TechTalk Live: Property companies need wholescale digital strategies to keep up with competition from both within the industry and from other industries, Volker Buscher said in his keynote speech at this morning’s EG TechTalk Live.
Buscher, head of digital services at Arup, said companies need to establish top-down digital strategies to keep up with other industries and attract investment.
“There isn’t a financial services organisation or a media organisation out there that doesn’t have someone on the board who’s responsible for driving the digital agenda through the company. That is a must-have,” he said.
Strategies will not work if they do not come from the top, Buscher added, because middle management “is not going to work on Monday morning thinking ‘You know what? I’m going to change all of this’”.
The problem, he said, is that there is a severe shortage of talent. In San Francisco, Buscher said, there are six digital strategy job openings for every applicant in industries like property.
He said: “The problem is that the money we can afford on a digital champion is not currently competitive to the money that a fintech business or a media business can invest in technology leaders.
“We don’t just face competition amongst each other. We also face competition from the other big industries that are going through the same changes.”
The trick to getting investment is to build a strategy that focuses on more than one or two parts of the company and to understand “why bother?”
Businesses need to a strategy that tackles occupier comfort and productivity, portfolio efficiency and costs across every part of the organisation.
Buscher said: “Those three things together in other industries has led to the growth brands and the perception of whether they’re modern or not.
“And then their ability to raise finance and how the market perceives them also changes.”
To send feedback, e-mail karl.tomusk@egi.co.uk or tweet @ktomusk or @estatesgazette
To find out more about the TechTalk Academy and download an entry form visit www.egi.co.uk/news/techtalkacademy or email techtalk@egi.co.uk
