Bookmarks: 5 Interesting Articles That May Help You This Week

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

1. Think Flexibility: Adapting To The New Workforce Norm

How and where employees work continues to evolve, supported by integrated technology. @9 Amenity Center, Fifty South Sixth in Minneapolis by DLR Group. Photo by Brandon Stengel.

here was a time when full-time office work meant logging a 40-hour workweek between 8-5 in an office environment where everyone was assigned a personal workspace, which was often designated based on hierarchy; 5:00 p.m. and after was reserved for “personal time.”

Our work norm today looks much different. Modern office life is a broad composite of cultures and work styles, with people working in the office, out of the office, and around the clock. This ongoing shift in the makeup of our workforce has had dramatic implications for both employees and employers.

As we look to the future, business success will require a work environment and corporate atmosphere in support of today’s multi-faceted workforce. Understanding the characteristics of our evolving workforce and the elements stimulating this transformation will shed light on how the corporate workplace can be designed to support a blended talent pool.

2. How to Get Community Buy-In for a Retail-to-Industrial Conversion

Retail-to-industrial conversion projects are rare: A data point by Cushman & Wakefield shows that they make up less than one-tenth of one percent (0.073%) of the total industrial inventory.

One reason many of these projects fail to gain traction is they cannot overcome the hurdle of gaining buy-in from the local community. “A community will likely want to keep the retail presence. It will have a hard time believing that the retail presence cannot come back or recover,” Tray Anderson, C&W’s logistics and industrial lead for the Americas, tells GlobeSt.com.

That said, there are such projects underway across the US and while their journey to groundbreaking was different in each case we can assume that some fundamental concepts about marketing and communication were held in common.

3. Here’s How To Empower Your Employees—And Make Them Love You

Having a good boss is crucial to your success and happiness at work — in fact, the majority of professionals say that it’s essential that they like the person they’d be reporting to when accepting a new job, and two-thirds would even turn down a job offer if they didn’t believe they could respect their new boss.

LinkedIn Learning surveyed over 2,000 professionals to find out the qualities employees want most in a manager. Overwhelmingly, people want a manager to help problem solve the challenges they face. Problem solving (68%) was followed by a manager who can manage time effectively (44%), who’s decisive (41%), and who has empathy (38%) and compassion (36%).

Managers are definitely in a position to empower their employees in coming up with creative solutions to unexpected problems. When they receive helpful and enthusiastic support from their boss, employees not only tend to feel more engaged at work, but they also apply those skills to helping advance the team.

4. 12 Tech Experts Reflect On The Most Important Technology Developments Of 2019

In recent decades, our world has moved away from the analog and firmly into the digital realm. Technology is now incorporated into nearly every facet of our lives, both professional and personal.

Modern technology will only continue to evolve in the years ahead, and consumers often look to industry insiders to identify the next technological game-changer.

For a deeper dive, we asked the experts of Forbes Technology Council to weigh in on the most important tech developments of 2019. Here are the technologies they believe have been the most impactful this year and why.

5. How Real Estate Is Being Used As A Weapon In The Streaming Wars

This year, the so-called streaming wars have ramped up, and the battle is only set to intensify over the next six months. In a few weeks, The Walt Disney Co. will launch its highly anticipated streaming subscription service, Disney+, while NBC’s Peacock and AT&T’s HBO Max are both set to launch in the spring. Apple TV+ — with $6B reportedly available for original content — is available in November.

It is a new era for viewers and content creators, but the impact on commercial real estate could be almost as profound. Increasingly, these companies want to build and control their own production space and creative hubs for their talent.

With more shows vying for the viewers, the pressure is on for the shows to stand out from the pack, meaning bigger budgets and stretched-out production schedules — all resulting in longer-term lease deals, making the real estate they occupy more valuable.

Increasingly, commercial real estate players said, owners of studio space can bank on more demand with greater regularity, and for a longer time. And as streaming giants like Netflix forge ahead with major real estate expansions, big leases and their own production facilities, it could set a new bar for the industry.

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

Ken Ashley