Great ideas exist across all organisations, but often they can be hidden by the glossed and polished exteriors that we present so proudly to our customers, writes Carissa Kilgour, workplace director at Landsec
We know we innovate on the ground – the way we design, our methods of construction, the technology we use. As devotees of the physical space, we’re more comfortable talking about the grand finales of our long-time developments, rather than the inspiration and process that lead us there.
But as long as we stay focused on the refined and elegant final product, we’re at risk of missing valuable opportunities to engage our customers, excite our customers, and be seen as a go-to innovator for our customers.
Credibility is underpinned by delivery; if we want to talk to our customers about the innovation they are trying to drive, we must also go through it in our own businesses.
So how does an industry that is renowned for its complex product and methodical approach to putting up the four walls and a roof that are so part and parcel of our everyday lives go beyond the expected and generate real change for our customers of tomorrow?
At Landsec, we’re challenging ourselves to be less predictable. Our customers know us through the quality of the buildings and places we create; but now we must dare to bare and show how innovation is baked into everything we do at every stage of the cycle.
We have to immerse ourselves into our customers’ worlds – their challenges, successes and day-to-day ways of working.
This is the driving force behind the Landsec Lab. Set within a warehouse space in Sumner Street, SE1, it’s both an example and product of our new way of thinking. The lab is a deliberately raw space, modular and moveable so whoever is using it can adapt it as they wish; it’s a focal point and physical home for co-creation and problem solving.
For a business on an innovation journey it is as much about the process of innovation as it is about the outcome. While our current work spaces inspire activity-based working and have transformed how our business operates, we must still encourage people to look above and beyond the day job.
We need an alternative space to think in an alternative way – because the occupier of the future is not the occupier we have known in the past. We must experiment and not be afraid to face failure head on – and, over time, the experiences in creating new processes and approaches will drive new, substantial and varied outcomes.
Time and time again customers tell us that when it comes to a stimulating environment they can call home, the brilliant basics are key. The simplicity of the lab drives an uncomplicated way of working; it’s a blank canvas which allows us to focus on only what is essential to drive outputs.
It affords both our own people and our customers the room and license to come up with new ideas in a way that best suits them in that moment. We’re inspiring start-ups and newly-established businesses, right the way through to mature corporates, to turn problems on their head in a home that facilitates and nurtures creative solutions.
Landsec Lab is a physical manifestation of our commitment to challenging the status quo. It surprises our customers – from the physical layout, the way we work together to co-create, and right through to the ideas it stimulates. Because if we continue adopting the same methods to solve problems, we will only ever come up with the same answers.
Through the lab, we hope to make innovation visible as it happens and demonstrate the industry’s commitment in challenging the everyday. After all, and as we’ve always maintained, we don’t always have to be breaking ground to deliver groundbreaking work.
