Estates Gazette technology expert Antony Slumbers wants you to focus on the how and why
The after-burners are on. Hear them roar, and then focus your mind on two words: how and why.
Why? Because in 2015 we are going to see a few mega-trends really kick in and whether you sink or swim will depend on how well you see what is coming and your ability to ride the wave of change.
In 1997 Craig Venter was seven years into the 15 years thought would be required to sequence the first genome. However, only 1% had been sequenced. Many said he should give up. But the amount sequenced was growing by 100% a year, so in reality he was almost halfway there. In fact, he reached 100% just four years later.
With technology this is par for the course. Today about 8bn objects are connected to the internet. By 2020 it will be 50bn and a decade later a trillion. 3D printing is 400 times better value than it was seven years ago; robots 25 times better in five years; and drones 142 times better in six years. 3D LIDAR sensors (the ones at the heart of the self-driving car) are 250 times better in five years.
All of these technologies are tools for the real estate industry to use in designing, building and managing property. Couple them with ever-faster broadband, mobile devices, cloud computing and storage and a huge question presents itself. How are these developments going to affect my business and why are we working in the way that we do now? How can I use these tools to re-imagine our business model? Why are we operating in the same way as we did 10 years ago? And most pertinently, how are we going to ensure we are not the next Kodak or Blockbuster? Why can’t we be an “exponential organisation” and what would we need to do to be one?
Tangerine, a new Canadian bank, handles seven times the number of customers per employee than the average bank. How does it do that?
There is such a propitious confluence of tools, technologies and capabilities at the moment that 2015 has to be the year to stop thinking linearly. Instead of “let’s be 10% more efficient”, think “how can we be 10 times as efficient?” You will not lose your market position to someone 10% better than you; it will be someone 10 times better. It will be someone who can do much more with much less, who has wider, deeper, more timely data, who provides a better service to customers, who removes friction, who collaborates better, who has a wider pool of talent on tap, who engages and is engaged better than you.
In essence, it will be someone with a digital company, not a digital strategy. And that person, that company, could be you and yours, if you ask how and why.
Essential tech for property people: drones
Flying drones will become ubiquitous in real estate and that process will start this year.
For what you would have paid $100,000 (£65,000) in 2007 you will now pay about $700. That is a 142-time improvement in value in just six years and, amazing though it may sound, this advancement is speeding up.
Currently, most drones need to be controlled through line of sight and the pilot needs to ensure they do not crash into anything. However, the semiconductor industry is riding to the rescue with billions of dollars of research.
Intel was showing off RealSense at the Consumer Electronics Show 2015 earlier this month. RealSense enables drones to sense the space around them and avoid obstacles. Qualcomm, meanwhile, is building similar real-time vision directly into its Snapdragon chip. Such autonomous control opens up a sea of opportunity, not least because flying a squadron of drones, all working in concert, would then be possible – Google “TED flying lampshades” to get the picture.
With their ability to capture high-definition, geo-referenced digital aerial images – stills, video, or even thermal – drones can gather huge amounts of data in record time. Whether for professional or marketing purposes, they enable you to do more in less time and at a lower cost.
What you needed a helicopter for last year, you can do with a drone this year.
Antony Slumbers is founder and chief executive of Estates Today. Follow him @antonyslumbers
