Posted by:
Cameron Scott
COO Integrated Facilities Management – Asia Pacific

Greetings from CoreNet. I am attending the conference here in Sydney along with some colleagues from the firm. In the ‘Leading Creative People’ session we were introduced to approaches and tools for increasing creative thinking in the workplace. What is interesting to know is that that there is plenty of creative talent in every organisation. It is just a matter of tapping into it and then implementing the ideas that spring from it. We learned that we need to give people permission to be creative, that the challenge of management is to make every employee part of a creative culture and that it is ok to make mistakes.

Did you know that the Top 5 creative drivers are:
1. Self-fulfilment
2. Recognition
3. Being part of a team
4. Artistic Integrity
5. Financial Compensation

And that the Top 5 creative killers are:
1. Risk Aversion
2. Wrong creative structure
3. Time
4. Not listening
5. Status Quo

The session prompted me to think about the way we manage creativity in Jones Lang LaSalle. My conclusion: we have the creative talent – we just need to take the time to cultivate it. I think the tools and technical presented at this session can help us do just that!

Cameron

Posted by:
Jordi Martin
Managing Director
Integrated Facilities Management – Asia Pacific

Many of us have spent the past 12 – 24 months focused almost exclusively on cost control, under pressure to protect jobs and bottom lines. Major strategic initiatives, capex programs and procurement were put on hold indefinitely as nervous CFOs kept a tight grip on purse strings.

However innovation wasn’t completely stifled. Around the Asia Pacific region countries like China and India continue to grow. Each day we go to work our facilities teams are challenged to innovate and adapt.

With sentiment improving, innovation once again has a seat at the table. In the opening session of CoreNet our speakers touched on how successful organisations have built innovation and creativity into their DNA. In my experience, there are three critical success factors to innovation in corporate real estate. These are allowing our leaders to take risk at all levels, adapting solutions to meet local cultural nuances and using technology, not for technology sake, but to provide CREs with information to make decisions.

Our industry is still stuck in the past. Old ways of doing things still drive the industry on a daily basis. From my work around the Asia Pacific, I get to meet young people from new emerging countries who are excited about their future. They don’t have time to learn old ways. A telephone land line is ancient history. They are mobile and on the go.

The challenge for the Corporate Real Estate industry in Australasia is as Anne McKevitt said in this mornings opening session – “have the courage to forget the past”.

I would be interested to hear from other CREs how they are encouraging their teams to put the past behind them and forge ahead into a brave new world.