Here's Looking to 2006

In January, my column titled “When Everything is Urgent” outlined a few ideas for better time management. I spent the remainder of the year’s columns discussing change and the complexity and necessity of staying ahead of it. In this, my last column for 2005, I wanted to incorporate both these themes within the context of looking forward into 2006.

Do or Do Not, There is no Try These immortal words from Yoda in the Empire Strikes Back may be the catchphrase for corporate real estate in 2006. This applies to both the client and the service provider side of the business. For clients, there is growing pressure to create value and lead change neither of which can be done effectively from a reactive posture. Moreover, CRE is evolving from a single touchpoint business to an integrated model where various corporate functions (HR, IT, operations, etc.), management and service providers/vendors must be harnessed and enabled. I believe we will see this evolution accelerate in 2006.

For service providers, the pressure is on in 2006 to be more consultative in the approach to outsourced delivery of corporate real estate services. More and more clients are looking to their service providers to do more than just transactions. They are looking to service providers to bring organizational redesign strategies, benchmarking, financial consulting (SOX compliance, alternative financing structures), and functional, proven technology tools for portfolio management. In all of this, the facilities, transaction and even lease administration roles are becoming commoditized. The emphasis is on driving strategy through leadership–not necessarily execution–because quality of execution is becoming increasingly hard to differentiate. For many service providers, 2006 may be a watershed year.