Rethinking Real Estate: A Roadmap to Technology's Impact on the World's Largest Asset Class (Hardcover, 2020)

1. Introduction Technology is reshaping the real estate industry. Traditional notions of location, accessibility, and visibility are being redefined. Longstanding regulation and zoning laws are being ignored or subverted. Proprietary data is now readily available to anyone. Relationships and trust are being commoditized by online marketplaces. Capital is flowing directly to new operators and concepts, bypassing traditional managers. Stability is no longer a virtue; flexibility is key. Asset value is dependent on tech-savvy operators with meaningful brands. Data, software, and storytelling are critical for value creation. Design, construction, operation, investment, and brokerage are becoming technology businesses - requiring new capabilities governed by new strategic dynamics. Technology does all this and more - directly through the introduction of new tools, materials, and systems; and indirectly by changing the way humans live, work, travel, and relate to one another. This chapter will provide an overview of the technological trends that are reshaping the real estate industry and their implications for all practitioners. 2. Rethink Your Value Chain Anything that matters to a customer leaves an opening for new competitors: Attention to detail and proprietary technology are empowering brokers to become landlords, listings sites to become brokers, coworking companies to become fund managers, architects to become developers, and app designers to become landlords. In this chapter, you will learn how to identify gaps in your value chain and address them in order to defend your existing business and to expand to new locations and segments. 3. Redefine Your Customer Everyone who interacts with your asset is a potential source of revenue and data. In this chapter, you will learn the value of thinking beyond the entity paying the bills or signing the lease - including your tenant's employees, guests, and customers. You will learn to identify non-customers who can be converted into customers, whether or not they are already in your building. 4. Reconsider Your Competitors Technology is facilitating the transition of operators from one industry into another: Furniture companies are competing with coworking companies, restaurants are competing with office space, and tenants are competing with landlords for sub-tenants. In this chapter, you will learn how to identify emerging competitors, tap into opportunities in adjacent industries and market segments, and evaluate the risks of doing nothing. 5. Double Down on Data Owning customer and market data can is key to owning the buildings themselves. Datalords are the new landlords. In this chapter, we will look at how and why your existing data - siloed in different departments and scattered across emails, paper documents, and Excel spreadsheets - should be consolidated. We look at how external data sources and APIs can be integrated into your decision-making process, explore how new tools and partnerships can help you monetize your data in creative ways, and discuss how to protect the privacy of your customers. 6. Strive for Network Effects Networks can be worth more than the sum of their parts, with each new additional building or tenant contributing to the valuation of the whole portfolio. In this chapter, you will learn how proprietary tools, value-added services, meaningful branding, community management, creative partnerships, and your tenants' goodwill creates defensible value. 7. Realign Your Structure and Incentives Your investment mandate is limiting your ability to remain competitive. In this chapter, you will learn how innovative real estate companies are investing, in addition to assets, in technology, talent, and operating platforms; how the mortgages on your buildings may limit your ability to respond to market changes and take advantage of emerging opportunities; and how your financial structure may be ideal for a "real estate com