The CASP-R Manifesto for Corporate Occupiers
CASP-R aims to help corporate occupiers:
- Exploit the potential of new ways of working;
- Optimize the opportunities to stay flexible, despite inflexible real estate assets.
- Connect the actions of real estate people with business goals.
- Develop cost reduction programmes that are realistic and sustainable;
- Research and form strategy options for a contingency planned world; and
- Prepare the business for the next big change in accommodation needs.
Words we aspire to: creative, innovative, informed, action, driven, results
The office is dead, long live the workplace
- Offices are social places; to meet, interact, re-new bonds that bind the team and so make the organization stronger. It is unsurprising to note that domestic furniture and fittings continue to make their way into main stream offices. They give out the message: this is your home, the place you come back to, your base, your den.
- Space in this 'home' is increasingly shared and multi-functional. New technology such as VOIP increases the disconnect between ‘process’ and ‘place’. New approaches to office design suggest different hierarchies and call for new approaches to management control. Put together, these opportunities raise the question ‘How can my businesses benefit from these new ways of working, what research and knowledge is required to exploit them?’ This is our starting point: the aim to enable a more productive workforce.
- To answer these questions we must look more closely at the actual processes going on and the ability of each available environment to support them. There are huge opportunities to increase resource utilisation, with minimal additional cost. You may not need as much space, and the space you do have can be used in multiple ways.
- CASP-R will help businesses maximizing the economic potential of the new workplace. We understand the softer, political issues and how to accommodate (literally) those adverse to change. We keep expectations in check, change programmes realistic, benefits tangible. Above all, we aim for sustainable benefits, solutions that will not reverse back to old ways.
Rigid box, flexible space
- We need to get 'unfixed' in our attitudes to office accommodation. Some industries see accommodation as plant, a stage upon which all sorts of different tasks can be accomplished. The box may be static but what goes on inside certainly is not. Our design for offices must embrace from the outset the one certainty, that before the lease is up, the layout, and even possibly the people will change. We need to start making decisions in terms of full life cycle costs and avoid inflexibility that leads to further costs later on.
- Length of tenure needs to be matched more closely with the longevity of the business, not the relationship of the people in it with the business. In this context, one form of tenure will not suit all needs. Some businesses can benefit from a mix of ownership, including serviced offices. In management terms, the important issue is one of control of liabilities, not necessarily upfront costs alone.
- CASP-R will help optimize opportunities to be flexible, despite an inflexible asset. We can suggest solutions where you can change direction without tying down the business. And in those places where you do want to stay put, make sure that fact is levered to best advantage.
Do you get what you measure?
- Let’s not get too fixated with performance targets and their absolute
achievement.
Sometimes, getting what you measure is not really the point; the main challenge is to change the values and behaviours of those who have some influence over achieving goals. Such change is progressive and realistic because it recognizes that people achieve goals, not numbers. - Likewise, setting up a performance regime is as much about who gets involved and how they relate to it, as it is ensuring the focus stays on overarching business goals. When this is acheived it is not hard for each individual to see a 'connecting thread' linking their personal goals to those of the business.
- CASP-R is about helping people connect with real estate goals. Our approach is to seek out uncomplicated, accessible measures that make sense immediately, prompting the right types of decisions, all the time. We aim to establish a self-correcting approach, were those involved have a stake and interest in making sure 'you get what you measure'.
Are you getting a good deal?
- Everyone likes to get a good deal. But it's all relative. Sometimes all that matters is that it was less costly than your near competition. But comparisons on cost alone are misleading; there are so many other things to consider such as occupancy efficiency, lease terms, level of utilization of space and so on.
- We need a simple framework for measuring accommodation performance that allows easy comparison and challenge levels of expenditure. We need to identify opportunities and areas to drive down the cost metrics, and through this process obtain agreement on cost reduction programmes.
- CASP-R is here to develop cost reduction programmes that are realistic and sustainable. We consider a deal from a total lifecycle cost concept, and factor in the occupancy levels, the net space they use, their product output, the accommodation tenure and frequency of occupation, to build up a reliable picture of accommodation performance.
There’s no I in Team
- OK, but there’s an M and an E. Individual needs are important, even if they are team players.It's their individual actions that make for the sustainable change model (aka Strategy).
- Similarly, there is no such thing as 'Corporate Strategy'; it is just the articulation of a shared vision of a group of individuals who – at that moment in time – form a consensus on where the business needs to go. This they call the Corporate Strategy.
- In this 'Age of Unreason' the best way to approach accommodation planning is contingency planning, setting out a range of conceivable options, and then become indifferent as to which option the business circumstances requires the accommodation to follow.
- CASP-R provides research supporting strategy options for a contingency planned world. This approach accepts the reality that Corporate Strategy is somewhat short term, reviewed often, dealing with high levels of uncertainty and possible futures.
Timing is not everything
- Take a look around at those who manage accommodation well; what do they all have in common? Many made their big deals when markets were right. In short, they matched their lease and space transactions to coincide with drops in the rental market. Sounds easy, huh? Well, if it was, we’d all be doing it.
- The unfortunate truth is that understanding the timing of the real estate market is not the critical success factor: there is a huge gap between knowing your real estate market cycles and understanding how to mobilize your business to move 'at the right moment'. Different elements of the business will require different types of justification and move at different timescales. Approvals can be slow.
- CASP-R is about preparing the business for the next big change. We understand the challenges organisations face in mobilising accommodation change. We are experienced in approval processes and how to design teams of right skills and direction to deliver on accommodation change projects, from due diligence to move management.
