What CRE heads are doing to foster collaboration in the workplace
Sathish Rajendren, FRICS, SLCR, MCR, CFM, C.I.D. DEI, Phd
Senior Executive Director & Head - Knight Frank & Past Global Board of Director at CoreNet Global
Ideas are not bred in a vacuum - today's most innovative companies have open hubs and ample collaboration spaces to encourage interaction and conversations between employees. Thus, CRE heads play a crucial role in creating a culture of collaboration.
Following from my previous post where I talked to Sunil Kumar from Akamai and Laila Khalil from Lowe's India, I now interview George Inasu, the COO of Fidelity National Financial India, and Kenneth Paul Papabathini, the Director WPR of Netapp about the role that real estate plays in fostering collaboration, while also balancing other needs like privacy and security.
Q. George, tell us about your role in your organisation.
As the COO for Fidelity National Financial India, I am responsible for the core products and services that are offered by FNF in the US market. With over 3700 employees, FNF India today is an integral part of the global services operations and has both vertical and horizontal services that are provided from India.
Q. As innovation becomes central to business competitiveness, there is an increasing emphasis on collaboration. How can real estate play a role in removing workplace silos?
While compliance, privacy and complexity has created a need for separation, in the world where disruptions upend businesses overnight, co-creation and collaboration are crucially necessary to stay ahead of the curve. While many organisations have separated out technology from business due to the different talent and workplace requirements, FNF believes in the opposite and have taken a conscious effort to bring them together within our offices. This has helped in building a rapport between the business and tech and has helped in initiate projects in using the latest technologies like ML, AI and Robotic Automation.
Q. What is the key to sustaining collaboration in the modern workplace?
The key to sustaining collaboration is building trust between the various stakeholders to a project. While this is easier said than done given the different priorities that each department may have, creating an environment where the stakeholders are recognized for their effort on a successfully delivered project help teams bond. Over time, this translates into a mutual respect and trust set in stone.
Q. Has the need for greater collaboration influenced your office design, and if so, how?
As we have consciously brought business and technology together, we have had to create a workspace that caters to both user groups operating within the same office. And so, while remote working and hot desks are standard within the tech world, we have linear workstations and special white rooms to manage the data security and privacy for the business. The need for easy access to creche and gyms becomes a common requirement that we look at builders and designers who create a wholistic environment that caters to all this and more.
Q. Kenneth, tell us about your role in your organisation.
I am responsible for the CRE and FM function in Netapp for the India region
Q. How can real estate play a role in removing workplace silos?
Real Estate increasingly performs an important role to help promote workplace designs that foster extreme collaboration within the business verticals for better productivity and optimal utilization of resources.
Q. What is the key to sustaining collaboration in the modern workplace?
Technology plays a vital role in sustaining collaboration with a focus on automation, flexibility and faster access to workplace resources like seat, meeting rooms, IT infrastructure including AV capabilities etc.
Q. Has the need for greater collaboration influenced your office design, and if so, how?
Yes, there is an increasing need to focus on the needs or requirements of the next gen or Millennial workforce. The aim is to enhance productivity through a right combination of “open collaborative meeting spaces”, “closed meeting rooms” and “me spaces”. Our office design focuses on “work from any place” moving away from the “my place” concept.
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If you’re interested to hear more in-depth perspectives on how the need for collaboration and innovation is influencing corporate real estate, Lee Elliott, the Global Head of Occupier Research at Knight Frank, will be having a conversation on the stage of the CoreNet Global Summit in Singapore on March 11, 4:15-5:00 PM with Tony Lombardo from Lendlease, Aylwin Tan from CapitaLand, Anil Singh Shikarwar from Siemens, and Arvind Kumar from NTT. See you there.
If you’d like to read more from this series, click the links below:
CRE Leadership Perspectives: Collaboration (Part 1)
CRE Leadership Perspectives: PropTech
Sr. Vice President l Facility Management Services l HR Consulting
4 年Thanks for sharing this valuable information Sathish Rajendren FRICS, SLCR, MCR, CFM, Ph.D
Great article. We are an energy analytics software company, but place high value on collaboration in the workplace. Thanks for sharing!
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4 年Sathish Rajendren FRICS, SLCR, MCR, CFM, Ph.D it's a great initiative I believe first in sequence would be before we collaborate communicate create cultivate spirit to serve larger purpose than remaining things stands to fall in place I.e trust culture engagement people Profit .