The Leader - May/June 2008 - (Page 26)

real e stat e ManaGeMent Building Flexibility into Business Strategy: Transformational Partnering and Outsourcing BY jonatHan BerneY T ransformational partnering and outsourcing (TP&O) is becoming a hallmark of the business strategy of winning organizations, as markets become increasingly dynamic and an organization’s ability to react quickly becomes paramount. Corporations are increasingly finding themselves challenged with the need to build more flexibility into their business model and to constantly re-invent their strategy and the supply chain. Thus, this article will look to explore how TP&O can radically enhance the corporate real estate (CRE) landscape, ensuring not only further efficiencies but, more importantly, real strategic benefits for companies. Across the whole of an organization’s structure and capability there is an increasing need for flexibility, adaptability and focus on business rather than functional performance. Indeed many organizations are beginning to realize that competitive advantage will no longer come from just their products and services, which will have an increasingly short lifecycle, but from their ability to reinvent and adapt themselves via the demands of a new set of market conditions. The very best organizations will see this as a new era of competitive business and will actually use their adaptability to drive and shape markets rather than just react to them. Organizations such as Bank of Ireland, BBC, Barclays Bank, Pfizer and National Australia Group are challenging themselves with becoming leading organizations based on their ability to adapt to new market conditions. However, all of them face challenges around CRE and how it can be formulated to support this need. Historically many have chosen outsourcing as a way to improve performance, reduce costs and often achieve a capital receipt. This has often proven to be an only short-term solution. Given the dynamic nature of the market and conditions, traditional outsourcing has moved from being an answer to a CRE problem to becoming part of the problem. Corporate life is not static, and yet the nature of contracting is rigid. Many organizations have been left with a fixed long-term contract that does not meet either the CRE or the business needs. Even in the increasingly dynamic environments of today’s business there are still inherently attractive elements of working with a third party on a long term basis to drive dynamic performance. New models are emerging, including business process outsourcing, with a new focus on business performance for CRE rather than purely cost reduction (see Figure 1). However, another approach is developing that has derived from the IT out- tH e le aDe r 26 MaY / j u n e 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The Leader - May/June 2008

The Leader - May/June 2008 Leadership Contents Message from the CEO Real Estate in the News Green Real Estate Work Without Boundries Building Flexibility Into the Business Strategy Multi-Generational Work-Force Design Work Force Longevity Analysis Wells Fargo's David Nelson Pennsylvania's Michael Rossman Globalization 2.0 Site Selection Consultant Directory The New York Report: A Core of Traditional and State-of-the-Art Opportunities Discovery Forum Findings Industry Tracker Young Leader Career Development Effective Leadership Economic Development in the News A Look Ahead In Our Next Issue Calendar of Seminars Index of Advertisers Executive Development Spotlight

The Leader - May/June 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.