Products & Solutions

How do buildings and the workplace contribute to stakeholder and brand value?

Buildings are often considered an expensive but necessary overhead to house an organization’s workforce and processes. However, they have a key role to play in creating stakeholder value by enhancing brand identity and the customer experience. Buildings can be assets to enhance an organization’s ability to exploit the market opportunities that deliver profit, but conversely can contribute to inertia if used unwisely.

Traditionally a company’s property portfolio has been considered a long-term investment asset that can be used to release capital to invest in new markets or even survive in lean times. However, there are many other ways that buildings contribute to business performance to benefit stakeholders, including shareholders, employees and customers.

Managing a property portfolio is complex. Decisions need to be made on a daily basis to control costs and prioritize investment. However, real value can be created for stakeholders through a portfolio delivery model that is able to flex with the business cycle and allows the company to react to changing strategic objectives.

In many organizations, building and related service costs are spread between the balance sheet and various cost centers, which often obscures the true cost of occupation.

Developing an understanding of how buildings work is crucial
Buildings are fixed assets with lifecycles that are longer than most products. The inertia that some portfolios generate inhibits many organizations’ ability to react to changing markets. However, an intimate understanding of how buildings work can help the organization to design in an inherent flexibility to minimize the cost of future change and therefore increase competitiveness and speed to market.

The building and the work environment is also a definite brand statement that goes far beyond owning status buildings in prestigious locations and displaying of prominent logos.

Just as one gains an impression about people by the clothes they wear, customers and employees form lasting impressions about an organization from the work environment they experience.

Getting the customer experience right
Back office space should be clean, frugal and efficient while space and services that form part of the customer experience should be designed to make the customer feel valued. As the ‘war for talent’ intensifies, letting employees know that they are important will also become critical. Getting this workplace balance right is a key part of every brand.

In the drive for cost reduction it is easy to forget the true purpose of the property portfolio. This is either to:

  • create an environment where people can work productively, or
  • create an environment where people engage effectively with customers, or
  • house critical processes such as data centers and research programs, or
  • house inventory

Most portfolios include a mix of these four types of spaces.


Within the office environment, we have all experienced the impact on our own productivity of a loud colleague on the phone, a malfunctioning printer or the lack of available meeting rooms. Getting it wrong can impact productivity by 30% or more.

As customers, we can all recount experiences where the interaction with a supplier has not been positive because the environment was not suitable or failed to give us the assurance we desired. Getting the customer experience right is absolutely critical to both brand and stakeholder value.

As for critical processes, a five-minute disruption could quickly eliminate years of savings in the property and facilities budget. Shortcomings in business continuity can soon destroy stakeholder value.

The building also has a function to protect people and property. In some countries this could mean protecting employees, but more commonly buildings are there to protect an organization’s intellectual property. Preventing unauthorized access to data is often a regulatory requirement, but it is also a business imperative.

The role of the property as a driver of stakeholder and brand value is becoming increasingly complex and more significant. However, the buildings and workplace industry needs to do more to articulate its potential benefits in the boardroom - treating this activity as a commodity is a sure way to destroy stakeholder value.

  • If you would like to see the creation of an industry standard to empirically measure the true contribution of real estate, or have other suggestions of how a portfolio can deliver stakeholder value, Dom Sherry would welcome your feedback.
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