CoreNet Global Summit Daily Reports

Futurewise: Six Faces of Global Change
By Richard Kadzis, CAE

Dr. Patrick Dixon

Lille, France 16 September 2002 Corporate real estate will play a key role integrating strategic support functions in the corporate environment, according to Europe's top futurist.

Addressing today's opening session of the CoreNet Global European Summit, Dr. Patrick Dixon told the audience of senior-level corporate real estate executives, the overlap of human resources and information technology with corporate real estate. "The real world demands real solutions," Dixon said. "Corporate real estate will be closer to the beating heart of the business" as a strategic support function defining the identity and culture of companies, which form a "tribal" focus for many organizations. "Every organization is a tribe," he theorized.

Dixon's concept of tribe is integral to his analysis of the future, which he related as an acronym for trends and forces that will shape the world of tomorrow:

Fast
Urban
Tribal
Universal
Radical
Ethical

Real estate will play an important role in each trend element of the future, he explained. The most pronounced of the six trends is currently "fast," reflecting the influence of technology and global markets in today's world.

Dixon cited other notable real estate trends:

• Money from the challenged equity markets will be invested largely in real estate by institutions including the insurance industry


• Real estate ownership is a model for the last century, especially for companies whose primary business is not real estate


• Technology will dominate corporate real estate issues

Noting that many facilities built recently in Europe are already outdated, Dixon forecast the proliferation of "wireless buildings," at the same time adding that remote work styles have barely emerged as a workplace practice. "It's the first hour of the first day of the digital age," he emphasized.