Thursday 28 January 2010
You will have seen that the BCSC launched its industry report yesterday, covered at the same time in the FT.
The report’s key findings are:
• One in five secondary centres “at-risk”
• 25 year lease-expiry bubble, now in sight
• Specialist asset management skills/new investment now needed
• Practical long-term solutions necessary
With the failure in the performance of secondary shopping centres now self-evident (40-50% off their peak) one can possibly predict that those responsible for managing such assets will begin to face increasing pressure from noisey shareholders demanding to know why they still employ a model of management that was designed before out-of-town retail or the Internet ever existed.
Insite Asset Management is an experienced and specialist team of individuals that fully understand the secondary shopping centre market, where it needs to be going, and what the new drivers of financial performance look like. The ‘asset’ is no longer just bricks and mortar or the 25-year leases, it’s ‘people’ and ‘purpose’, too. I’ve blogged about these factors previously.
Owners who have already suffered from steep valuation declines, should ask to see our dynamic and performance-driven alternative. It’s been adapted from one of the most resilient and sustainable business models of all time.
To protect net income and re-build capital value, I-AM believes significant change is needed in the direction, dynamic and performance of secondary shopping centres.
The stakes are now being raised by those asset and fund managers who choose to ignore the fundamental changes in market dynamics: winners and losers will be defined by those who adapt to change, and those who don’t.
The bottom line: Time for Change
Feel free to comment.
Mike.
Saturday 16 January 2010
Shopping centre owners could be sat on a little gold mine if only they realised it. Consumer behaviour, in the wake of the recession, is shifting from mindless consumerism to mindful consumerism, and values-led spending is beginning to empower customers who might be starting to discriminate against businesses that don’t share their values.
This awakening could be valuable for shopping centre assets if it can be harnessed and converted into financial performance – and it’s all to do with ethics and goodwill.
Because there are environmental, social and economic implications for ensuring our shopping and town centres remain sustainable destinations, we should carefully examine the role they play in society.
I believe it is possible to enrich the relationship between the shopping centre and the community by providing a bridge between the brands CSR credentials, shoppers desire to ethically consume. This bridge is what I-AM is working very hard on right now – look out for further posts on the topic.
Do you think it matters if our town centres become ghost or clone towns?
Feel free to comment.
Mike.
You might be wondering what it is that we actually do? If that is the case, I can sure understand since it’s very hard sometimes to see the same thing from a different perspective without giving up and going home. So let me explain.
Insite Asset Management is a shopping centre asset manager, whose focus is on financial performance. We operate across strategy, technology, consumer behaviour and change management to help our clients successfully transform shopping centre liabilities into shopping centre assets.
Our mission is to help create people- and network-centric business structures and create new process management systems that monitor and measure performance.
We won’t work with organisations that don’t think they have a problem, in spite of the facts telling them otherwise (we loathe arrogance and hubris). We will work with realistic owners and investors who want to lead the industry by being first to adopt the new and networked ways of working.
We keep saying that dumbing down (cutting costs) is for fools. Investing in the future is wising up to the new reality of post-recession business.
Feel free to comment.
Mike.
Monday 11 January 2010
Top performing organisations are up to 15 times more likely to be using analytics technologies to support strategic decision making than their less successful competitors.
That’s according to an IBM study into the role that information-based decision making can play in successful business strategies during the current economic cycle. This concluded that the successful exploitation of analytics enabled top companies to be 22 times better prepared to challenge the status quo, adapt existing strategies to meet changing conditions and enable decision makers to take action based on greater insights derived from analytics.
A fundamental shift to a smarter, fact-driven enterprise is essential, and possible, with the broad application of advanced analytics to a far richer, integrated set of information, turning data into a strategic asset. (Why is it that no other ‘asset’ managers talk about ‘data’ as an asset?).
Analytics and optimisation can help your organisation predict the likely impact of actions to improve decision-making and see what you previously couldn’t, so that you can survive and thrive in these challenging conditions. Companies able to capitalise on predictive analytics are becoming more productive.
This is an opportunity for savvy and 21st Century businesses to use insight and innovation to strategically position themselves to capture market share.
Time to wise-up. Not dumb down. What about you? Do you agree?
Feel free to comment.
Mike.
In a tough economic climate, organisations must seek new ways to increase employee productivity, minimise operating costs and deliver outstanding customer service. But the same economic context, which is driving these needs, makes it more difficult than ever to secure investment in new infrastructure.
But that’s what needs to happen. Customer retention is 40% cheaper than winning back those that you have lost – you do the maths.
Linking a unified communications platform to key back end business applications will yield positive productivity results for owners and occupiers alike. If you’re a landlord, you might want to consider making a proactive move before your tenants decide that you are from the old school of asset management, and make your life hell for it.
Time to wise-up, not dumb down. Give us a call if you want some 21st Century solutions.
Feel free to comment.
Mike.
Tuesday 5 January 2010
The downturn has exposed some very expensive, bureaucratic structures that operate shopping centres and which represent a drain on productivity and a waste of human potential. Owners that emerge from this period as leaders will be more agile, network-centric and people-powered, with far lower internal cost structures.
The rise of the social web has taught us a lot about how we can significantly reduce the costs of collaboration and co-ordination inside businesses, and demonstrated the power of iterative, evolutionary processes driven by real-time data and user feedback.
We need to apply these lessons inside the shopping centre enterprise to improve the way corporate IT supports business change and aligns with business needs. We need smarter, simpler, social tools, with the same quality of user experience we have come to expect from the web, that help people get things done.
In other words we need to modernise.
Feel free to comment.
Mike.