Do or Do Not, There is no Try
These immortal words from Yoda in the Empire Strikes Back may bethe catchphrase for corporate real estate in 2006. This applies toboth the client and the service provider side of the business. Forclients, there is growing pressure to create value and lead changeneither of which can be done effectively from a reactive posture.Moreover, CRE is evolving from a single touchpoint business to anintegrated model where various corporate functions (HR, IT,operations, etc.), management and service providers/vendors must beharnessed and enabled. I believe we will see this evolutionaccelerate in 2006.

For service providers, the pressure is on in 2006 to be moreconsultative in the approach to outsourced delivery of corporatereal estate services. More and more clients are looking to theirservice providers to do more than just transactions. They arelooking to service providers to bring organizational redesignstrategies, benchmarking, financial consulting (SOX compliance,alternative financing structures), and functional, proventechnology tools for portfolio management. In all of this, thefacilities, transaction and even lease administration roles arebecoming commoditized. The emphasis is on driving strategy throughleadership--not necessarily execution--because quality of executionis becoming increasingly hard to differentiate. For many serviceproviders, 2006 may be a watershed year.

If Yoda isn't your idea of a business leader, then our recentlydeparted friend Peter Drucker had it right when he said managementis doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. Theyear 2006 will be about leadership.