EDITOR’S COMMENT So we have pretty much made it through January, and aside from a complete loss of faith in our political leadership, and my own complete failure in getting anywhere near doing dry January, the month is ending on a high (subject to anything horrendous happening after I finish writing this!).
The work-from-home recommendation has been dropped and our cities and places of work are coming back to life. We are again getting to see people in real life, do meetings in coffee shops (or bars if you’ve failed at dry January like me) and across boardroom tables. And it’s nice. It’s better than a screen. Home is great. Sometimes. The office is great too. Sometimes. But we are back. Whether we have come out too early or not, who knows, but it has certainly put a spring in my step, and in many of the real estate agency leaders’ too.
We have also started planning for some (hopefully) warmer weather and IRL networking in Cannes as MIPIM comes back to life. The event will be different this year, but it is still going to be relevant and there is so much to talk about. We’ll be there hosting big discussions, delivering insight and reconnecting with people in a more analogue way.
But what has also helped me get to the end of this always-tough month while remaining positive are some of the conversations that I find myself increasingly having with you.
Let’s take, for example, a conversation with Phil Hobley, the new man in charge of London at Knight Frank, taking over from William Beardmore-Gray as he steps into the senior partner role. His vision for the team was based primarily around talent. About finding it within the business and developing it, giving it a chance to blossom. I’m sure he won’t mind me saying that you could see how genuinely emotional he was about some of the individuals in his team and how they are growing, and the role that he and the business have to play in supporting that.
London is going to be just fine. It has all the fundamentals in place to continue to be attractive. Individuals don’t. They need nurturing, supporting and guiding to make sure they thrive. And there are so many leaders now who really get that. Who really feel that. And who vocalise it. And that makes me feel optimistic.
We are seeing it too in the roles that are being established across real estate businesses. Canary Wharf Group has appointed Michelle Laramy from the Crown Estate into the newly created position of director of customer experience. For many – myself included – it’s very easy to have a view of the Canary Wharf estate as an office-dominated, soulless place. But it’s not. It has character and a lot of people who call it home (whether that’s for the 9 to 5 or actually home) and CWG is putting real effort into becoming a “customer-centric business”. There is still work to do on the language – maybe “people-centric” works better – but it is a real shift and Laramy has decades of experience to bring to the role.
And finally, our old favourite, the RICS. I caught up with Lord Bichard this week to see if I could get some insight on how his review into the body was going. He’s keeping his cards reasonably close to his chest, but what struck me most in our conversation was how warmed he appeared to be by this industry’s passion for the profession and its real desire for the RICS to become something they can be proud of again.
If there’s passion and pride, there has to be positivity, right? And that is why I’m feeling pretty good as we tick off month one of 2022.
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