We often see businesses and senior leaders ‘chasing their tail’ when leasing office space, as they haphazardly chase one option after the other. This often results in wasted time, energy and cost.
Worse still, they potentially lease space that is not aligned to their actual business need or the terms they agree are commercially inept. We call these businesses ‘Option Chasers’.
Option Chasers get caught up in the hype the market often encourages and are led around the city by leasing brokers looking at buildings and spaces without any real purpose. This often means decisions on the fly, revealing too much information to the market (and undermining any commercial leverage) and a chain of miscommunication with staff and other stakeholders.
We favour a more structured procurement process that has the market ‘coming to you’. Critical to this process is a well-developed ‘brief’ linked to the business needs, clear evaluation criterion, a communication strategy to create commercial competitive tension, objective and thorough due diligence and commercially savvy negotiation and deal-making skills.
This process results in much better outcomes. If this process is well defined and managed, it has proven to exponentially save cost/improve commercial terms and reduce commercial risk. It also ensures much better strategic alignment with the business’s wider strategic intent. ‘Options Chasers’ become ‘Strategic Procures’.
