the Field trip: Recent Episodes
Alister Fitzgerald
Andrew Stirling is the Head of Product Compliance at Tanda, the world’s #1 platform for rostering, attendance, labour insights and workforce success, and a local Brisbane technology success story. Andrew has been in this role for 18 months, following him making the very bold decision to leave solid partnership prospects at a top tier law firm. We go wide with Andrew, with discussion including what prompted him to make this significant career pivot, the challenges and successes of his journey so far and the broad gap between the thinking of lawyers and software engineers and how he is successfully bridging that divide. We also dig deep into our respective views on what technology is doing and might do to the way law is practiced.
A great conversation. We hope you enjoy.
Find out more about Tanda at https://www.tanda.co/
'The Field Trip' also available in video at: https://youtu.be/M0NPXTwBo-E
and as a written transcript at: https://www.fieldql.com/podcast-transcripts
Find out more about Field at https://www.fieldql.com
Overview
00:00 Open
01:43 Legal to non-legal career transition
06:59 Tanda and Andrew's product compliance role
14:50 From (employment) awards to code, and Tanda Paysure
18:04 Proactive legal services as a new market
22:24 Daily activities compared with private legal practice
26:40 From legal rules to algorithms
32:49 Transferability of legal skills
36:42 Learning new things
39:11 Rapid fire questions
42:03 Legal digital platforms
48:34 Value of information generated by legal process
56:31 Impact of tech on legal process
59:31 Future thinking - employment law
01:09:41 Andrew is obsessed with - great business books!
Alex Correa is one of the leading legal recruiters in the Brisbane market. She has built Alex Correa Executive over 10 years on a relationship first approach, mentoring countless lawyers through their professional journey.
In a conversation that aims to understand the trends technology is driving in the recruitment industry, Alex presents an optimistic view of the future for all knowledge workers by explaining how technology has allowed her to drive more energy into the mentoring side of her business. In finding freedom to leverage these more human skillsets, she has created new revenue streams and delivered outcomes that keep her, her clients and her candidates happier.
'The Field Trip' also available in video at: https://youtu.be/FN94vM3224g
Find out more about Field at https://www.fieldql.com
Overview
00:00 Open
01:38 Work From Home And Remote
03:11 Elevator Pitch
04:09 Recruitment is about relationships
09:02 Career Coaching
15:51 Equally Yours - Diversity and Inclusion Program
20:21 LinkedIn, Recruitment And Employment Brands
23:27 LinkedIn Tips For Candidates
28:13 LinkedIn Positioning For Organisations
30:27 Lawyers Changing Jobs For Career Progression
37:32 LinkedIn For Recruitment, And Limitations
41:05 Automation of CV Review
47:08 Gig Economy And Legal Services
55:56 Rapid Fire Questions
57:06 Tiny Desks
57:46 Alex is obsessed about . . . beekeeping!
Jacqui O’Dea is the Chief Risk Officer of GPT Group, one of Australia’s largest diversified property groups with $24.5 billion of retail, office and logistics property under management.
Jacqui transitioned from Deputy General Counsel to CRO in March 2019, giving her about 10 months to prepare for arguably the biggest risk challenge of a generation. We hear how Jacqui skilled up quickly, gathered support from within and outside the organization, and has helped this major landlord navigate the challenge that is the pandemic.
Key observations for us from this discussion are how well Jacqui had managed a transition to a new discipline at a senior level, how well GPT has supported her in doing so, and how she has used her newness to the role as an advantage.
We hope you enjoy the conversation.
Dr Andrea Blake is a Senior Lecturer in property economics from the Queensland University of Technology Business School, and in this episode we unpack her post pandemic predictions. In sum: we are witnessing a critical shift of power from the city centres to the suburbs.
Andrea brings a wide range of real estate expertise to the table in this episode, with research in such diverse topics as the impact on rural land values of carbon sequestration to the outcomes of projects involving seniors living being created on school campuses.
But following recent articles about what she sees as longer term trends arising out of the pandemic on the real estate market, we thought we’d get her on the pod and dig a little deeper. And as we did so a consistent theme emerges – that of structural change being under way which will see a broader distribution of commercial activity throughout greater city areas and a stronger focus on local community.
'The Field Trip' also available in video at: https://youtu.be/Xqun0z4gL_o
Find out more about Field at https://www.fieldql.com
00:00 Introduction
02:58 Andrea's work on intergenerational living
07:08 Quality of data and impact on valuations?
11:24 Andrea's future trend predictions
15:39 Suburban coworking?
19:33 Impact by industry sector
22:03 The shape of future retail
27:45 Office design of the future
32:35 What can employers do to bring workers back?
34:19 The impact of commuting, and public transport safety
37:04 Does a distributed city impact on economic power?
43:35 The role of regulation to manage post pandemic real estate industry
47:39 Higher education - what's next?
50:46 Andrea's drive for personal food security
Fiona Thatcher, Aaron Brooks and Barton Donaldson are three talented, aspiring young Australian lawyers working in London. As with most lawyers, since about March of this year, that work has been based at home. We hear a lot of commentary on how people are adapting their work around the pandemic but we wanted to hear from this younger cohort directly.
Fiona, Aaron and Barton talk of how life was and how it now is, the things they hope the pandemic has changed for good, and of a future of work they see that is not constrained by a physical office.
This was an eye-opening discussion for me which makes me ponder whether the rush to return to the office post pandemic is going to be as strong as many Landlords would like.
'The Field Trip' also available in video at: https://youtu.be/DzmAzaA23dw
Find out more about Field at https://www.fieldql.com
00:00 Introduction
01:56 Guest bios
03:25 Work pre-COVID - people
08:27 Work pre-COVID - technology
18:39 Email vs DM
21:17 Working from home setup
29:36 Good internet critical
32:03 Perhaps fancy offices are overrated?!
34:57 Avoiding the commute - pivotal in WFH discussion
36:34The Workation TM 😉
43:52Virtualising innovation and socialisation
51:23 What to keep & discard from the pandemic?
58:38 Leaning new skills in pandemic
01:00:51 Barton's reliving his NBA roots
01:04:02 Fiona's writing a murder mystery
01:06:00 Aaron's learning acoustic guitar
Overview
Kernel Property is one of Australia’s leading tenant advisory firms, with a strong track record in working for professional services firms, particularly law firms. We speak with two of its Directors, Kai Schindlmayr and Steve Urwin, to discuss their perspective on the impact of the pandemic now, and how things might change in the future.
This is the third in a series of episodes focusing on emerging future trends in commercial real estate driven by the pandemic.
From the unfortunate lack of collaboration in current negotiations, to the concept of a fragmented office, to office pop ups in suburban retail space, to the future of face rents, we cover a lot of ground.
This was a fun and information rich discussion discussion, which we hope you enjoy.
Resources
More about Kernel Property: https://www.kernelproperty.com.au
Kernel Property recent podcasts & media: https://www.kernelproperty.com.au/news-and-resources
More about Field at https://www.fieldql.com
Timestamps
0:00 Start
1:08 Guest introduction
3:00 A collaborative approach to lease negotiation?
11:57 Current vibe in the CBD
15:35 Are Lease terms becoming more flexible?
19:54 The fragmented office
23:25 Will rent expenditure just reduce?
27:29 Impacts on productivity
27:54 Do decision makers lack empathy for their workforce?
33:01 Who should bear the risk of a pandemic under a lease?
44:22 (How) will office design change?
58:12 Repurposing suburban retail for office hubs
1:03:30 Will face rents survive?
1:07:44 Are we overmeeting’d?
1:15:22 Kai likes to Dunk!
Events Will Change. How physical events will look different in a post pandemic world, with Jen Williams, Deputy Executive Director for the Property Council in Queensland.
This is the second in a series of episodes focusing on emerging future trends in commercial real estate driven by the pandemic
In this discussion, Jen shares a range of very relevant perspectives, including the PCA’s involvement in the pandemic driven regulation on commercial real estate and the outcome reached; how the broad spectrum of the PCA’s members are currently faring; how the PCA itself is easing its way back into the office (for now?); and what the PCA’s events business looks like now, and might look like in future, and extrapolating from there to how we will all engage physically in the future.
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
4:27 What does the PCA do?
6:56 Pandemic impact on PCA membership
11:59 Pandemic impact on PCA itself
15:03 Will meeting culture change?
17:10 Virtual creativity is challenging
19:42 Virtual comms. tech will rapidly improve
20:22 Gaming tech to enter corporate communications
23:21 PCA's return to the office
26:44 CRE Mandatory Code of Conduct
34:19 Office building classifications
38:43 PCA events - now and in future
46:04 How PPE for everyone might evolve
49:13 Members want in-person events back now!
52:06 PCA Cities Committee
54:30 Jen has a green thumb!
55:57 End
Observations and predictions on the impact of the pandemic on commercial offices from Mark Grant of White & Partners, a real estate advisory firm based in Brisbane.
This is the first in a series of episodes focusing on emerging future trends in commercial real estate driven by the pandemic.
Our conversation with Mark includes discussion of a broad range of changing elements in office design, from human density in offices unwinding, to the importance of lighting and acoustics to facilitate all those Zoom calls, to the criticality of in-person interactions for creative endeavours.
Timestamps
3.21 White & Partners moves back to the office
6.02 Current state of the market
9.46 Pandemic lease renegotiations
13.53 Office market breakdown - by location
15.24 Face rents will potentially come back
17.09 Influence of sublease activity
18.24 Pandemic impacts on demand - up and down
20.54 Creativity can't be done by remote
24.19 Pandemic promotes better work patterns
25.39 Tenancy layout changes - density et al
28.30 More thoughtful design in office space
30.51 High desk density will unwind
32.51 Meeting rooms - meeting is who we are
35.26 Videocon tech; acoustics and lighting
38.40 We need training to present virtually
44.10 Suburban focus - hub and spoke
48.46 Collab. leasing approach to persist
51.01 Mark's passion for the ocean
Bradley Price, General Counsel for Frasers Property Industrial, joins the podcast to talk about innovation within the legal function and the broader business. Frasers has a very impressive framework for driving innovation, which Brad shares with us, but three things from this discussion really stood out. First is the power of incremental innovation across the entire organisation. Small things matter. Second is the importance of involving the customer (both internal and external) in the innovation process. Third is how the process of innovation, where an answer is not immediately apparent, has challenged Brad’s legal problem-solving mindset and, ultimately, made him a better lawyer.
Timestamps
2:40 – Overview of the Frasers business: history (Australand) and current structure
5:10 – Brad is a man with a sense of humour
7:10 – The innovation spectrum
10:10 – Innovation at Frasers – a breakdown of the process
13:00 – A legal team ‘embedded’ within the business
15:40 – Physical office layout impacting on internal collaboration
20:15 – How innovative ideas are sourced and progressed at Frasers
25:45 – Customer input in the innovation process
29:40 – How innovation process has made Brad a better lawyer
31:55 – Collaboration within Frasers at the international level
33:10 – Brad shows off his Spanish!
We are talking with Tim Franklin: lawyer, triathlete, coach, motivational speaker - a true multi-disciplinary human being.
We will talk about juggling professional pursuits, his passion for movement, his amazing feats whilst in quarantine (including a full marathon inside his apartment!), and how the world might see movement differently after this difficult time.
You can follow Tim at:
Instagram: @timmyrfranklin || https://www.instagram.com/timmyrfranklin/
Facebook: Tim Franklin || https://www.facebook.com/tim.franklin.948
Email: tim@ownyourownshow.com
Website: www.ownyourownshow.com
This podcast was initially live-streamed on Sunday 17 May 2020, with a copy available at:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh4c8Rz_rzc
Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/fieldql/live/
Kim is a former COO of both Cox Architecture and Architectus with involvement in projects including The Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, Sunshine Coast University Hospital and the Singapore Marina Bay Helix Bridge. But Kim's career took an interesting turn about 5 years ago when she was prompted into action, beginning her transition from architecture into the world of politics.
We speak with Kim about this transition, what it is like to be a local member, and how this differs from her life in the private sector.
This discussion opened a can of worms of innovation at the grass roots level in Redlands, including an autonomous bus pilot program currently underway, and a collaboration with QUT (Queensland University of Technology) to test technology which creates hydrogen fuel for vehicles, ultimately for export overseas.
A wide ranging and engaging discussion.
In the latest episode of The Field Trip podcast, we speak with Stephen Kho of Micro Focus.
Micro Focus provides big data analytics and data security solutions to some of the world’s biggest companies, including Uber and Facebook.
Stephen talks us through some of the problems he helps customer overcome (which became a crash course in enterprise data security!) and then goes on to explain practical applications of big data by taking a deep dive into three different industry use cases – airports, aged care, and public transport.
So if you are keen to understand more about the foundational technologies that underpin the hype, and like to see how different industries are applying data to solve their biggest problems, I think this is worth a listen.
On the day of recording Louise was appointed the Program Manager for Technology and Innovation for real estate, for AMP Capital. Louise started her career as an electrician in the mining industry, moved into real estate facilities management to ultimately lead that function for AMP Capital, and has now combined these skills, her industry know-how and executive savvy to take the lead for a mission-critical strategic initiative for one of Australia’s most significant landlords.
Louise shares a wide range of insights, from the practical to the forward reaching, and sets the stage for what will be a (the?) major battleground for commercial real estate players over the next decade and beyond.
In the second episode of the Field trip podcast, we talk to Jim Groves, CEO of Rubberdesk, the leading online marketplace for flexible office space in the Australian market.
With current listings exceeding 15,000 desks, Rubberdesk is injecting flexibility of use into the traditional commercial leasing framework, benefiting landlords and tenants alike.
What I found most interesting, however, was the community aspect to Rubberdesk - how it is facilitating strong and diverse business networks amongst its hosts and users - organically built from the ground up. This led into a discussion about the untapped potential of suburban office precincts, both now and into the future.
In our kick-off episode, we talk about co-working now and in the future, with leading tenant advocate, Steve Urwin of Kernel Property. And it is hard to have that discussion without continued reference to the biggest show on the global stage, weWork!
Steve explains who is actually using these type of services, how different industries differ in their approach to flexible office space, how weWork is growing its focus on big enterprise, and what the crystal ball is telling him about the future of it all.
Steve also shares his passion for environmental causes, and how Kernel Property embraces this passion in its approach to its own office space.
Notes from the podcast
Law firm use of offices - UK vs Australia (4:45)
Law firm vs accounting firms - approach to space generally (6:40)
weWork does not look like a tech startup space! (9:05)
Who is using co-working spaces in Australian market? (11:00)
weWork's enterprise model (12:20)
Co-working spaces are taking smaller tenants from traditional office landlords (14:02)
Traditional landlords are being cautious with their 'flexible' space offerings (16:40)
Discussion on some current traditional landlord flexible space offerings - DEXUS Place, Space & Co (GPT) (17:15)
Law firms are not factoring in co-working providers as part of their space planning (20:10)
Deloitte is requiring its new Melbourne landlord to provide a common use function space (23:45)
The importance of brand to internalising function space (24:00)
Law firm partnership structure drives a different type of decision making to traditional corporates (24:50)
Law firms are becoming consulting firms (26:10)
Is ‘big tech’ culture impacting the style of the traditional workplace? (28:00)
Sit-stand desks need to be available to all, or not at all (31:15)
What is weWork trying to be? (33:00)
weWork's recent capital raising and valuation (33:30)
weWork's enterprise business (33:50)
weWork's use of SPVs and higher bank guarantees on leases (35:45)
weWork's potential longer term play - will it remain a lease intermediary, or become the virtual layer between landlord and tenant? (37:30)
IWG (owner of Regus) - comparison of valuations with weWork (40:20)
IWG changing its business model to align more with weWork (42:00)
Steve Urwin, the environmentalist (45:20)
Sophia Skarparis - amazing young Australian conservationist, driving the ban of plastic bags in NSW (46:50)
Dr Michael Seo of CSIRO's Graphene Membranes group - developed a carbon nanomaterial "GraphAir" (derived from simple waste oil) - a filtration membrane with potential future application in every household (47:15)
Don't offer Steve a plastic bag!! (47:50)
The benefits of reusing office fitout - the beginnings of a sequel? ;) (48:20)
Field helps owners of commercial real estate (and law firms advising them) better understand their lease portfolios, delivering analysis through our proprietary platform. Better insights, sooner - a source of truth for all stakeholders - enabling faster and lower risk transactions and better operational management. You can reach out to us here.