Abstracts of major presentations of the International Development Research Council (IDRC), the world’s preeminent corporate real estate association.
“Workplace Transformation: Redefining the Workplace,” IDRC Tennessee World Congress Opening General Session, Oct. 18, 1999: Bell South CEO Duane Ackerman kicked off the session with “Concrete, Cars and Cyberspace,” a case study in workplace redefinition. With many leases expiring, Bell South initiated a groundbreaking strategy to close 75 Atlanta-area offices and relocate 13,000 of its 19,000 metro workers to three new center built along mass transit lines. The strategy, he explained, attacks key issues like optimal workplace configuration, employee recruitment and retention, and urban sprawl. “We are using real estate to improve our competitiveness,” Ackerman noted.
Part II featured KLR Consulting Principal Ken L. Robertson, who detailed “workplace transformation strategies.” To many in the audience, though, much of Robertson’s presentation wasn’t new. For example, he commented, “People, technology and space are today’s three basic competitive resources, [but] each tends to be in its own silo,” echoing IDRC’s groundbreaking work in Corporate Infrastructure ResourcesSM. Robertson did, however, contend that “the executive champion” in infrastructure integration must be a business line leader. “If you have someone from human resources heading up the process, people will think that it’s all about so-called soft issues,” he said. “If it’s someone from information technology, they’ll think it’s all about technology. And if it’s someone from real estate, they’ll think it’s all about squeezing space.”
“Strategy and Place: Managing Corporate Real Estate and Facilities for Competitive Advantage,” IDRC Tennessee World Congress Luncheon, Oct. 18, 1999: “Real estate is of no value to the corporation, regardless of its external economic value, if I does not support the organization’s objectives,” Harvard University School of Design lecturer and author Martha O’Mara told this luncheon session. “Decisions made about place, and its daily management, must emphasize maximizing its value in helping the organization compete and thrive.”
While real estate supply drives most companies’ decisions, O’Mara advocated “demand-driven real estate decisions . . . dependent on the organization. O’Mara, however, cautioned, “There is no one-size-fits-all solution.”
“The Mercury Initiative Alliance,” IDRC Tennessee World Congress Workshop, Oct. 19, 1999: This session analyzed the strategic, “boundary-less” nature of the Mercury Initiative Alliance (MIA) between Nortel Networks and a service provider network including Brookfield LePage Johnson Controls, CB Richard Ellis, Fischer & Co., Grubb & Ellis, Herman Miller, HOK and J.J. Barnicke, which has reduced Nortel Networks’ occupancy costs by $7.7 million-plus a year. 
* denotes summary presentation available on Web
