The Leader - November/December 2008 - (Page 82)

INDUSTRY T R A C K ER by richard kadzis Linking Corporate Real Estate to the Enterprise: ALIGN WITH THE BUSINESS PLAN, MANAGE CHANGE PROACTIVELY AND MEASURE SUCCESS IN TERMS OF ORGANIZATIONAL OUTCOMES Corporate real estate (CRE) is getting a higher profile in more and more big corporations. Our growing caseload across various CoreNet Global channels shows an increase of multinational companies that are aligning CRE with their global business plans. Is it because we’ve finally learned to communicate the value of CRE? Or speak the language of the business and the C-Suite? The answer is a qualified yes, so long as we act with an understanding of the business, and walk the talk. But the real answer is found in globalization. The integration of the global economy and the globalization of commerce, still a long-term work in progress, have brought the globally networked enterprise. It’s noteworthy, because CoreNet Global coined the phrase “globally networked enterprise” as part of the roll-out of our CoRE 2010 forecasts. That was 2004, a time when CRE began to deliver higher value over simple cost savings, as our CRE 2000 research initiative of the 1990’s dared us to do. It was a chance for CRE to gain a foothold on new turf - that of trusted advisor instead of order taker. It opened the door for CRE to earn more of the executive suite’s ‘share of mind’. The idea of the corporate ‘ecosystem’ behind the globally networked enterprise is, ironically, now more than a key term from the CRE lexicon. IBM Business Solutions’ global survey of CEO’s, released this past May four years after CoRE 2010, points to the “integrated” global enterprise as the key to growth against the permanence of change. “Organizational capacity to take advantage of change” will stem from CEOs “making bold moves to shift business design around principles of global integration,” according to the survey of 1,130 CEOs from 40 countries and 32 industries. 2010 Vision of Networked Enterprise In 2004, we predicted that CRE would have a huge leadership opportunity inside the networked enterprise. Corporations would be linked not only by technology and through digital networks, they would be integrated across networks of people - employees, customers, alliance partners, suppliers, contractors and others. To be competitive, companies would need networks of talent to produce the knowledge work that fosters innovation. As CRE 2000 demonstrated a decade before, flexible workplace strategies would become integral to the delivery of more effective work environments, finding and keeping talent, fostering collaboration, increasing productivity with mobility, supporting innovation, adding value and - ultimately - giving the enterprise a competitive edge in global growth. We’ve mapped these and other key drivers for more than 10 years, gaining a fuller awareness with time about the nature of globalization and about how CRE fits in. CRE has finally begun to understand that it’s about the business, it’s not about CRE. It’s about CRE delivering solutions for the business, not for CRE. “The underpinnings of the model are based on the application of a business framework to real estate, rather than an architect- or broker-based scheme imposed on business,” observes Robert T. Osgood, Jr., Principal, Flad Architects, who’s studied CRE’s enterprise impact inside the Fortune 1000 for the past 10 years. We’ve been on the same strategic page with the C-Suite, but the door of leadership opportunity is opening wider, and it’s time for CRE to step through it. IBM’s study on The Enterprise of the Future validates the CoRE 2010 precepts of knowledge work, talent and technology blended with the objectives of today’s enterprise for higher levels of innovation, competitiveness and profitability. So we’ve been on the same strategic page with the C-Suite, but the door of leadership opportunity is opening wider, and it’s time for CRE to step through it. 2 0 0 8 TH E LE ADE R 82 NOVEMBER / DECEMBER

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The Leader - November/December 2008

The Leader - November/December 2008 Leadership Contents Message from the CEO Real Estate in the News Leveraging Business Geography My Work @ Bank of America Blending the Old with the New A Tool for Growth Creating Real Estate Value Nokia-Siemens Networks’ Peter Doran DTZ’s James Maddock Annual Economic Development Directory The Georgia Report Location Profile: Magdeburg, Germany Linking Corporate Real Estate to the Enterprise 3rd Quarter 2008 Adding Value in Challenging Times Australia and New York Shell’s Paul Huston Economic Development in the News A Look Ahead In our Next Issue Calendar of Seminars Index of Advertisers Chapter Learning: The Global Perspective

The Leader - November/December 2008

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