GENERAL SESSION III

The final day of the CoreNet Global 2008 Asia Summit kicked off with a welcome from CEO Dr. Prentice Knight. Knight welcomed members of the CoreNet Global Board of Directors in attendance, Mike Napier, Barry Varcoe, Mike Zamora, and Hugh Andrew, as well as introducing members of the Asia Regional Council and the India Host committee. In his remarks, he was quick to thank both the council and the host committee for their efforts in increasing attendance of this year's Summit by 30% from 2004, the last time a CoreNet Global Global Summit was brought to Mumbai.

Knight reflected back to the 1960s when the simple designation of a "corporate real estate professional" was visionary. At that time IDRC and NACORE were formed with similar goals of developing professional standards, creating and disseminating a body of knowledge, and training. Those core goals have not changed in 40 years, but now joined as CoreNet Global, their membership is larger, so the task greater. Knight called on the volunteers of CoreNet Global to help build a stronger organization in the future, saying "We turn to you. You have the knowledge, the experience, the passion."

Sponsor representative Han Zhi from Shui on Land then introduced Mike Zamora of Cisco, the moderator of the panel discussion entitled Attracting and Retaining Talent in Asia. The panel members included key players in a case study which included Mike Napier of Shell International, Dr. Geoff Nesbitt, Shell Technology India, Alex Hill, CB Richard Ellis, and Joel Donnelly of Judd Ferris.

Dr. Nesbitt set the scene, and shared the challenges Shell was facing with their engineering and scientific talent that forced them to take a deeper look at the issue. They found multiple drivers for seeking talent in the east. Among them, recession, thin margins and large numbers of retiring science professionals.

What they found in the Indian population was a young workforce with solid educational backgrounds, pride in the scientific industry, and a high degree of English proficiency, critical in particular for maintaining Shell's high level of safety standards. This new workforce presented some challenges, however. Dr. Nesbitt encouraged western companies looking to make the move east to be very cognizant of diversity challenges as they apply to local vs. global culture, in particular those aspects that are not necessary visible but nonetheless critical to fully understanding, and in turn retaining, the talent. He also encouraged companies to be less linear in their timing expectations of project completion, believing that leaving flexibility allowed for a superior outcome for both sides. Nesbitt's analysis of multi-dimensional communication as a tool for more effective management of Indian staff also gave some anecdotal evidence of the challenges and applied solutions to managing a workforce through potential cultural divides.

Mike Napier touched on the role of CRE professionals in the challenge of talent in Asia. He spoke a length about the challenge of reinforcing workplace safety in a culture where it is not a priority. "Safety is part of the Shell DNA," said Napier, "and we are still facing challenges around this issue. One solution is to make it very personal." Shell does this through their program "Hearts and Minds," which helps staff connect safety on the worksite to the security of their family's livelihood and future. Napier has found success with the program, but expects safety to be an ongoing challenge with an Indian workforce. Partners to Shell in this effort were CB Richard Ellis and Judd Harris. Alex Hill from CBRE spoke to the value of being a secondee with Shell. Neither Hill nor Napier could overstate the importance of being imbedded at Shell during the process. "Sitting in house and understanding the corporate culture. Being able to ask the questions. I really understood what makes them tick," said Hill. This trusted advisor approach allowed him to learn "exactly what Shell wants." Critical to the success of the effort was the connection with the human resource component. Joel Donnelly shared with the audience elements of Judd Harris' partnership with Shell and reiterated his support of secondee resources.

The morning session wrapped up with some data to further illustrate the talent crunch. Tim Venable, CoreNet Global's Director of Discovery, presented some results from Asia's Discovery Survey on Talent deployed last week. The survey had balanced responses with an even split between end users and service providers, and of those respondents, 87% said that the shortage of talent was already at a critical stage. Unique from North America, Asia enjoys a much younger workforce, and thus retirement was of low concern to the respondents. By comparison, North America is struggling with a high number of CRE retirees. By way of an example, 28 percent of the GSA's 12,000 employees are eligible to retire in the next three years. As supply dwindles, competition for talent increases, and thus so does salary expectations. Compensation and advancement topped the list of reasons for talent to both join and leave an organization, and the loss of talent most significantly effects relationship management, CRE strategy , and project management. In closing, Tim spoke to the importance of training as an underutilized retention tool in the battle for talent in Asia. The full synthesis report of the global data will be available in November, 2008.

EDUCATION PROGRAMME V

Moderator:
Kevin SauerRegional Workplace Manager Asia, Microsoft Operations Pte. Ltd.
Speakers:
Peter Andrew, Managing Director Asia, DEGW
Amit Ramani, SVP Global Strategies and Operations, NELSON

This presentation by workplace thought leaders DEGW and NELSON explored the changing nature of workplace best practices and techniques being used in Asia, creating companies where people want to stay.

The session started with the fundamental question of, "How to grow and how to design for the future". Kevin Sauer introduced the session and the speakers who discussed the issues of WHO companies want to attract, WHAT is changing about the workplace, WHERE it will be located and how CRE can support an organization’s solution.

Peter Andrew, Managing Director, Asia with DEGW, focused a lot of his presentation around the importance of Engagement. He highlighted a Harvard Business Review study that looked at the last 20 generational cycles and surmised that there is a cycle of leaders and workers over time – prophet, nomad, hero and artist – which can be used as a predictive tool to engage successfully with the workforce.

Generation X and their specific work/life preferences are very much at the fore at present. Andrew discussed their needs in the workplace and how those differ, if at all, from the needs of Generation X and the Baby Boomers. Recent DEGW research indicates that there are less differences than often discussed. Results include the following: All generations move towards a ‘Norm’ in the workplace, they learn to borrow skills from one another, consider diversity to be important and prefer face to face vs online learning techniques.

With regards to some current workplace solutions strategies, a University of Reading 2004 study of different workplace models highlighted the different styles, from Cellular space to fully non-territorial environments and Andrew noted the general shift to the far end of that spectrum. One example presented was the move by the Department of Education in the UK, who moved 4000 jobs to a fully non-territorial work environment.

Savings from moving to this more mobile and flexible model can include; financial savings, allowing increased flexibility with changing headcounts, decreasing an organizations carbon footprint and giving more time back to the company (from that often lengthy commute)

Amit Ramani, SVP Global Strategies and Operations with NELSON, shared two examples of workplace strategies that took different directions, both with successful results. A workplace review in Australia highlighted a successful move to a more mobile work environment and in Asia, with a local telecommunications firm, an improved environment incorporating more formal and informal meeting space within a facility.

Great take away from this session include:

And ... Celebrate Diversity!

EDUCATION PROGRAMME IX

Kate North, Global Director of Ideation, Haworth

Michael A. Zamora, Senior Manager AsiaPacific and Japan Regions, Cisco

Ram T. Chandnani, Deputy Managing Director South India, CB Richard Ellis

Kate North, Global Director of Ideation, Haworth welcomed delegates to the session and introduced the value of Cisco's strategic partnership with CB Richard Ellis in the creation of a new business campus in Bangalore India.

Cisco's Michael Zamora, Senior Manager AsiaPacific and Japan Regions, shared with the audience that when they began planning their campus, they were facing a serious challenge - how to attract the large number of people they needed in a place where the competition for talent was fierce as well as how to retain the most skilled workers who were constantly "job hopping". The process began as a conversation with the India Human Resource Manager asking how Cisco's real estate and facilities team could build not only a business campus, but develop a true sense of community for their workers.

As Mr. Zamora explained, "we had several buildings around Bangalore but generally lacked a sense of community among our staff. Moving to a campus environment created the opportunity to bring our people together, provide rich amenities that could be shared by all employees and create a sense of belonging." That vision of community included aspects inside the physical spaces as well as the areas outside and around the traditional bricks and mortar.

The project included some fairly straightforward drivers: create a sense of community, do it fast, accommodate the company's extraordinary growth, attract the best talent, be sustainable, and do it all with a close eye on cost. As Zamora pointed out, "much was learned along the way. We brought our North American expectations about quality and timing, but this was India and our consultants really helped us understand how to adapt to the local market realities." He advised the audience that "consultants will make you successful, so make them your partners."

Ram Chandnani, Deputy Managing Director South India, CB Richard Ellis and his team were one of the main consultants brought in on the project. "Cisco told us they wanted to grow and have a considerable presence in Bangalore. They estimated growth needs of 250,000 square feet per year and wanted to develop a world class facility build with the highest standards of sustainability. Additionally, they wanted to lease with the flexibility to purchase in the future."

CB Richard Ellis did their homework for this project; plotted the locations of Cisco's employee's residences and studied growth vectors, developed detailed building specifications and created an options evaluation matrix. They then tapped the market by getting a detailed RFP out to all parties. The process even included handholding some developers to ensure timely responses. They then created an apples to apples comparison of options for their client.

Amenities at the new campus include

One corporate amenity that was also incorporated into the new complex is what Cisco calls TelePresence - Hi Definition video conferencing system that connects all of their global facilities. While this system is primarily used for business purpose, Cisco allows off hours use by their staff for connecting to family members around the world. On Mother's Day, for example, employees could schedule time for visiting face-to-face with their mothers.

Zamora and his team used a combination of hard and soft metrics to measure the success of the project and by all account they seem to have achieved the goals. "People didn't want to leave and others wanted to be there. The campus is a neighborhood with a sense of security, identity, belonging and community interaction."

The success of this project has as much to do with the emphasis Cisco placed on the "human element" as with the functional design itself. As they prepare to launch Phase 2 of the development, they are looking to build on the lessons they have learned in order to sustain their workforce into the future.

GENERAL SESSION IV

Russell McGilton

Inspired by Dervla Murphy's book titled Full Tilt: From Dublin to Delhi with a Bicycle, Russell McGilton thought he could write his version of a travel book Bombay to Beijing by Bicycle. The notion of using the bicycle pleased him because according to his own words you can get close to the people. His original route was to go straight north through New Delhi and then turn west along the Himalaya foothills to Pakistan, cross over and basically follow the silk road all the way to Beijing.

Two weeks into the 10,000 km journey, he caught malaria and the adventure came to a halt. He related his curious encounter with a Dr. Chawla and eventually resolved the problem using alternate medicine - drinking your own urine which according to Dr. Chawla contained a lot of your own antibodies that could kill a lot of germs.

His journey was interrupted many times. First by the malaria, then by his ex-love who biked with him into the icy Himalayas and gave up on him eventually; got lost a couple of times in the icy mountains; ate unfamiliar food that he could not pronounce the names; got too close for comfort near Afghanistan when 9-11 happened; and his journey was constantly being interrupted. Eventually he backtracked through Tibet and took the train to Beijing instead.

Lesson learned for him is about humility and about people. "People are like rain, you don't expect it when it comes but every drop is important and every drop helps you to grow." He did not complete his journey as planned but he completed his book: Yakety Yak: Bombay to Beijing by Bicycle.

A humorous account and an excellent speaker that captured the attention of the audience.