CANNES, FRANCE—The message was clear. Corporate end users have to be more focused on the revenues a space can generate long-term than on the upfront cost of that space. So said  experts in the field of occupancy in a MIPIM session sponsored by RICS.

Best practices dictate that space considerations be “more about the client and less about the facility,” said Hugh F. Kelly of the NYU Schack Institute. “Real estate costs pale in comparison to the overall P&L.

Expense control is just a means to an end,” he continued. “The real key is how to grow profits.”

Of course, in this day of still-constrained budgets, long views such as he floated are a tough sell. Kelly acknowledged that and added that such long-tem views are found in the rarified climate of top tier multi-locational organizations. There, he argued, “There is a standard for occupation.”

Nicole Escue, vice president at Morgan Stanley in London, admitted that she is faced with that decision regularly. “In the finance sector there is a continuing need to be near clients,” she explained. “The mandate is to control cost while supporting growth.” Best practices here means taking a close look at tertiary offices, bringing trading functions back to key hubs and letting bankers fly to clients as necessary.

On the industrial side, Julian Lyon on RICS stated that the operational marching orders are changing, with full warehouses at major ports and the cost of materials increasing.  He stated that best practices are moving the indusry from a cost-per-square-meter mentality to a cost-per-unit model for leasing decisions.