October 2020: Lorri Rowlandson
About Lorri Rowlandson
Lorri Rowlandson is currently the Senior Vice President of Strategy and Innovation at BGIS, a leading, technically-led real estate management services company that serves over 30,000 locations globally. Lorri works with clients and the BGIS team to identify and implement valuable real estate solutions. She is a highly sought-after real estate and outsourcing industry expert and regularly participates in speaking engagements on emerging trends, innovation, and thought leadership. Lorri is a skilled executive with over 20 years of experience in strategic sourcing and corporate real estate and was recently appointed to the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) Board of Directors.
In Conversation with Lorri
Below is a transcript of the Proptech Collective spotlight series interview with Lorri Rowlandson by Alice Yun Guo and Roberta Diachok. Some questions and responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Can you tell us more about your story and path to getting to where you are today?
Well, it was definitely a curvy line, rather than a straight one. It’s very rare that you become what you said you wanted to be day one because there are always new opportunities that come up. I planned to be a teacher. I don’t tell this story very often, but that’s what I originally went to my undergrad for. I lasted one day. That being said, I am grateful for all the teachers that have gone back to school - this fall especially.
I changed my course, and after graduating, I started out at IBM. I had a great role there that allowed me a bird's eye view of a number of different industries. That’s how I was able to transition into real estate. Over the following years, I had various roles: at BMO, as a consultant, and now at BGIS. Throughout my career, I've really made an effort to make sure that I'm continuously learning - both informally and formally - so I have an advantage in whatever career path I choose.
What’s it like to work at BGIS?
I'm the Senior Vice President of Strategy and Innovation at BGIS, which is a fancy way of saying that I do a lot of advisory work for our clients and ourselves. We have a term called practical innovation towards the future, where we help our clients understand what disruptive technologies or trends are coming, and then assist them to take reasonable and implementable steps forward with this in mind. I also work with engineers because we measure everything. It has actually been a very interesting way to cultivate innovation in the company. We are able to innovate, ideate, and move what really matters forward in ways that will get approved. Our practical innovation project time horizons vary: sometimes the goals we set are within one to two fiscal years, while others are part of a longer-term roadmap for the future. Outside of this, I also frequently represent BGIS at speaking engagements in the industry on everything related to strategy and innovation.
We’d love to hear about one of your recent initiatives.
There are a few things I'm working on right now. One of them is the trend around business intelligence and analytics, and technology almost being used synonymously as innovation. I had a client that said, “we want more technology in our workplace, we want more innovation”. We took a step back and asked some questions - “Why? For what purpose? What problem are you solving?”
What's really interesting is seeing people in the industry jump towards what I call “the shiny object syndrome”, where they start with a great sounding solution and charming salespeople, try to get approvals and then are forced to go backwards to understand what problem they are actually solving. It's amazing how so many people go through the process of selecting the technology without understanding their objectives or how they're measuring success. Ideally, you want that technology to make data more readily available and add better quality to inform your decisions. That's why we have business intelligence and analytics - to help us make more informed decisions.
Ultimately, the goal is not technology. We like to ask, what do you need to help give visibility or accelerate toward your ultimate goals? Can technology get you there? If you take that approach, what you’re working on is more likely to get approved. Then it becomes a really interesting workshop, and we can provide a showcase of different technologies that are more meaningful.
Have you seen any interesting partnerships or collaborations in real estate/ technology in the industry recently?
One of the things I'm most proud of in the last six months is the amount of collaboration between companies on best practices related to COVID management and operational procedures. It was easy to take people out of the office, but it's been much more challenging to bring them back. Then there's the ebb and flows of traffic - how do you manage that? Even if you're a competitor or in the same industry, people have been much more forthcoming and willing to share playbooks and information on this topic. I think this is the first time, at least in our lifetime, that we've had such a common adversary. The other is climate change, but COVID took hold much quicker. We're not competing, we're collaborating to solve something that's bigger than any one of our companies. Our ability to rally and cooperate gives me hope that we could apply this transparency and knowledge sharing to address climate change and other issues that we're all faced with.
When we're dealing with technology, I look at the same metaphor for smart cities. Who owns the technology for a smart city? It’s not that easy. If you look at Google’s Sidewalk Labs or other organizations that have tried to masterplan with technology, there are complications with it. I think the more that we can collaborate for the sake of progress, the more I think we will move forward.
Have you learned any interesting lessons learned in the past six months ?
The first thing I think of is suddenly having to become an expert on virtual tools. I experimented with them before, but like many others, I didn't have a choice except to learn them through this. Collaborating today, you have to be engaging and you can’t demonstrate the same way that you did in a big boardroom in the past. I have been having a lot of fun with some of the plug-ins associated with our virtual tools; we use Teams but also use Zoom and GoToMeeting, depending on the client. It has been very liberating - I would say my expertise level pre-COVID would have been maybe a two or three, and now I'm probably around an eight or nine.
On a personal level, the other thing that comes to mind in the last six months has been mental health. At BGIS, we have talked a lot about wellness even prior to COVID. But, there are few organizations that talk about mental health. I'm grateful for the fact that we've taken the stigma out of this topic. We’re dealing with it in a much more sophisticated and organized way that creates less social taboo and lets us actually help our employees. The focus on mental health has been a reminder to message a colleague that you haven't heard from in a while or if there is a change in their behaviours. It’s important to reach out to them and offer some support. It doesn't have to be for a purpose; often when we schedule calls, they tend to be very utilitarian and purpose-driven. Over the last six months, we’ve been missing a lot of that social connection, and we're social creatures.
As a superhero for innovation, how do you stay up to date on the latest trends and what are you reading?
I love our industry, the people in it, and all the cool things that are coming down the pipe. There are a few spots I use for my go-to reading - I probably read at least two hours a day! I wake up at 4AM, so I do most of it before the day gets started. One of my favourite resources is LinkedIn. I follow some really incredible influencers. I am very open and willingly sharing a lot of the great insights that I come across, and it's allowed me to accumulate a wonderful following. I would say the other one is Google Alerts. My favorite magazines are Inc., Forbes, Wired and HBR. For a book recommendation, people know I'm a huge book nerd. Before I was writing a book, I was reading around a book a week. I've got a big list of books recommended by other book nerds in my backlog to either listen to or read but Banking 4.0 by Brett King talks about the disruptive technologies that will impact the banking industry. Get your seatbelt on, it’s going to be a rough ride to transition. Audiobooks are another way I like to absorb learning, because I don’t have a lot of time and it’s easier for multitasking - if I can drive somewhere and listen to a book, it turns into productivity time.
Are there any specific trends you’re excited by?
One trend in particular that I'm following right now is around the sharing of space and home, specifically home workplaces. Through COVID, some people are dying to go back to the office because their home life and their set-up aren't suitable for working productively. It could be eldercare, it could be young children and homeschooling. It could be the fact that you're in New York City, and you've got a 700 square foot apartment and a roommate. It’s started a new trend of people renting out their homes, day by day Airbnb style, to people that just want a quiet place to work. They don't have to go into the office or commute, it’s a location close by. I’ve also seen restaurants struggling, so they're trying to be creative. For example, some of them don't open until two o'clock in the afternoon, but they have WiFi, so they're creating socially distanced “touchdown” places where people could go and have a quiet place to work. I’ve realized that the workplace is truly borderless and work is what you do, not where you are. The sharing economy and how that's going to contribute to our next definition of the workplace is very interesting to me.
What do you think PropTech will look like in the next 3-5 years?
Five years is a long time in technology language, but there are two things I’m hoping to see.
I think there needs to be a level of aggregation or integration that is offered as a service. I find that a lot of occupiers are very confused. There are too many decisions and there's a lack of integrated interfaces if you buy all the solutions you need. When you do that, does that mean you have to sign into 80 different apps to access the information? It’s very siloed and hyper-siloed based on functionality. The analogy I use is that it's like buying a car, but you buy a car, one part at a time, and then you try to put it together yourself. It’s very confusing, and it's incredibly laborious. Data does and is going to come from everywhere. Sometimes you generate it, sometimes you harvest it. I think that the future is going to be owned by people that are good at aggregating data easily no matter where it comes from, not trying to own all the data.
PropTech solutions are currently more oriented towards landlords vs. occupants, which is not ideal for tenants. Tenants want a single view across all assets, regardless of who the landlord is - they need and want more ‘borderless’ technology-driven strategies, as well as consistent data. Landlords are motivated to make certain types of proptech investments and cost management is a priority, while occupants are motivated by other factors such as consistency of data by location to foster decisions, occupancy, and employee experience.
Occupiers are changing the definition of workplace – work is what you do, not where you are – and PropTech solutions that are limited to one location or one specific landlord will have limited value. Landlords think in verticals according to their assets, and occupiers think horizontally across all work locations or environments. The general challenge with the PropTech industry is that it is oriented towards landlord/asset and not enough cross-functionality to support the occupier, wherever they work. This also carries over into the investment strategy – who is willing to pay for the solutions, which also has competing interests.
Occupiers want employees to have the same technology experience and data-driven information, wherever they work. The future belongs to those that are amazing integrators of data. It’s impossible to ‘own’ all the data – not possible. We should be purpose-built for integration, wherever the data comes from.
How do you think innovations in PropTech will influence real estate moving forward?
I think innovations in technology are changing everything. I was in the midst of writing a book about how disruptive technologies will impact real estate when COVID started, then I switched gears to write a book about how COVID will change the future of work. It was actually just published this month and is called, The New Normal: How COVID-19 Has Changed The World Of Work, Forever. The next book I have coming out will specifically address how disruptive technologies are going to change everything, not just our real estate assets, but how and where we work.
⚡Your favourite quote is…
I have so many favourite quotes, probably from being a book nerd. One that I think really has a meaning related to what's happening in our world in 2020 is a quote from Winston Churchill.
“If you’re going through hell, keep going”.
If you're having difficulty, just keep going, one foot in front of the other. Eventually, you'll get out of the trough that you're in, and you'll be up on the hill again.
⚡Your favorite place to travel?
That's like asking to pick your favourite child! I love traveling. The most beautiful place is a tie between Ireland and Switzerland. I love them both, and they’re epically beautiful for different reasons.
⚡What’s the most interesting thing we couldn’t learn from your resume…
Well I've confessed to a few of them today, but I'm also a big sci-fi buff. One of my bucket list items is to go to Comic-Con one day. I love dystopian movies and science fiction - it’s interesting how you can apply the future in a dramatically different way.
⚡What is the best piece of advice you have ever received from one of your mentors?…
I was really blessed to have some amazing leaders that I reported earlier in my career. A quote that came very, very early from a wonderful mentor was, “Whatever is of passing fancy to your boss should be fascinating to you”. Bruce Whittington said this to me - I worked with him when I was at BMO. He taught me about solving your boss's problems, and how it motivates you to look upwards and outwards versus downwards at your desk. If you do that, it will help you progress through the career ladder faster by understanding what they're faced with and helping to solve some of their biggest obstacles.
⚡When we’re able to return to more normalcy from COVID, what is the first thing you will do?…
Too many. I want to see my friends again, I want to go out for dinner. I really miss the social aspect of seeing my great colleagues in person. I can't wait to be able to socially interact with them again.