15 / 36
15
Cushman & Wakefield
THE COMMERCIAL FORCES
01 Economics
The GFC forced many businesses to reassess their
financial commitments, and in particular, their real
estate. Office consolidations and closures enabled
companies to realise immediate cost savings, while the
introduction of flexible working solutions offered long-
term strategic benefit. Flexibility, by way of short lease
occupancy, remote working, hot-desking and ad hoc
space rental have proved highly effective in reducing
costs and managing uncertainty. Will Duncan, Head of
Broking at the Instant Group explains, “the ability to
take up space quickly and minimise long lease liabilities
means that Flexible Offices are now an integral element
of a company’s property portfolio.”
02 Simplicity
With digital commerce easier than ever before,
consumers now expect the same level of immediacy
and simplicity across all transactions, including property.
Company incorporation rates are at record levels
since the GFC, averaging year-on-year growth of 4.2%,
and Flexible Office providers have sought to meet the
requirements of speed and ease with stream-lined
check-in processes, often down to a few simple clicks.
The plug-and-play nature of the Flexible Office setup
enables tenants to focus on their core business from
the outset, rather than on contractual administration,
making it an ideal choice for startups, scale-ups and
multinationals alike. In describing the company’s
strategic approach to growth, Bill Earnheart, Vice
President of US Retailer Neiman Marcus and Regus
customer explains, “I don’t have to find a space, furnish
it, connect IT and all the other things that go into setting
up an office. It boils down to the convenience. The
Flexible Office is ready-to-work.”
“Technology companies may
have been first to enable
the consumer to build and
customise their own unique
experience around a core
product, but there’s a growing
expectation that property
should work like that too.”
Richard Howard
Cushman & Wakefield, London
The Corporate Benefit:
Through the WORKwise programme,
Lloyds Banking Group
has introduced flexible working practices in 20% of its office
estate and now includes more than 18,000 employee participants. The
benefits of this include significant cost saving in relation to real estate.
In 2013, Lloyds Banking Group expanded the programme to further reduce desk
demand in London. The organisation aims to remove 1,000 desks from its London real
estate over the next two years and stands to save £10 million in the process.