Such is the transformational role being played by technology in the way we live and work that to refer to a “TMT” sector is, in many ways, to use a Totally Meaningless Term.
When you have banks hiring more IT workers than bankers, it is difficult to talk sensibly about technology jobs in isolation from other sectors. However, if we classify TMT as Telecoms & Media Tech, then we move away from a vague concept to a term describing those companies that provide the software and hardware consumers use to work, access content and communicate.
Our Future of the TMT workplace report, produced in collaboration with Unwork, examines the key forces driving the phenomenal pace of change in this sector and what this means in terms of real estate.
One of the key points for both start-ups and established players is to think not in terms of property strategy, but of workplace strategy. That is not semantics, it is a shift from thinking about buildings to thinking about the working environments within.
This shift is driven to a large degree by the war for talent. Technology’s prevalence means top performers are in demand from almost every sector so competition is intense. Therefore there is a fundamental need to create workplaces that appeal to a certain type of worker and offer the range of amenities and services they need.
No executive at a TMT company should think that the environments in which work gets done are not of vital strategic importance to the growth and success of their business. Workplaces are the operational level in which strategy thrives or fails. Competitive advantage in this fast-moving sector is increasingly derived from an organisation’s ability and speed to develop new products, services and to unlock new sources of growth.
As our report highlights, the companies that are leading the TMT sector are those that create innovative types of workplaces where ideas can be developed faster. As a result, companies have moved on from talking about pure cost, to measuring productivity and getting more out of their resources, which of course includes their people.
Location is a key driver at both a local and global level. The pace of change in the sector and rapid adoption curves of products and services means companies can quickly go from thinking about being in the right part of a city to attract the talent to choosing the right city for entry into emerging countries or continents.
The changing role of workplaces and their symbiotic relationship with talent attraction and retention is already evident and will continue to evolve. Look to the future: the geography of work and workplace will shift significantly as more developed global firms locate more functions such as product development and R&D in emerging market countries to help them develop offerings relevant to consumers and enterprises in these locations.
Talent is also key to this process. Cities that have been successful locations for back-office functions have developed deep and very capable resource pools that are better educated, ambitious and wealthier.
As this process develops – often rapidly – these cities become attractive for the growth of telecoms and media tech companies, and will in time evolve into more mature markets.
In the next 10 years, we could see the likes of San Francisco, New York and London joined by Lagos, Istanbul and Jakarta as world-leading TMT locations, home to both international players and ambitious local firms. Positive demographic factors and buoyant economic growth will likely see Mumbai and Delhi join Bengaluru as leading TMT hubs. The number of internet users in Africa is likely to quadruple over this period, helping to propel two of the continent’s largest cities – Lagos and Johannesburg – into the ranks of world-leading TMT cities.
TMT players which can identify these cities and integrate them into their portfolios will have an advantage over competitors, provided they have the right advice on the best strategy for entering markets where they will likely encounter significant local competition.
• Click here to access the full Future of the TMT workplace report.
