| | JULY 20209AS ORGANIZATIONS RE-FOCUS ON THEIR CORE COMPETENCIES OR SEEK SKILLS THAT SIT OUTSIDE OF THEIR TRADITIONAL ORBIT, CORPORATE SUPPLY CHAINS ARE BECOMING BROADER AND DEEPER(Y)OURSPACE- Insights from The Global Workplace, is a re-port by Knight Frank that iden-tifies five trends that will shape future occupational demand across global real estate markets. Individually, each of these con-cepts will be highly influential. Collectively, they represent noth-ing short of a groundbreaking occupational convention. The Productivity PushIt is an accepted fact that real estate is a strategic device for business. Attitudes towards the cost of real estate are changing, as focus shifts towards effective rather than cheap solutions. With real estate having to play a criti-cal role in the push for increased corporate productivity, it is no longer about increasing the den-sity of occupation with an aim to save at all costs. That approach has proven to be counterproduc-tive. The aim now is to increase productivity by strengthening the interaction between people and property through the cre-ation of, and investment in, a pos-itive, serviced well well-supported workplace experience.Next Wave Technologies, New Business Models & New Occupational DemandNext wave technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), robot-ics and automation are expected to bring about a period of rapid or-ganizational change and process re-engineering. This will alter the future form, function and location of the workplace, reset the quan-tum & quality of staff required for a business, and brings about clos-er interaction of humans and ma-chines to support greater corpo-rate productivity. Critically, it will create new and different forms of occupational demand in global real estate markets.Changing Corporate ConstitutionsThe seemingly constant revision of business models derives from frequent technological changes. As organizations re-focus on their core competencies or seek skills that sit outside of their tradition-al orbit, corporate supply chains are becoming broader and deep-er. At the same time, corporate diversity initiatives and the rise of multi-generational workforces serve to alter the company demo-graphic. These trends have multi-ple implications for the workplace, as they strengthen the need for a more flexible, collaborative work-space that improves interaction between staff.`Space as a Service' Becomes the Demand DefaultThe workplace is becoming a flexible business service that can actively support growth, rather than a fixed and often financially onerous (to the occupier) physical product. This repositioning is alluring to the occupier and will soon become the demand default. Traditional landlords have little choice but to adapt to this new dynamic and adopt the approach taken by the co-working `upstarts'. They must extend their innovation beyond the design of the physical product and towards the provision of soft-services, community & well-being. Mobility & Mergers Underpin Occupier ActivityAs we enter a boom period of global merger and acquisition (M&A) activity, and as the search for talent intensifies, occupier portfolios will incorporate markets & submarkets that were once terra incognita. There will be a conscious movement towards workspaces close to talent pools, but which also have the amenity, service and infrastructure to assist in the retention of that talent. We are in a new era of occupier mobility. It will not only bring greater complexity to the corporate real estate portfolio, but will extend the pool of demand emerging within global real estate markets.In summary, these five trends will determine the future - the what, where, how and why - of the global workplace. They will shape the new office spaces and demand the attention of occupiers & landlords alike.
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