CPN - January 2009 - (Page 16) dinosaurs die out and the mammals that come back are the ones that survive? If you take the U.K. industry, the property industry, it has been defined in effect by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors since the 1700s. Nothing has really changed fundamentally. Is this the Big Bang that is going to actually do that, and over the next 10 years, in fact,what we’ll end up with is a massive shakeout and a complete restructuring? It might still be the big names will still be there,but the way in which they’ll operate … could be completely different. Knight: A total change in the structure of the service-provider side of the industry—the size of players, the number of players, the integration of services—are those the kind of things you’re talking about? Varcoe:You’re seeing it in the bank- ing industry already, so why not the real estate industry? Ficke: I feel very good about the future of our industry, and the reason I feel that way is (that) over a period of the last 15 years, we have evolved from looking at real estate as a series of unrelated events to looking at real estate as one holistic function that includes facilities management and project management and lease administration and transaction management. For us, it creates great opportunity. So I view what’s happening right now as certainly a scary time, and we’re all having a hard time making our shortterm numbers, but as we come through this, we’re going to understand how to better run our business and how to have better longterm relationships with our clients. Noha: When I think of the seismic shift, I think of it hitting the business first, the occupiers, and there are some big shifts that are going to hit there. And then we’ll follow. Just as real estate is not really driving those shifts, the service providers and the real estate organization will evolve to whatever organization meets the seismic shift in the business. We have some huge global issues that we’ve got to deal with and companies coming in favor and out of favor, and we’ll have to evolve to meet that. t Roundtable Moderators Prentice Knight—CEO of CoreNet Global Suzann D. Silverman—Editor-in-Chief of CPN Roundtable Participants Bruce Ficke—Executive Vice President of Client Solutions for Cushman & Wakefield Inc. Mark Gorman—Leader of Global Real Estate for Nortel Networks Corp. Ed Noha—Managing Director for Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. Barry Varcoe—Director of the Property Group for The Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Chair-Elect of CoreNet Global Visit www.cpnonline.com/corporate for more stories on corporate users of commercial real estate. 16 COMMERCIAL PROPERTY NEWS • January 2009 • www.cpnonline.com http://www.buchananstreet.com http://www.cpnonline.com/corporate http://www.buchananstreet.com http://www.cpnonline.com
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