Corporate Real Estate Directors have dutiful responsibility when setting corporate real estate strategy. They must possess understanding of proper execution with necessary tactics. Doing this requires a unique blend of skills. Here are five skills that shape an extraordinary CRE director:
1. Market Insight
Managing a portfolio and devising corporate real estate strategy requires deep knowledge of the markets in which your company is located. It's hard to make sound business decisions if you don't understand both your current assets and the conditions of the surrounding market. Having insight into every market can help project where you should be signing leases, understand the competitiveness of offers that you receive and track how your portfolio compares to the competition as time goes on.
2. Understanding Metrics
To really understand their portfolio, extraordinary CRE directors go back to the numbers. Spaces and costs can vary greatly from market to market, but using proper metrics provides understanding of how any given location is actually performing. For instance, a retail location in New York City that has $150 per square foot rent could actually be less expensive than one in Wichita with $17 rent. The question is what the sales-per-square-foot and rent-to-sales ratios show. As another example, an office location in San Francisco that holds fewer employees per square foot than one in Albuquerque could also be a red flag indicating space that isn't being used efficiently.Given the advanced corporate real estate portfolio optimization, property management and workplace management system software that is available, data is more available than ever to CRE directors. The challenge is selecting which data will help formulate an optimized corporate real estate strategy.
3. Technology Expertise
While a CRE director doesn't have to outshine the IT department, a high degree of tech savvy is a necessary part of the job for three reasons:
- Corporate real estate management tools are increasingly moving into the technological sphere, so a director that doesn't understand software risks being left behind. Learn how CRE software can help move business forward.
- As IT becomes more integrated into every aspect of your company's operations, your corporate real estate strategy needs to take the availability of IT services into account. For instance, if your company runs on cloud-based applications and uses VOIP technology, you will need to identify locations that offer adequate Internet bandwidth for good performance. When you need to have on-site IT infrastructure, you may need to identify sites with the right connections, physical security and configuration.
- Most CRE directors either spend a large portion of their time on the road or should be spending that time on the road. Without proficiency in using mobile communications, video conferencing and leveraging cloud-based storage, they become less productive and less effective for their company.
4. Execution
The best CRE directors are also able to use all of these skills together to not just formulate corporate real estate strategy, but execute it. Executing requires a panoply of additional skills including the ability to build consensus, overcome objections and influence decision-makers both above and below you on the corporate chain.
5. Delegation Skills
Finally, to be successful in building and acting on corporate real estate strategy, you're going to need to accept help. Every core skill for a CRE director is based on someone else's role. You will need to get market information from your tenant rep, work with your accounting staff to get corporate data for your metrics and work with IT to get the right tools. Without delegation, these tasks may become impossible.
