lower than in the third quarter of 2021, and history suggests that sales volume will drop even lower.

“The blended average capitalization rate across the four main property types has narrowly inverted against BBB-rated corporate bonds, and in the past, the narrower the premium between cap rates and BBBs, the more investment property sales decline.”

Although the premium between BBB-rated corporate bonds and cap rates will probably revert back to positive next year, the change in transaction volume tends to lag by about six months, meaning that today’s inverted cap rate spread will affect volumes most heavily six months from now.

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great and hugely impactful week!

December 05, 2022

Power Reads: 5 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Week

December 05, 2022/ Ken Ashley

1. Inside Cisco’s NYC Office, Where 5,000 Data Points Are Being Collected

Cisco’s redesigned New York office is both a showcase of the company’s technology and an example of how it sees the workplace evolving.

“WSJ takes a tour to learn how its harvesting data and facilitating hybrid work.”

Cisco's smart office is both a showcase of the company's technology, and an example of how it sees the workplace evolving.

2. Open Office: How LinkedIn Redesigned Its Flagship for Hybrid Work

At LinkedIn's new flagship office, desks are no longer the primary focus.

“With dozens of different work settings and conference room setups, the company is using its office as a hub for its hybrid workforce.”

WSJ gets an exclusive look inside.

3. Here’s what it looks like when an office is designed for its remote workers

Before the pandemic, the data integration startup Fivetran did what a lot of its fellow Bay Area startups did to stay competitive in the marketplace for tech talent. It held what the company calls Camp Fivetran, an annual weeklong offsite gathering where its global workforce would come together for team-building and leisurely getaway time in destinations like Cancun or Wyoming. But during the pandemic, the offsite was just one of many parts of office culture that went on hiatus.

“In the meantime, the company’s workforce grew to seven times its pre-pandemic size, to more than 1,000 employees. Almost everyone was working remotely, and many were far flung from Fivetran’s Bay Area headquarters. So in late 2020, when Fivetran’s leadership began thinking about the eventual return to the office, it was clear they’d need a bigger space. What that space should look like was an open question. So they did what a data-focused company would: they surveyed workers and analyzed the data.”

“It was this moment to reevaluate from first principles whether and how to have an office,” says Fivetran CEO George Fraser. “It was pretty clear that we were not going to go back to going in every day.” For most employees the physical office would be a place visited only rarely, almost like that that annual offsite gathering.

4. The Six Qualities of Deeply Enjoyable Work

During the coronavirus lockdowns of the past years, we held many open discussions with leaders and thinkers. From them, we took away one key idea. This pandemic has finally forced us to make the long-needed changes in life and work.

“Even before the pandemic, we saw worrying numbers coming from studies and surveys. More than two-thirds of employees are not engaged at work. And around half don’t see a clear purpose there.”

During the global health crisis, many people have gained more control over their work. Suddenly, they could choose when, where, and how they work – something many managers had previously described as impossible.

5. Blackstone Bags $700M In Sale Of Stake In MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay

Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust is selling its 49.9% stake in two major casinos in Las Vegas: MGM Grand Las Vegas and the Mandalay Bay, in a deal that values the properties at a combined $5.5B.

“BREIT, Blackstone Inc.’s nontraded REIT, has owned its stake in the hotels for about three years, acquiring them from MGM Grand. The sale would net Blackstone about $700M in profit, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing sources familiar with the deal.”

“The sale ... enables us to further concentrate BREIT’s portfolio in its highest growth sectors, including logistics and rental housing,” Blackstone Real Estate Senior Managing Director Scott Trebilco said in a statement.

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great and hugely impactful week!

November 21, 2022

Power Reads: 5 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Week

November 21, 2022/ Ken Ashley

1. Baby boomers can’t stop staring at their phones

Too much screen time is something we usually associate with children. We think of little kids watching hours of CoComelon on iPads, or teens who would rather be absorbed in video games or YouTube than talk about their day.

“But there is another demographic that is struggling with putting down their devices: Baby boomers. Smartphones came into their lives late, but they were quickly won over. Now some of their children say they are hooked, staring at their screens constantly, even when they should be paying attention to their own grandchildren. Two-thirds of boomers own a smartphone and about 6 in 10 are on social media, according to a 2019 Pew Research Center survey.”

“My mother has become very attached to her phone over the last five years. Whenever we’re together, she’s often on her phone, usually scrolling through social media,” says Angela, 37, who declined to use her last name to avoid hurting her parents’ feelings. “It really only bothers me when my children are around because they’re often trying to get her attention, and she’s unaware they’re trying to get her attention because she’s on her phone.”

2. Younger Workers are Leading the Return-To-Office Charge…Kinda

The conversation surrounding the return-to-office movement has dragged on for so long that it’s beginning to sound repetitive. Occupiers and landlords are eager to get their employees back, but after the pandemic, employees are reluctant to leave the comfort of their home workstations. Poll after poll shows that employees would rather look elsewhere for work if their bosses called them back to the office five days a week, even as companies come up with eccentric methods to lure their staff back to the office. It’s old news, but the reality persists. Yet while the pandemic showed an alternative to mandatory office attendance, it didn’t destroy office markets altogether. Not only that, younger workers (you know, the group that’s supposedly the most opposed to in-person work) largely want to go back to the office. So maybe we’ve been having the wrong conversation all along.

“For numerous reasons, younger workers have been painted as the most resistant group to going back to in-person work. But the data seems to be pointing in the opposite direction. A joint survey conducted by economists from three universities (Stanford, University of Chicago, and ITAM) found that fewer than 25 percent of workers in their 20s who have the ability to work remotely on a full-time basis actually want to do so. ”

But this finding wasn’t as out-of-the-blue as you might expect. A few months prior, LinkedIn analyzed job applications that had been submitted on their platform and found that 20-24 year-olds are the least likely to apply to remote-only roles. Now, a lot of that could be attributed to the fact that Gen Z is the generation most likely to struggle with an overall lack of workspace at home. Many of these young professionals have recently graduated from college, which means that many of them are living with their parents or in a small apartment with roommates.

3. Offices Are Still Empty on Fridays, So What Are Companies to Do?

If you feel like you’re seeing more tumbleweeds than co-workers in the office on Fridays, you’re not alone. Data from access control provider Kastle Systems confirms that the last day of the work week is consistently the most unpopular day to be in the office. It doesn’t take a workplace design expert to figure out why. After a work week, employees are already starting to anticipate their Friday evenings or get a jump on their weekend trips. No matter what the reason, hybrid work is leaving offices largely empty on Friday, and that’s putting some occupiers in a tight spot.

“The Friday desertions we are seeing were brushed off last summer as the trend of “Summer Fridays,” a concept that reportedly took off in the 1960s when advertising agencies in Manhattan realized that employee productivity on Fridays during the summer months fell completely flat. Since then, many NYC offices allow their employees either a partial or full day off between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Gartner, a Connecticut-based technological research and consulting firm, found that 55 percent of organizations in North America were gearing up to offer “Summer Fridays” in 2019, a nine percent increase from the previous year. But now, of course, we’re in November, and Friday occupancy levels have barely picked up from the summer season.”

Even the biggest tech giants are noticing empty offices at the end of the workweek. In a recent interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook, Cook defended the return-to-work mandate (that Apple had rolled out back in September) with the argument that since Apple develops physical products, in-person collaboration is key for Apple’s success. “That takes the serendipity of running into people, and bouncing ideas off, and caring enough to advance your idea through somebody else because you know that’ll make it a bigger idea,” he said. However, Apple only mandated that employees come back three days a week, and there’s an apparent emptiness in Apple’s offices every Friday. “If you were here on a Friday, it would be a ghost town,” Cook added.

4. Meta, Lyft, Salesforce and Other Tech Firms Dump Office Space as They Downsize

The big technology companies that drove U.S. office demand for years as they expanded their empires are now canceling leases and flooding business districts with office space as they downsize.

“Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc., Lyft Inc., Salesforce.com Inc. and other tech companies are shedding millions of square feet of office space in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, New York, Austin, Texas, and elsewhere. Amazon.com Inc. stopped construction in July on new office buildings amid a hiring freeze and is now preparing to lay off thousands of workers. ”

While leasing from all businesses declined during the pandemic, the tech sector accounted for the largest portion of the leasing that took place, according to real estate services firm CBRE Group Inc. Some tech companies, such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google, continued to expand their office footprints during that period.

5. Beacon Sells K Street Office Building At A Loss 11 Months After Buying It

Less than a year after it acquired an office building near Farragut Square, Beacon Capital Partners has decided to sell it for a $1M loss.

“The Boston-based real estate investment firm sold 1735 K St. NW for $15.5M to Bernstein Management Co., according to the D.C. recorder of deeds.”

Beacon acquired the 97K SF, midblock property on Dec. 16 from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for $16.5M. At the time, the property served as FINRA's headquarters, but the regulator announced plans in October to move to 1700 K St., less than a block away.

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great and hugely impactful week!

November 14, 2022

Power Reads: 5 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Week

November 14, 2022/ Ken Ashley

1. From Twitter to Meta: Tech Layoffs by the Numbers

Facebook, Twitter and Lyft are cutting thousands of jobs as the companies deal with slowing growth.

“Tech companies that enjoyed strong growth in the early days of the pandemic are feeling the effects of a new reality of high inflation, rising interest rates, currency headwinds and other issues on their income statements.”

Many of the world's largest technology companies are paring back as shopping patterns changed after the pandemic, and businesses have had to examine spending on everything from advertising to investments.

2. Disney Details Plans for Cost Cuts, Layoffs and Hiring Freeze in Memo

Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Chapek announced Friday companywide cost-cutting measures and told division leaders that layoffs are likely, according to an internal memo viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

“The austerity measures, which include a ban on all but essential work travel and a freeze on new hires for all but a few critical positions, come days after Disney reported lackluster quarterly earnings and a $1.5 billion quarterly loss at its streaming business, significantly wider than Wall Street analysts had predicted.”

In the memo, which was addressed to all executives at the senior vice president level or above, Mr. Chapek said a task force, led by finance chief Christine McCarthy and general counsel Horacio Gutierrez, would review marketing, content and administrative spending across the entire company and recommend cuts.

3. Facebook Parent Meta Is Preparing to Notify Employees of Large-Scale Layoffs This Week

Meta Platforms Inc. is planning to begin large-scale layoffs this week, according to people familiar with the matter, in what could be the largest round in a recent spate of tech job cuts after the industry’s rapid growth during the pandemic.

“The layoffs are expected to affect many thousands of employees and an announcement is planned to come as soon as Wednesday, according to the people. Meta reported more than 87,000 employees at the end of September. Company officials already told employees to cancel nonessential travel beginning this week, the people said.”

The planned layoffs would be the first broad head-count reductions to occur in the company’s 18-year history. While smaller on a percentage basis than the cuts at Twitter Inc. this past week, which hit about half of that company’s staff, the number of Meta employees expected to lose their jobs could be the largest to date at a major technology corporation in a year that has seen a tech-industry retrenchment.

4. What to Do After Being Laid Off

Layoffs are sweeping the U.S., from Twitter and Meta to Gap and HelloFresh. If you happen to be one of the people caught up in the cuts, breathe. Yes, breathe. Trust me, I’ve been there. I still remember the panic I felt when I was fired at 26 years old. “How will I pay my rent?” was the first thing that came to mind. I was on my own then, and I can only imagine the fear of people with loved ones depending on them.

“That said, the last thing you want to do is send your resume to dozens of companies and pray a recruiter will call you. That’s not a strategy for success. What will make you successful is taking a minimum of 24 hours to process this shocking change to your employment status. Then, do these five things before you update your resume or start looking for a job:”

Reconfigure your mindset. Being laid off is not a reflection of your skill set — it’s a reflection of your former company’s lack of proper planning during a turbulent economy or of its change in business strategy. You have capabilities. You are smart. You can find a new job or change careers.

5. This Broker Says Fear of Missing a Promotion May Help Revive Office Demand

Veteran office market broker Ken Ashley has created an acronym he believes describes why workers should come back to the office.

“Ashley’s brainstorm is similar to FOMO — Fear of Missing Out — but with a twist. His concept is called “FOMAP: Fear of Missing a Promotion.” And Ashley thinks FOMAP is the harbinger of an emerging trend.”

For young professionals — millennials, Gen Z and what have you — who consider themselves upwardly mobile, FOMAP should become an essential part of how they think about their careers, Ashley told CoStar News.

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great and hugely impactful week!

November 07, 2022

Power Reads: 5 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Week

November 07, 2022/ Ken Ashley

1. Hustle as a Strategy

The day was April 17th, 1997 and I took an elevator ride that would change my life.

“Mark Christopher was a very senior and well-respected broker at Cushman & Wakefield, and I was – well, I was wet behind the ears. I had been in the real estate business less than two years and I was banging my head against the wall cold calling small industrial tenants in a grungy Atlanta industrial submarket.”

I was beginning to make some traction, but like so many young people in our business I had a strong fear of failure and an unhealthy case of self-doubt.

2. The Very First Office Building In The World

It was March and James Berkeley was under considerable pressure. His boss, George who happened to be the King of England, was upset that both Holland and France seemed to have a better navy. Germany was gaining as well.

“It was cheaper to ship goods by water than over land, which had long been known. But King George the First was much more concerned with political power and the ability to grow his empire than shipping costs. The King didn’t just want to rule England, he wanted to dominate the known world. ”

As Spring approached in that year – 1722 – the King knew he had to get the Navy right for his ambitions to be fulfilled. But he had some disadvantages. The archipelago that is England was rainy, lacked natural resources and was largely irrelevant in world politics.

3. 300 Months

I was about to turn 28 years old and I was in a hurry to get home. I jumped in my car and pointed north towards our small town. I had to tell my Karen the good news.

“After talking to 13 different commercial real estate firms over a series of months, I’d gotten an offer from the only one I REALLY wanted to join: Cushman & Wakefield. I was elated and bursting with pride. ”

Karen and I had dinner in our very small house in a suburb of Atlanta. She didn’t know my news, but I was positively giddy, so she knew something was up.

4. 12 Things I’ve Learned During the Quarantine

At the bottom of one of my recent blogs during this pandemic I shared a list called 12 things I’ve learned during the quarantine.

“I got a nice response back so I thought I would republish the list in a stand-alone in hopes that it might brighten your day. ”

My learnings during the great quarantine of 2020.

5. Reboot: What I Will Do Differently Post Pandemic

I’ll remember March 13th, 2020 for the rest of my life. I had my last business lunch that Friday, just as the realization was hitting America. The World Health Organization had finally used that ugly word on Wednesday, March 11th - ”Pandemic” - but in the U.S. we had less than 1,000 diagnosed cases that week. It still felt like the sickness was in foreign lands, but boy you could feel it coming.

“My guest at lunch was a business executive who leads a large workforce. We were both worried about personal safety, about people, about our economy, and about our own families. It was a morose lunch and I confess that we were both going through the motions on autopilot. I had the distinct feeling that evil was headed our way and quickly.”

I’ve now had 14 weeks to think and reflect – three and a half months. Most people are past the sheer terror of Covid-19, but it’s impacts on us individually will be something we talk about and remember for the rest of our lives.

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great and hugely impactful week!

October 31, 2022

Power Reads: 5 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Week

October 31, 2022/ Ken Ashley

1. My First Cold Call

One Saturday morning, I was driving around Athens, Georgia. I was behind the wheel of my trusty hand me down 1984 Pontiac Bonneville. My mind wandered thinking about my plans for…a wedding engagement.

“Karen was the girl of my dreams; smart, breathtakingly beautiful and she laughed at my jokes. Really the perfect combination. She is the smartest woman I had ever met except that she would hopefully marry me. ”

The question of "how" occupied my thoughts for days. As you can imagine, I wanted it to be special and memorable, but also not a copycat kind of approach. And in the dark days before YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, ideas were a lot harder to come by.

2. Reverse Engineering The Office

Office brokers like me have (likely deservedly) taken pot shots for seeing return to the office as the only way forward. We opine that the office will cure what ails you. Get back in and you can be happy, promotable and better looking.

“But what if I were a high-skill knowledge worker who wanted to work remote, permanently? How could I convince my company and what would I need to do to stay employed and qualify for promotions or bonuses? As a thought experiment, I reverse engineered heading back to the office and put myself in the shoes of someone who would be returning to work as a fully remote employee.”

Here are seven things I found you would need to be accomplished to be remote-ready:

3. Alphabet Freezes Hiring, CRE Investment Could Be Next

Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., is slowing hiring efforts, a move that could impact the tech giant's considerable real estate footprint.

“During the company’s third-quarter earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said full plans to slow hiring will be made clearer in 2023, but the pullback is already underway.”

Porat said that employment growth in Q4 will be less than half what it was in the previous quarter, though Q3 was an outsized one for hiring at the company, with nearly 13,000 new employees joining the Alphabet ranks, CoStar reports.

4. Atlanta Deal Sheet: KDC Buys Back Part Of State Farm's Campus

KDC purchased Park Center Buildings 2 and 3 in Dunwoody from State Farm for an undisclosed sum. KDC developed the buildings as part of a three-tower build-to-suit for State Farm that it started in 2014. Park Center 1, which is 620K SF, was completed in 2016 and is directly connected to the Dunwoody MARTA Station.

“State Farm subleased most of Park Center 1 last year to Carvana as the insurance giant pivoted to a hybrid work model amid the pandemic. The two buildings KDC bought are located off Perimeter Center Parkway and Hammond Drive.”

Building 2 is 621K SF with some 39K SF of ground-floor retail, while Building 3 is 440K SF. DeKalb County property records have yet to reflect the details of the transaction, but the county valued Building 2 at $240.4M and Building 3 at $177.3M earlier this year.

5. U.S. economy grows in third quarter, reversing a six-month slump

The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 2.6 percent in the third quarter, marking its first increase in 2022 and a sharp turnaround after six months of contraction — despite lingering fears that the country is at risk of a recession.

“The report on gross domestic product, released Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, revealed a more upbeat snapshot of the economy less than two weeks before the midterm elections, even as high inflation has proved a persistent problem for Democrats.”

“The irony is, we’re seeing the strongest growth of the year when things are actually slowing,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG. “There are some real cracks in the foundation. Housing is contracting. The consumer is slowing. GDP is growing, but not for all of the right reasons.”

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great and hugely impactful week!

October 24, 2022

Power Reads: 5 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Week

October 24, 2022/ Ken Ashley

1. What CEOs Are Saying: The Fed ‘Should Look Out the Front Windshield’

Here is what some of the world’s corporate leaders said this week about the economy, consumer spending and advertising trends, among other topics.

“Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Brian Moynihan: “A perspicacious analyst might wonder whether talk of inflation, recession and other factors would fructify in a slower spending growth. We just don’t see it here at Bank of America.” (Oct. 17)”

“In the Americas, I find a very robust business environment. I find that most enterprises want to invest.…If I go to Asia, it’s very similar.…In Europe, I think we shouldn’t put our head in the sand. I think that with the mixture of energy and inflation, you can sense that there is some caution creeping into the conversations, albeit not in the data and not yet in what we are doing as business there. But we’d be foolish not to prepare that there could be a bit of a downturn in Europe only.” (Oct. 19)

2. Mulling Office Amenities That Make Employees Want To Return

One of the commercial real estate maxims of the last year holds smart employers are now or soon will be trading in more office space for less but higher-quality office space.

“With some hybrid work likely to hang around permanently, employers will need less square footage than they did pre-pandemic. What will they do with the money saved? They’ll put it into Class A office space, the better to induce employees back, natch.”

It makes sense that with the office space sector bringing up the rear in the post-COVID CRE recovery, it is Class A office space increasingly seen as the sector’s bright spot.

3. The War to Define What Work Looks Like

Employees at General Motors Co. balked at a request to return to the office. At Meta Platforms Inc., META 1.39%▲ bosses are asking workers to get more done with fewer resources. Some CEOs say things are so tense that handing out modest raises can spark a backlash in an era of rising inflation.

“The workplace is in the middle of an unusual collision between what bosses and workers want. Employees feel empowered after two years of changing their work habits and leverage gained in a tight labor market. Employers are under increasing pressure to cut costs and boost performance as inflation soars, markets plunge and a possible U.S. recession looms. The result is a battleground at many companies.”

Some have already backed down on their September return-to-work policies, facing pushback from employees. Others are leaving jobs unfilled because they can’t afford what employees think they should be paid. Middle managers are increasingly caught between these conflicting priorities as they try to keep bosses and workers happy.

4. Southern California’s Notorious Container Ship Backup Ends

The backup of container ships off Southern California’s coast that was at the heart of U.S. supply chain congestion during the Covid-19 pandemic has effectively disappeared.

“The queue of ships waiting to unload at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach fell from a peak of 109 ships in January to four vessels this week, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California. Shipping specialists say fewer ships than normal are heading to the main U.S. gateway complex for imports from Asia in coming days and that cargo volumes that had long swamped the ports now are receding.”

Bottlenecks continue to delay cargo at other major U.S. seaports and at inland freight hubs, but the end of the backup at the big ports in California signals broader supply-chain tangles that have been troubling retailers and manufacturers are unwinding.

5. Warehouses Get a Makeover as Companies Seek to Appeal to Workers

Retailers and distributors are looking for their newest warehouses to do more than store goods these days.

“Companies including outdoor goods retailer Recreational Equipment Inc. and drug distributor McKesson Corp. are adding features such as natural light, automation aimed at easing work burdens and fitness centers and outdoor work areas to make the industrial sites more inviting as they compete to recruit and retain workers in a tight job market.”

The upgrades are a departure from the often-grim industrial facilities at the heart of a warehouse business that has been booming in recent years even as getting workers has grown more difficult. Developers say the working environment in a warehouse, long considered simply utilitarian, is a growing consideration as firms talk about new sites.

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great and hugely impactful week!

October 17, 2022

Power Reads: 5 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Week

October 17, 2022/ Ken Ashley

1. The Man Who Said Ukraine Would Win

“Victory for the Ukrainians is coming very fast,” says Bernard-Henri Lévy. “And I was the first to predict it.” Mr. Lévy is on his fifth visit to the country since Vladimir Putin launched his invasion in late February; his first was in mid-March.

““I am in the east,” he tells me Wednesday by WhatsApp, the least unreliable way to communicate from the front lines. He’s in Kupyansk, a town “just liberated,” then to Izium, where “Ukrainian families are just beginning to return.” Two days earlier, the Russians had bombed the heart of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, including a children’s playground. But he still feels “a strong wind of victory. A sad victory, of course. A victory in the midst of graves, but victory nonetheless.””

Mr. Lévy, 73, is conventionally billed as a “French philosopher.” That’s wholly inadequate to describe a man who’s also a journalist and filmmaker, a passionate crusader for democratic rights, and a freelance envoy of the Western world to war zones on almost every continent. We met last month, after his return from his fourth Ukraine visit, in Mr. Lévy’s exquisitely furnished and commodious apartment in the heart of Paris.

2. Analysis Shows Most Office Spaces, Even Fancy Ones, Are Vastly Underused

The return-to-office in the wake of the pandemic has happened in fits and starts, but a consistent theme is that offices are far less full than they once were.

“While building swipe data from Kastle Systems has shown that office occupancy nationally is still less than half of the pre-pandemic average, a new analysis by proptech firm Density shows how spaces inside the office themselves are being used — or, rather, hardly used at all.”

Density analyzed 500,000 working hours in roughly 2,000 workplaces across 13 cities and found that 71% of office spaces can accommodate four times more users than they do today, it said in a release.

3. Companies Pull Away Perks as Staff Return to the Office

Company perks are like icing on a cake. It’s not a must but it’s good to have — and it looks pretty bad when you scrape it off.

“But during COVID-19, the little extras were even more heavily emphasized. Perks (and amenities) were the thing that many on both the tenant and landlord side believed would induce workers to return to their fancy (and pricey) Manhattan desks.”

Now that the pandemic is over, according to President Biden — and considering the fact that many market observers worry about a recession possibly on the horizon that would give employers leverage they did not have a few months ago — does this still hold true?

4. People Still Quit Jobs, but More Office Workers Are Staying Put

American workers quit 4.2 million jobs in August, but one type of employee appears to be getting cold feet about switching employers or quitting to take a career timeout: office workers.

“People with jobs classified as professional and business services, including those who work in occupations such as accounting, engineering, office administration, legal services and consulting, quit in far fewer numbers in August than they had in previous months, according to the latest federal data. Worries about slowdowns, such as Amazon.com Inc.’s recently announced hiring freeze for retail corporate workers, may temper workers’ confidence about how quickly they could find a new role. ”

The 12% drop to 682,000 resignations in the sector was the biggest single-month decline since April 2020, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show. In the finance-and-insurance category, workers handed in 100,000 resignations, a 7.3% decrease from 109,000 in July. At the same time, resignations soared among lower-wage workers: The 956,000 August resignations in leisure and hospitality are the most recorded in a single month, according to records that go back to 2000.

5. Far From 'Easy Money': Experts On The Hurdles Facing Office-To-Residential Conversions

There is growing consensus that there is pain ahead for a large chunk of the country’s office market, but widespread conversion of commercial buildings into housing isn't going to be the quick fix some hope for.

““There are now potentially a lot of excited developers thinking that this could be some easy money,” Julie Whelan, CBRE head of occupier research for the Americas, said at the National Association of Real Estate Editors Conference this week in Atlanta. “But you have to understand location, and demographics of that location drive what the demand is in that particular area.””

The complexities and the hurdles can be hard to overcome, Cross & Co.'s Ed Cross said. Cross is in a partnership planning to turn a 1929 office building in San Antonio called the Tower Life Building into hundreds of mixed-income apartments. That building is just 40% occupied, he said, and is no longer economically viable as an office.

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great and hugely impactful week!

October 03, 2022

Power Reads: 5 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Week

October 03, 2022/ Ken Ashley

1. Remote work could be the reason you don’t have a job in 10 years

Workers who have been rejoicing about their ability to log on from anywhere might do well to consider the inverse situation: a worker somewhere else can probably do their job—for cheaper.

“That might cost them their job in the long run. ”

The fact that many jobs that can be done from home can also be done from anywhere around the globe is often missing in the remote work discussion, says Anna Stansbury, an assistant professor of work and organization studies at MIT Sloan School of Business who teaches a course on the future of work.

2. The Open Office Is Out, ‘Seated Privacy’ Is In as Cubicles Make a Comeback

Anyone who’s traded their prepandemic skinny jeans for looser, 1990s-style pants knows the joy of a little more room. Now workers craving extra space are spurring the revival of two more vintage staples: cubicles and private offices. With doors that shut!

“Lots of people always hated the “open” office layout designed to foster collaboration. There’s nowhere to hang your stuff, nowhere to have a sensitive conversation and nowhere to focus without overhearing colleagues’ blabbering. Plus, several studies indicate that the supposed benefits of togetherness and transparency are overrated.”

The privacy many got used to while working from home only intensified the loathing—as did the “hot” desk system businesses adopted for hybrid employees to drop into reopened office buildings.

3. If Your Quiet Quitting Is Going Well, You Might Be Getting ‘Quiet Fired’

It can feel like you’re getting away with it. You’ve dialed down the intensity at work, passing on late nights and extra assignments with seemingly no negative consequences. In fact, your boss appears to respect your new boundaries and has lightened your workload.

“Careful. Your “quiet quitting” can lead to your “quiet firing”—and eventually your actual firing. And it’s already happening in some companies, human-resources specialists say.”

“If all of a sudden you find you’re not invited to the meetings you used to be, or being offered the projects, that’s an indication that management is not viewing you as well as they used to,” says Victor Assad, a former HR director at Medtronic PLC and Honeywell International Inc. who is now a consultant.

4. Malcolm Gladwell's Fears About Remote Work Are Real. It's Your Brain That's Telling You Lies — Here's Why.

"It's not in your best interest to work at home." A bold and controversial statement made by five-time New York Times bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell on the "Diary of a CEO" podcast. Since then, the internet has been ablaze, mostly in opposition to Gladwell's strong stance against remote work. There was so much backlash that Gladwell reinserted himself into the conversation and doubled down on this pro-office position stating, "offices really do matter."

“Gladwell is right — I can confidently say that, as someone who has spent over three years researching connections at work. No research shows that our social connections improve while working in virtual environments. This alone should cause us to pause and be much more thoughtful about how we approach work moving forward. Additionally, 69% of employees aren’t satisfied with the opportunities for connection in their workplace. And people who have weak connections at work have a 313% stronger intent to quit.”

So, why did so many employers and employees have issues with Gladwell's comments? Because our brain is conflicted and lying to us.

5. Microsoft Says ‘Productivity Paranoia’ Can Hurt Hybrid Workplaces

Employees think they’re being just as productive as ever. Bosses aren’t buying it.

“New data from Microsoft’s Work Trend Index, which surveyed 20,000 employees across 11 countries, finds that despite early signs of a productivity boom during the pandemic—when many workers traded commuting time for more hours of working from home—there’s a steep divide between how workers and their employers see productivity two years later.”

Eighty seven percent of employees who responded to the survey said they are productive at work, and Microsoft reported earlier this year that many signs of productivity are up. This spring, the tech giant found that the number of meetings per week among users of its Teams platform had increased by 153% since the start of the pandemic. Overlapping meetings increased by 46%. At least 42% of people multi-task, actively sending an email or pinging a colleague during a scheduled meeting.

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great and hugely impactful week!

September 26, 2022

Power Reads: 5 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Week

September 26, 2022/ Ken Ashley

1. To Get People Back in the Office, Make It Social

While people around the world have been returning to restaurants, concerts, and travel, there’s one place many of them aren’t going: the office. Many business leaders who craved, demanded, or expected a five-day-a-week, nine-to-five return to office (RTO) have been disappointed, and in some cases even had to roll back mandates.

“In today’s hybrid world, “work” is increasingly something people do, not a place they go. There’s no going back to 2019, so it’s time to rethink the role of the office — for both workers and businesses.”

Empowered, energized employees drive competitive advantage. But so far, business leaders have had more questions than answers about exactly how the office can best support and engage their people in a hybrid world. Our latest research at Microsoft reveals the answer may lie in what I believe should be front and center for every leader: reconnecting employees.

2. Bosses Are Winning The Battle To Get Workers Back To The Office

In the ongoing battle between bosses and workers over returning to the office, recent data shows more people are trudging back to the workplace.

“In the first week following Labor Day, office usage in 10 major metro areas neared 50% of 2020’s pre-pandemic attendance, reports Kastle Systems, a key-card property management company that tracks entries into office buildings. There were more workers in the office last week than there have been since the pandemic started. However, in-office attendance is still lower than what it was before the virus outbreak.”

The in-office numbers may be low since Kastle’s data doesn’t include many of the city’s biggest real estate owners, including large law firms, banks, financial services and Wall Street firms.

3. The Mall-Buying Bottom-Feeder Has His Sights Set On Manhattan's Older Office Buildings

Namdar Realty Group, which has amassed a nationwide portfolio of unwanted malls, is moving in on Manhattan’s worn-out office buildings.

“Namdar’s joint venture with Empire Capital Holdings has spent almost $180M acquiring two old Manhattan office towers in the last two months, swooping in on distressed assets as other real estate investors back away from the borough’s office market — and he plans to buy more, Bloomberg reports.”

Namdar and Empire bought the 13-story, 64-year-old 830 Third Ave. office building for $72M this month after acquiring 345 Seventh Ave., which is 24 stories high and more than 90 years old, for $107M last September. The buildings were purchased for less than $500 per SF — far lower than the average Manhattan office price of $896 per SF, which is down over 10% from its 2019 peak, according to MSCI Real Assets data as reported by Bloomberg.

4. The Next Wave of Robots is Coming to Office Buildings

As the return to office debate rages on around the world, a fleet of robots was unleashed in a cutting-edge office building near Seoul, South Korea, ready to assist human co-workers with coffee requests, lunch deliveries, and package retrieval. Located in the town of Pangyo, a tech hub about 14 miles south of the country’s capital Seoul, a building called 1784 was launched by South Korean tech giant Naver as a “testbed” office building with 100 service robots. “A place where humans work in harmony with robots,” Naver states on the building’s website. Along with a host of smart tech features, the building will be home to self-driving robots with 5G network capabilities and even the world’s first elevator just for robots.

“Robots in the office aren’t necessarily new. Since the late 1970s, there have been robots that deliver mail in many large corporate offices around the country. But lately, they have been emerging in other real estate sectors. Robotic construction has been touted as a huge area for growth over the next several years. In multifamily buildings, robotic furniture made a splash as a way to reconfigure small spaces quickly, and in industrial and manufacturing settings, robotics are more in demand than ever, fueled by labor shortages and a desire to keep workers out of harm’s way. But in the office, the question of whether we will see widespread adoption of robots mingling among office workers is one without a clear answer. ”

While robots are starting to pop up in office buildings in Asia and Europe, in the US, it hasn’t been as popular. However, with more incentive than ever these days for landlords to upgrade and innovate their properties in order to compete for tenants, could this be something to set them apart?

5. More workers are back in offices. It’s still nothing like before.

The early results are in: The return to work is working. Office occupancy hit a pandemic high over the last week according to data tracked by Kastle Systems, a security company, with 10 of the country’s top metropolitan areas seeing an average of 47.5 percent of workers swiping into offices compared with pre-pandemic levels.

“That’s up more than nearly 4 percent from the week before Labor Day, when bosses drew the latest line with the push to return to offices. At the same time last year, the national average was less than 31 percent.”

Wednesday of last week was the busiest yet across the country, with the national average creeping up to 54.5 percent of pre-pandemic levels, the highest since early 2020 according to Kastle.

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great and hugely impactful week!

September 13, 2022

Power Reads: 5 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Week

September 13, 2022/ Ken Ashley

1. Enough, Bosses Say: This Fall, It Really Is Time to Get Back to the Office

Labor Day marks the line in the corporate sand. Many company leaders say the end-of-summer holiday represents the best chance to finally lean on workers to return to the office this year.

“After months of encouraging white-collar employees to return, or attempting to coax them back with free pizza, warm cookies and catered lunches, many executives now say they feel emboldened to take a tougher stance. No longer can workers merely come to the office if they so choose; this fall, executives say, attendance is expected and the office resisters will be put on notice.”

Employers including Apple Inc., Prudential Financial Inc. and BMO Financial Group plan broader September returns at their U.S. offices. Some companies, such as Ally Financial Inc., have sent notes in recent weeks reminding workers to come into the office consistently. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said it was lifting all vaccination and other requirements to enter most of its offices after Labor Day, eliminating a final barrier to a full return.

2. Google boss says he’s a believer in NYC offices

Don’t bother plugging “biggest believers in New York City’s tech future” into your favorite search engine: Google already has the answer.

“The tech giant’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai, said he’s optimistic about the company’s prospects in the Big Apple, where it expects to continue growing its presence, Crain’s reported.”

“I’m personally long-term bullish on our growth in New York as a company,” Pichai told the publication. “And we would do that only if we’re optimistic to access to tech talent and being able to scale up.”

3. Why Lawyers Are Leading The Return-To-Office Race

What happens when three equity partners and a junior associate in a law firm walk into a conference room? They leave with a renewed appreciation for the office.

“At least, that was the experience of Phil Appenzeller, CEO of Dallas-based firm Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr. That moment, which was before his firm mandated a companywide return, crystallized why he feels in-person work is still critical for lawyers, even in the era of work-from-home.”

“One of our first-year lawyers was here, and one of my partners came down and said, ‘Hey, I've got a problem. Can we go into this conference room?’” Appenzeller said. “For [a first-year associate], being able to sit and watch how we work through things, I think in person was much better than it would be if he was trying to watch it over Zoom or on the phone.”

4. Return-To-Office Reluctance vs. Recession: How Opposing Forces Could Impact Office

Office owners and employers nationwide have more months of uncertainty ahead as an expected recession and the well-worn dynamics of a downturn combine with the vagaries and unpredictability of the return-to-office movement.

“Recessions usually mean more power for employers as workers worry about their jobs, which could create leverage for getting people back to the office instead of serving as a salary governor as in downturns past. But in a post-Covid world, nothing is that simple.”

"The executives that we talk to on a daily basis certainly want their people back," said West, Lane & Schlager principal Richard Lane, a tenant representation specialist in metro Washington, D.C. "Given their druthers, they'd like people to come in three or four days a week, and if the labor market changes, we might see a bit more of that being mandated."

5. What Workplace Can Learn From Airports

Over the past two years, much has changed in how we navigate the new model of hybrid work. The office as we knew it wasn’t working for us and was ripe for reinvention. Employers are now looking to the office as a means of bringing people together and building or strengthening relationships. The office should be a destination, not an obligation — a place where people want to be. As such, we’ve been looking at non-office models and have been exploring how those experiences could be applied to workplace.

“One of these areas is aviation design. The best airports put a hyper focus on the passenger experience, so what if we leveraged the same lessons from the best in aviation design to enhance the workplace?”

Here are five lessons from aviation design to create a more seamless, equitable workplace experience.

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great and hugely impactful week!

August 29, 2022

Power Reads: 5 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Week

August 29, 2022/ Ken Ashley

1. The Workers Who Relish Going to the Office on Friday—When No One Else Is There

After a few hours of heads-down work at her office in Washington, D.C., Michele Late will stand up from her desk, get down on all fours and begin a series of cat-cow yoga poses in her cubicle.

“If her back is hurting, she might just lie flat on the ground. She can do so without a shred of self-consciousness or fear that a co-worker might walk by because she goes into the office on the day everyone else avoids: Friday.”

“No one is going to see me,” says Ms. Late, 51, who works as the deputy director of communications for the American Public Health Association and is required to be in the office two days a week. “I just love Fridays.”

2. 'The Fog Of War Is Lifting': More Companies Making Long-Term Decisions About Their Offices

This week’s announcement of the biggest office deal of the year was welcome news for New York City’s office market, which has been battered by high availability and low occupancy.

“Leases like KPMG’s 15-year commitment in Manhattan West — the search for which kicked off in 2018, the company said — are a sign more large corporations are finally making decisions about how they want their offices to look long-term, and what it means for the size of their spaces, industry insiders told Bisnow this week.”

“I do think the fog of war is lifting a little bit for most tenants,” Savills Vice Chairman Nick Farmakis said. “I think they’ve come to the conclusion of what they want to be, and I think that maybe the activity in the market is reflective of the fact that tenants have firmer direction than they really have at any time over the past couple of years.”

3. Construction Material Prices Starting To Cool, But Demand Concerns Are Creeping In

After two years of volatility and historic increases, prices of construction materials have started to level off — although at much higher levels than before the pandemic.

“But while prices have become more predictable, questions are starting to burble about whether demand can keep up. Total construction starts were up by 48% in July, according to Dodge Data & Analytics, but that was largely fueled by spikes in infrastructure and manufacturing — residential construction starts dropped, and the rate of commercial starts has slowed.”

Builders and experts are expecting to see prices stabilize further, but are concerned that the still-high cost of building, coupled with the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes could lead to canceled deals and further declines in demand.

4. A Different Take on the U.S. Economy: Maybe It Isn’t Really Shrinking

When the Commerce Department reported last month that U.S. economic output contracted for two consecutive quarters during the first half of the year, it raised fears the U.S. might be in recession, defined in a popular rule of thumb as two negative quarters of growth. New data sends a different message: rather than in recession, the economy might be in something closer to a stall.

“Economic output can be measured two different ways: gross domestic product, or gross domestic income. For every dollar an individual spends to buy some good or service—a restaurant meal, a car, a doctor’s visit—another individual earns a dollar of income to make and deliver that good or service. GDP captures the spending side of these transactions, GDI the income side.”

In theory, GDI and GDP should equal each other, though there is always some statistical discrepancy because they are measured using different data sets and different sources. This year the discrepancy has been unusually large. During the first half of the year GDP contracted at a 1.1% annual rate, adjusted for inflation. At the same time, GDI, made up of a measure of corporate profits, wages and benefits, self-employment income, interest and rent, expanded at a 1.6% annual rate, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

5. How to Get Published: A Book’s Journey From ‘Very Messy’ Draft to Best Seller

Jessamine Chan spent five years drafting her book. It was her first — a novel about a mother who loses custody of her toddler after one “very bad day,” and then, in a surreal twist, is sent to an experimental “school for good mothers.”

“Like most new authors hoping to break into the industry, Chan had much working against her.”

The publishing world can be opaque and intimidating to outsiders. Although Chan had published a few short stories and had worked at Publishers Weekly, a trade magazine that gave her some insight into the process, she had few connections. And she had no platform: She was not a celebrity, had no personal brand and was not on social media. She lived a quiet life in Philadelphia with her husband and her child, whose birth made her recast the book — again.

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great and hugely impactful week!

August 22, 2022

Power Reads: 5 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Week

August 22, 2022/ Ken Ashley

1. Bosses giving up the return-to-office fight have found another way to win: Tracking their remote workers’ every move

Many workers may have the right to work from the couch, but that doesn’t mean their boss is more chill than usual. If anything, that boss may be watching them more closely.

“No longer able to crane their necks around the cubicle and check in on workers, more employers have turned to monitoring digital productivity instead. Eight out of the 10 largest private employers in the U.S. are tracking productivity metrics for their employees, according to an examination from The New York Times. Some of this software measures active time, watches for keyboard pauses, and even silently counts keystrokes. ”

J.P. Morgan, Barclays Bank, and UnitedHealth Group all track employees, The Times reported, seeing everything from how long it takes to write an email to keyboard activity. There are repercussions if workers aren’t meeting expectations: a prodding note, a skipped bonus, or a work-from-home day taken away, to name a few.

2. Trying to attract and retain Gen Z? Experts say one trait is key.

Generation Z's entrance to workforce has been a unique one. For many members of Gen Z — those born between the mid-to-late 1990s and the early 2010s — the pandemic upended their school schedules, their debut in the workforce or both.

“Additionally, they’ve entered the workforce at a time when many companies are rethinking their workplace strategies and competing in a fierce battle for talent.”

Against that backdrop, it's no surprise many managers and executives have been vexed by the youngest generation of the workforce — a cohort experts say is, on the whole, more vocal and socially conscious than their predecessors.

3. The Hidden Power of Workplace Rituals

Leaders are under enormous pressure to address societal issues, maintain an active DEI strategy, and keep employees connected to each other and to the company’s mission. And since employees rightly expect to be able to bring their feelings — big and small — to work, supporting employees during cultural trauma and strife is every leader’s job. It’s not always obvious how to address these issues at work, especially when leaders aren’t necessarily trained or experienced in navigating such sensitive, emotional topics. One important way to provide the support employees expect is through rituals.

“I’ve studied the impact of workplace rituals on individuals, teams, and the bottom line for many years for my book, Rituals Roadmap. This research has helped me define rituals using two important benchmarks. First, rituals go beyond their practical purpose, moving participants beyond transaction and into meaning. For instance, lighting a candle when the lights go out isn’t a ritual, but turning off the lights and lighting a candle at sundown is. Second, rituals are sorely missed when they’re taken away.”

What follows is one case study from a company that took a risk in real time and created a successful response to a tragedy, and over time, that response became a ritual. Here’s how they did it, and how rituals can improve psychological safety, purpose, and ultimately performance.

4. U.S. Companies on Pace to Bring Home Record Number of Overseas Jobs

U.S. companies are bringing workforces and supply chains home at a historic pace.

American companies are on pace to reshore, or return to the U.S., nearly 350,000 jobs this year, according to a report expected Friday from the Reshoring Initiative. That would be the highest number on record since the group began tracking the data in 2010. The Reshoring Initiative lobbies for bringing manufacturing jobs back to the U.S.

“Over the past month, dozens of companies have said they had plans to build new factories or start new manufacturing projects in the U.S. Idaho-based Micron Technology Inc. announced a $40 billion expansion of its current headquarters and investments in memory manufacturing. Ascend Elements said it would build a $1 billion lithium-ion battery materials facility in Kentucky. South Korean conglomerate SK Group said it would invest $22 billion in a new packaging facility, electric vehicle charging systems, and hydrogen production in Kentucky and Tennessee.”

“We think it’ll be a long-term trend,” said Jill Carey Hall, U.S. equity strategist at Bank of America Corp. ”Before Covid there was…a little uptick but obviously Covid was one big trend and you’ve seen a continued big jump up this year.”

5. Companies Shift Real Estate Strategies While Navigating Through Pandemic-Fueled ‘Supply Chain Hell’

A great race is on in corporate America to sort out tangled supply lines and redeploy personnel and real estate, including bringing manufacturing and warehousing closer to distribution centers and embedding employees with suppliers.

“In earnings call after earnings call this quarter, executives at many of the largest companies across the U.S. blamed supply chain disruptions for production snafus, construction project delays, late deliveries, price hikes and downsized profit expectations.”

To combat what Tesla CEO Elon Musk called “supply chain hell,” companies across industries are "onshoring" production and distribution facilities from overseas regions still being hit hard by the pandemic — while overhauling inventory, hiring and other core management systems.

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great and hugely impactful week!

August 15, 2022

Power Reads: 5 Interesting Articles That Will Help You This Week

August 15, 2022/ Ken Ashley

1. If Your Co-Workers Are ‘Quiet Quitting,’ Here’s What That Means

Not taking your job too seriously has a new name: quiet quitting. The phrase is generating millions of views on TikTok as some young professionals reject the idea of going above and beyond in their careers, labeling their lesser enthusiasm a form of “quitting.” It isn’t about getting off the company payroll, these employees say. In fact, the idea is to stay on it—but focus your time on the things you do outside of the office.

“The videos range from sincere ruminations on work-life balance to snarky jokes. Some set firm boundaries against overtime in favor of family. Others advocate coasting from 9-to-5, doing just enough to get by. Many want to untether their careers from their identities.”

Of course, every generation enters the workforce and quickly realizes that having a job isn’t all fun and games. Navigating contemptible bosses and the petty indignities that have always been inflicted on the ranks of working stiffs has never been easy. And many people who say, when they’re young, that they don’t care about climbing the corporate ladder end up changing their minds.

2. Malcolm Gladwell slams working from home: ‘What have you reduced your life to?’

Author Malcolm Gladwell thinks that remote work is hurting society and that a recession will likely drive employees who are “sitting in their pajamas” back into the office.

“The bestselling author of “Blink” and “The Tipping Point” grew emotional and shed tears as he told the “Diary of a CEO” podcast hosted by Steven Bartlett that people need to come into the office in order to regain a “sense of belonging” and to feel part of something larger than themselves.”

“It’s very hard to feel necessary when you’re physically disconnected,” the Canadian writer said.

3. Reibus CEO John Armstrong: 'Everything starts with your people and your culture'

Supply chain technology startup Reibus is the No. 2 fastest-growing company in metro Atlanta, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle. It experienced 700% growth in 2021 and expects to achieve 500% growth this year, CEO John Armstrong said in April. Last year, Reibus recruited 100 employees.

“Reibus raised $75 million led by SoftBank Vision Fund at the end of 2021, pushing its valuation to $750 million at the time. The company is a marketplace for industrial materials companies.”

Atlanta Inno talked to CEO John Armstrong about the company's growth.

4. Keeping Hybrid Employees Engaged

To this day, some of my closest friends are people I met at various jobs over the course of my career. Before the pandemic, every day I looked forward to seeing friends at work, going out to lunch, getting coffee, being in meetings together, and having impromptu hallway conversations. These friendships transformed what work meant to me — it wasn’t just work, it was life.

“In sociology, the “proximity principle” describes the tendency for people to form interpersonal relationships with those who are nearby. We often become friends with people we encounter regularly, energizing and bringing joy to each other and sharing a smile, an inside joke, or drinks after work.”

It turns out these friendships really matter for employee engagement. A now-famous Gallup survey found that employees who have a best friend at work are seven times more likely to be engaged at their job. For years prior to the pandemic, companies benefited from the proximity principle. Many leaders further invested in office layouts, micro kitchens, and team events to encourage even more shared moments and were rewarded with a workforce that was highly engaged.

5. Meet Cowarehousing, Industrial Property for the Little Guy

Coworking, which gives office workers the ability to share space when they need it, has spawned a parallel concept catching on in the industrial market: cowarehousing.

“Targeted at a growing class of startups and entrepreneurs, cowarehousing provides smaller-scale warehouse suites within a single industrial property. The idea is also starting to lure large companies as a more flexible and short-term solution to supply chain uncertainty and a tight industrial real estate market.”

Though still something of a niche, cowarehousing caters to investors interested in the fresh potential of flexible workspaces combined with an intense demand for ordering goods online.

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great and hugely impactful week!