APAC-BFSI-Outlook-2017

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Marty McFly goes Mobile
Fast forward to the future. When
financial services firms take the first
step of providing choice seats, whether
the pure or plus model, their space
begins to look and function like a co-
working space. More people will get
used to practical aspects of working
this way: getting their job done from
wherever they choose to sit, finding
viable workarounds and alternatives
for tethers such as paper, and
finding new ways to collaborate with
colleagues who are out of eyeshot.
The more people get used to this, the
less remote will seem to be the next
obvious step: working this way from
outside the confines of the institution’s
physical walls. Is it a question of “if”, or
“when”?
It’s not “if”…
The 2014 report "The Future of the
Financial Workplace ", commissioned
by DTZ and researched by Unwork.
com suggested that there were five
pain points that a¥ect property in
the financial sector. These are, in
decreasing order of priority: regulation,
cost pressure, technology, geography
and talent. Of these, the only point
that tends towards “if” rather than
“when” is regulation, which in this
context covers matters of compliance,
political sensitivities, information
security and segregation.
It’s “when”
The remaining four pressures that tend
towards “when”. If co-working services
providers can make their o¥ering more
cost eŸcient, the second obstacle will be
removed. Technology is an enabler, and
indeed those firms that are now trialing
the co-working option have already
embraced agile working practices to
some extent. With regard to geography,
the trend is to move operations to where
there is greater cost eŸciency.
Laggards no more
A business thinker, Rogers (2003), talked
about the technology adoption cycle,
where innovators and early adopters are
followed by pragmatists (early majority)
and then conservatives (late majority).
Lastly there were the laggards. Financial
services organizations were once firmly
in the latter camp when it came to
technology adoption.
Some financial services firms (e.g: HSBC,
Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs) are
now firmly in the vanguard of exploring
co-working for corporates. Between the
first and second draft of this paper over
the period August-September 2016 we
saw significant momentum in the way
financial services firms were exploring
co-working spaces. In the next 5+ years
we will see more and more corporates
avail themselves of co-working spaces to
reduce their footprint.
“When” is now.
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MARC SHAMMA’A
Head of Strategic Consulting
Global Occupier Services, Asia Pacific
T: +65 6232 3232