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

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. Apple says in-person work is ‘essential’ and will not go back from its hybrid work plan

Earlier this month, Tim Cook announced in an internal memo that Apple is going to adopt a new hybrid work plan that will require employees to work in-person at least three days a week. While this has resulted in some controversy, the company reaffirmed that it has no plans to go back on its decision, as it considers in-person work “essential.”

In an internal video obtained by The Verge, senior VP of retail and people Deirdre O’Brien said that Apple believes that “in-person collaboration is essential to our culture and our future.” O’Brien also mentioned that the products and services introduced by Apple in the past have all been the result of in-person collaboration.

“If we take a moment to reflect on our unbelievable product launches this past year, the products and the launch execution were built upon the base of years of work that we did when we were all together in-person.”

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Apple had to close its offices in 2020, which resulted in more than a year of completely remote work. Now that the situation is better in the US, the company wants its employees to return to in-person work, but there’s a group of people who have taken a stand against this decision.

2. Wall Street Wants Bankers Back in the Office. Especially Gen Zers.

The life of a 20-something Wall Street number cruncher has always been a grind, marked by marathon workweeks and menial tasks. Working from home made it worse. Now bank leaders want the newbies back in the office.

While many companies are hailing the Covid work-from-home experiment as a success, top Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. aren’t so sure. They hope that being back in the office will cure the malaise that many of their junior bankers are feeling.

Remote work “does not work for younger people,” JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said at The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit in May. “It doesn’t work for those who want to hustle.”

3. Virtual CRE Tours, After Mass Adoption, Face Fight For Relevance Post-Covid

When the coronavirus restrictions froze almost every aspect of dealmaking — from travel to in-person tours — the real estate industry scrambled to find alternatives to keep business going. Many of those alternatives came in the form of advanced technology, with developers, property managers and proptech firms alike plowing time and money into creating new technologies to allow clients to keep looking at assets to buy and space to rent.

As the pandemic slowly begins to recede and restrictions ease, doubts have emerged as to whether these offers will stand the test of time. Some commercial real estate players consider them a vital part of the business that is here to stay, but others think their shelf life is limited.

“I think momentum is exponential across the board, and it’s never going back,” VTS co-founder Ryan Masiello said. “But there's going to be many people that are providing the sort of digital services that where the proof really wasn't in the pudding and that they'll sort of fade away.”

4. Here's How Much New Space Amazon Needs, And Just How Much Investors Will Pay For It

For every €1B (£860M, $1.2B) of new online sales, Amazon needs between 720K SF and 1.2M SF of new space, depending on the European country, Green Street estimated.

Given Amazon’s European sales have risen from €100B in 2013 to more than €450B in 2020, that has meant an increase in floorspace from 100M SF to more than 300M SF in seven years.

Amazon warehouses are getting more efficient, so in future new sales won’t require as much new space, Green Street said. But it added that there are only five shopping centres in the whole of Europe that are more efficient when retail sales per SF are measured.

This growth has created investment product that buyers are hungry to snap up.

5. Cyberbullying Insurance Is Here. Do You Need It?

If you’re a victim of cyberbullying, you might be entitled to compensation.

That’s the pitch insurance companies are selling to families and individuals, as cyberbullying among adults, tweens and teens becomes more common.

Insurance tech startup Waffle in May began offering stand-alone cyberprotection policies underwritten by Chubb that include cyberbullying and other cyber risks such as identity theft or extortion. The policies are intended to help victims recover costs associated with cyberbullying, such as legal fees, mental health services, tutoring to cover missed school or relocation costs if bullying was so bad that a student had to move to a new school.

“Mark my words, in five years every major insurance company will offer this,” Waffle Chief Executive Officer Quentin Coolen said.

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

Ken Ashley