Message from the Chairman

Inaugural Melbourne Chapter Chair Luncheon: Property Heaven from a CEO’s Perspective – Michael Rowland, CEO, ANZ Pacific

Takeouts and Key Messages:

CEO, Michael Rowland, ANZ Pacific, joined a gathering of Australia’s leading CRE executives at the Press Club on the 20th July to talk about ‘Property Heaven from a CEO’s perspective’.

A lively debate followed after Joe Finneran, Chapter Chair for Melbourne opened the proceedings and set the scene for an insightful and thought-provoking discussion over some excellent food and wine.

Facilitated by David Barnard, Melbourne Chapter Committee Member, Michael Rowland generously shared his views with the invited guests about what 'Property heaven’ really means for ANZ Pacific in these turbulent and opportunistic times.

Michael articulated that property strategy and the early involvement of property teams is fundamental in achieving the long term goals of ANZ, which was also supported by CRE executives from Reece, HP, Goodyear, Australia Post and Downer EDI especially in these hesitant economic times.

It was very clear from the diverse group of CRE professionals that property typically had plenty of interaction with the C-suite and was on a journey to further bolster this position in the future.

Everybody agreed that CRE leaders and teams have to be a trusted voice at the C-suite and exhibit a strong set of ‘new’ skills, from totally understanding business strategy, to being a facilitator, negotiator, relationship manager and technical expert to assist in delivering business outcomes.

Discussion then moved on to how different the skill-set of CRE executives is now compared to five or ten years ago.

The following question was posed to Michael: What does the CRE Executive look like in 2015? The response provided some insightful thinking into what we need to develop as CRE leaders to ensure we are aligned with future business objectives.

Innovation in the property sector was seen as a key opportunity in terms of how we move beyond the typical 3, 10 or 15 year lease terms or developing large office complexes, which curtail organisational flexibility. Another interesting point raised and aimed specifically, at those CRE executives who need to have experience beyond pure property. If you refer to the global market you will see this is definitely the trend. CRE leaders are drawn from a diverse range of backgrounds including HR, finance and procurement. Thus, working for an organisation that can provide these opportunities will be critical in the future, if we are to develop as nimble leaders in an explosive economic climate, which appears to be the norm going forward.

The table of invited guests also shared some fascinating insights into their organisations’ market and people challenges/opportunities as key stakeholders in achieving long term sustainable outcomes.

A noteworthy point was that most organisations had similar categories of business performance/metrics which were reported against, that is market/customer, people and financial metrics. Thus, if property groups are not already reporting on these metrics it might create a wow factor for the C-suite if they were produced and integrated into other business reporting metrics.

The feedback from this diverse group of participants was fantastic and the conversations held post the event demonstrated we all share the same challenges and have ample opportunity to learn, share and grow together in these types of forums. All agreed the experience was invaluable.
The Melbourne Chapter Committee looks forward to organising similar events in the near future to help enable and build the CRE community.

Thank you to our guests for your participation and especially Michael Rowland, a relaxed, charismatic and enthralling participant who openly engaged and shared some excellent insights into the CEO world of a major global organisation. We look forward to meeting you all again at future chapter Events. For those of you who could not attend, the 16 hour slow cooked lamb was delightful and the red was superb (thankfully the restaurant had enough bottles left).

Key points:

What does ‘Property Heaven’ mean? – Michael Rowland was very clear at articulating that property is an enabler of business strategy in ANZ across 12 diverse and challenging companies.
Everybody agreed that the CRE Executive of the future is an enabler, communicator, organization-glue and relationship manager with property expertise. The internal Advisor.
Skill level of CRE teams has dramatically increased and needs to continue in order to meet future business needs.
CRE teams need cross business experience from varied disciplines that is, beyond property.
Major organisations see property as an enabler of business strategy and growth.
It is more than cost reduction. In fact some organisations have detrimentally impacted their people by too much focus on cost.
Opportunity – C-suite metrics from a property perspective – door opener, WOW factor.
Sounds like CRE executives are generally engaged with C-Suite both formally and informally.
Nimble businesses move beyond formal reporting structures to achieve outcomes.
Good workspace creates compelling reasons to work for an organisation.
Organisations typically have the same metrics at a strategic level

o   Market/Customer
o   People
o   Costs

Joe Finneran
Melbourne Chapter Chair
CoreNet Global