Strategy and Place: Managing Corporate Real Estate and Facilities for Competitive Advantage

Few decisions made by today's organization are as highly visible, as expensive, and as long-lasting as the ones it makes about its physical facilities and properties. Because downsizing, out-sourcing, and networking have transformed organizational boundaries, and because advances in telecommunications and "virtuality" are changing almost everything about how companies occupy space, managers in every area of business are being forced to radically rethink the physical aspects of their companies. In "Strategy and Place," real estate strategy expert Martha O'Mara presents a framework for making strategic decisions about how organizations should occupy space when they are no longer tied to a specific place by the physical tools of work. In this groundbreaking work, based on cutting-edge research at companies such as Digital Equipment Corporation, Pacific Bell, Lever Brothers, Merrill Lynch, and Fidelity Investments, O'Mara presents a much-needed guide for thinking strategically about corporate real estate and facilities management and how to implement the right strategic plan once it's been formulated. "Strategy and Place" outlines three main approaches to real estate and facilities management decision-making: Incrementalism, in which only short-term commitments to space are made and capital expenditures are kept to a minimum; Standardization, where control over design and management procedures is rigidly maintained through centralized decision-making; and Value-Based planning, in which organizational values and corporate culture are integral parts of all design-related decisions, and procedures are flexible enough to meet the needs of the individual parts of the organization.In this clearly written and insightful work, O'Mara explains the advantages and disadvantages of each approach and shows how to apply them appropriately.