The Leader - November/December 2007 - (Page 60)

e x ecu t I v e p ro f Il e Perspectives on the Real Estate Industry: CB Richard Ellis’ Karen Ellzey by tIm veNable L EADER recently talked with Karen Ellzey, Executive Managing Director of CB Richard Ellis, to obtain her views on the changing corporate real estate industry. Here’s a summary of the conversation. leaDer: CB Richard Ellis’ acquisition of Trammell Crow Company is perhaps the biggest and best example of the consolidation and restructuring under way in the service provider industry. Will this consolidation continue? If so, what will it mean for corporations looking to work with external partners for corporate real estate services? ellzey: I do see it continuing, but I’m not sure how many more of the really big consolidations you’ll see. There are a lot of consolidations yet to occur among some of the smaller firms in various mar- kets, and I think it will be on a global basis. Corporations like ours are looking at what we might continue to hold in house, or what we’re going to look to partner with. There may be some acquisitions to add capabilities over time. I would also say that, given the nature of real estate, for some time to come and perhaps indefinitely, there will always be the smaller, local boutique firms that are in the mix that have a certain specialty or target a certain type of client. That may just never go away. Not all companies are huge and not all need global, consolidated providers. So that may well keep the market for the smaller boutique firms alive and well for who knows how long. I don’t see it just dramatically shifting to a completely consolidated industry, at least in the near future. leaDer: Outsourcing corporate real estate (CRE) services was relatively limited as recently as a decade or so ago. Now it’s a huge industry, and it looks like the days of lean in-house CRE teams supplemented by their partners’ expertise is here to stay. Is that the way you see the future playing out? ellzey: I do, but I think there are a lot of shades of how this plays out. And importantly, it is continually evolving. We see a pretty broad spectrum of models ranging from fairly large corporations that still have a fairly robust in-house team, and make limited use of partners, all the way over to very sophisticated partnership models where the companies use a service provider as truly a seamless extension of their team. Over time, that internal team does become very lean. But it evolves. That’s the most striking thing. I would absolutely say the steady trend has been, as you say, toward CRE teams continuing to look at their models, continuing to revisit the ques- 2 0 0 7 the le aDe r 60 November / December

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The Leader - November/December 2007

The Leader - November/December 2007 Leadership Contents Message from the CEO Real Estate in the News Investing in India 110 to One Smaller Workspaces, Better Workspaces Innovating the Workplace Through Design Sustainability and Energy Efficiency Getting It Right Using Location Intelligence to Reinvent Franchises Philips International’s Ron Blanken CB Richard Ellis’ Karen Ellzey The State of Louisiana’s Mike Olivier Industry Tracker Economic Developer Directory Discovery Forum Findings Career Development Emerging Leader Economic Development in the News A Look Ahead Executive Development Spotlight

The Leader - November/December 2007

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