Archive for January, 2010

While there are several really good websites in the Executive Suites industry, most are completely terrible. Two of the Favorites of Future Offices are unlikely candidates: eSuite.com and Offices.org. Neither of these sites is particularly well-designed, easy to use or have any significant aesthetic value.

The reason they are one of our favorites is their perseverance in the marketplace. Each has been around since the early days of the internet. Esuites became an official domain in September 1995 and Offices.org sprang up a month earlier.

Esuite is run by Pat Garner, an avid business center supporter who was writing about the importance of the internet to our industry way back in 1999.

Offices.org is run by Tina Bartel and is incredible mainly for the site design. Please check it out… it is so old school in its design — well, it’s just beautiful. I know that goes against my previous aesthetic value statement, but I contradict myself quite a bit. So it’s par for the course.

Here’s to Tina and Pat. Keep it up!

Are you looking for an industry where sparks are flying? Where companies are consolidating at breakneck speed? Where the a new leading edge is honed every day? Well, don’t look at the executive suites industry. Yes, there are lots of great things happening. Yes, companies are forming alliances, others are merging. But it’s still a very young industry, just a few decades old. It’s also an industry that is very fragmented with almost as many companies as locations, which leads to an industry that is light on capital.

But all that is changing. As we mentioned in yesterday’s post, key workplace think tanks such as CoreNet are addressing and discussing alternative workplace strategies. Landlords and brokers are finding the industry to be more enticing during this downturn, and are slowly dipping their toes in the water. And of course, companies and individuals are looking for different ways to work, and at a lower cost.

And despite this change, true consolidation is a long way off. Once the industry matures — say in 20 years — we will see some significant consolidation. Until then, it’s still the Wild West. So our advice is to get on the horse, hold on tight and don’t let go!

A recurring theme in the serviced office space world is that it is going to take strategic initiatives on the part of corporate CEOs to ignite serious growth in creation and utilization of serviced offices. We’re not talking about moving from a fraction of a percent of the overall commercial office space market to 1.5%; we’re talking about the type of movement you see Regus’ Mark Dixon and others discussing. We’re talking about the move to 5, 10, 15% of the overall commercial office space market.

In a study published by CoreNet Global in April of 2009, a survey conducted among corporate executives it found the single biggest obstacle to corporations implementing alternative workplace strategies (which could include executive suites as a component) is executive buy-in:

With current workforces becoming further geographically spread along
with the introduction of new technologies, alternative workplace strategies (AWS) present
opportunity that can potentially save on salary cuts and freezes. Still, the largest challenge
continues to be a lack of support from senior management, according to a recent survey of CoreNet
Global Dallas Summit registrants.

While there are pockets of the serviced office industry that are working diligently on gaining access to C-level initiatives, unless there is constant pressure from the industry, demonstrated cohesion and an innovative and solid value proposition, the industry will continue to wish, hope and pray without seeing much benefit.

Regus is doing a great job on this front, but despite their diligence Regus alone is not enough. True innovation is more likely to happen with some direct competition. We’re all still sitting… waiting anxiously for that competition. Where will it come from?