COMMENT: David Sleath is a smart cookie, isn’t he? Not only has he successfully built SEGRO into the largest REIT listed on the London Stock Exchange, but he’s made the bold move of putting a “disruptive thinker” in charge of making sure it remains relevant and powerful in the future.
When you’re a business that has a long history (100 years this year in the case of SEGRO), it is important that you give someone with a slightly different way of thinking the opportunity to have a slightly louder voice if you want perform in the future.
But I would say that, wouldn’t I?
I’ve long been a fan of SEGRO.
I know that from the outside sheds may just look like boring square boxes, but for me, at least, this asset class is one of the most dynamic in our sector. It is one that reacts, can move quickly, and has the ability to deliver the transformation the real estate sector requires.
This week, SEGRO announced that Phil Redding, who had been with the business for more than 20 years, was stepping down, and that chief financial officer Soumen Das would take on a new role as head of a strategy, investment and innovation division.
The industrial sector is being massively disrupted by technology – more so, I would dare to say, than retail. It now has to be able to operate at a much faster frequency. It has to understand the future of robotics and how that is going to really influence the workforce, particularly manual jobs. And it has a huge role to play in housing and utilising sustainable tech – as a mass polluter, the industrial sector surely has to be one of the first to fully embrace EV or other low-emission vehicles, for example.
As Sleath says, the business has to be able to “embrace the unprecedented level of change arising from the technological revolution”. Yes, it really, really does. And this does require disruptive thinking. This does require an entirely different type of thought process. An ability to think outside of that big, square box.
It will be interesting to see just how disruptively SEGRO does think, though. With 100 years of experience to draw on, it has a wealth of insight that it can utilise, either to inform and support new decisions or as a framework of not what to continue doing.
And, of course, we as a nation will have to be thinking a little bit differently now too as Brexit – stage one at least – has finally come to pass.
To be honest, I’d forgotten about Brexit. It’s really not going to be the disrupter we all thought it was going to be, is it? Technological advancement will be, the spread of viruses (digital and biological) will be – we’re already seeing reports of the impact on global supply chains by the coronavirus in China – the spread of wildfires, flooding, etc will certainly be.
The UK economy has largely coped with Brexit. A few cuts and bruises, but the market (retail aside) is looking OK. House prices are rising, investors are still hungry to spend here, occupiers (retail aside) are still wanting to take space.
Unfortunate though it is, I’m not going to be blue about saying adieu to our European friends. I’m going to be encouraged that the smart among us are adapting to change, and putting disruptive thinkers in powerful positions.
To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@egi.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @estatesgazette
