Are leaders of tomorrow and office space of yesterday about to crash head on?

I had an enlightening experience last week when I had the opportunity to speak with Chicago’s DePaul College future entrepreneurs in a co sponsored event with Regus business business centers and 10 successful and wealthy entrepreneurs. In the session we had the opportunity to speak about the importance of being an entrepreneur and all those potential barriers that will raise up in front of any aspiring self starter, whether college educated or just street smart.

It was then followed up by round table sessions with the entrepreneurs where the students and aspiring entrepreneurs got the opportunity to learn from those who had already got the scrapes and bruises to show for their success and were more than happy to share their war stories with the self starters of the future. My enlightenment came, not from the fact that the students were so much more advanced in their thinking than in my day, or even that it was just so much easier to be global immediately these days, but more that they saw the Your office Agent model of a balanced workspace strategy as the required norm rather than the disruptive business model that we believed it was.

If ever there was conclusive proof that the commercial real estate industry needed to reinvent itself to eliminate 99% of office space being transacted in traditional 5 year leases when business plans were never more than 6 months, this was proof that the time had finally come.

The days where new companies start small offices in home markets and expansion into another country seemed like an impossible dream seem a distant memory. Each of these budding entrepreneurs saw the world as their market and saw no reason to wait for initial success to start to expand. if a widget is to be successful in one market why wait to start it in another. These days virtual offices can be purchased for $150 a month and office space can be rented for as little as $50 a day in the best locations in the world.

That combined with on demand technology and work anywhere employees mean that any city, country, continent and I am sure that we should soon include planet is or will soon be accessible in an instant.

Imagine how long it took for Nokia, Motorola, GM or KPMG to become international brands and then compare that to Google, Facebook and Groupon. What is even more interesting is that the speed of growth is quickening, not slowing down and the mind boggles at what will happen next. All we know for sure is that the institutional grip on how real estate is transacted has to loosen or that decision will be forced upon them by the new end users of tomorrow. Your Office Agent look forward to being there by their side when that day comes to help provide a balanced approach between fixed office space and alternative workplace strategy so that it all revolves around the efficiency of the team and the work life balance that keeps them happy working.

This is the incredible world we now live in where global brands can be made and destroyed for cents in the dollar (or yen) and all that is needed are the right ingredients of brilliant people, an inspired idea and the audacity to take on the biggest guy in the room. With fist fighters like this coming out of every great university, college and backroom all over the world no longer can board members sit comfortably in their elegantly decorated, 90th floor boardroom purveying the spoils of past glories.

Now every day is the fight of their lives and unless every organization out there makes their real estate platform as nimble, flexible and adaptable as their oncoming rivals are then they will be at a disadvantage from day one.

Ding, ding. Ladies and Gentlemen, round one….