The blend of how we live, work and spend our leisure time continues to change at pace and as we move towards a new decade, this will only accelerate.
Over the next 10 years, technology will expand the horizons of our industry exponentially, enabling more detailed insight into customer behaviour and providing better knowledge of consumer wants and needs; we’ll become quicker and slicker at delivering space, further improving customer connections across all channels.
By 2030, the trends dominating how we spend our daily lives and how our industry operates will surely be markedly different, with unforeseeable geopolitical events having an impact, providing new challenges and opportunities to navigate.
However, the building blocks of our sector will remain; our desire to be a force for good, collaboration, agility, and innovation will all stand the test of time.
Social value
Real estate has the power to influence and create social value across its supply chain, communities and among customer groups. Our industry already works hard to provide opportunities for those furthest away from the employment market, improve environmental sustainability and highlight and address social issues such as homelessness.
In the future, social value must play an even bigger role in our work, ensuring that the industry is rightly recognised as an overwhelming force for good. As we enter the 2020s, we must continue to work together to highlight the compelling stories that demonstrate the vital role placemaking can play in community cohesion, and lead by example in reaching net zero carbon targets.
Collaboration
Increasingly, collaboration sits at the heart of progress across business and society. Issues that really matter to our community and have become increasingly urgent – including business rates, sustainability and the housing crisis – will only be solved by cross-organisational co-operation.
Our industry is becoming more diverse and outward-looking, and we’re better for it. It is now time to seize on new opportunities to interact in different ways, working together more often as our interests increasingly align.
Agility
This is now fundamental to success. In the 20 years I have worked as an investor in and operator of property, the speed and pace at which our sector can respond to trends and changes has dramatically improved.
However, we need to continue to be alive to change and be open-minded, whether changing the way we operate, taking a more flexible approach to occupational contracts, or listening to customers more closely and more frequently.
Innovation
To deliver the best experience for customers, partners, communities and investors, innovation is critical – whatever your business. We can, of course, innovate across operations, asset classes and technology to ensure that we’re at the forefront of new trends, but we need to push boundaries in the way we share ideas, who we employ, the debates we have and the questions we ask.
I’m proud to step into the role of Revo president for the first year of a new decade – a decade in which being a true force for good, embracing collaboration and agility, and pushing boundaries in innovation can only serve us well.
Ailish Christian-West is the new president of Revo
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