Good to be back - and it is not 2030... (Look ma - I did not wait for another decade to write) - will give the virus credit for my push and some audience feedback.
So let's look at the impact Mr. Covid (guess it now deserves it) has on various human life experiences..begin with a day in our lives.. buying produce.. #amzn says it increased grocery delivery capacity by 60% in Q1 of 2020.. and they are probably less than a 5th (about 500) of the grocery world leader Kroger (Over 2700 stores) - so imagine the thrust on grocery delivery - America was used only to Pizza delivery - the culture of let me go and grab my gallon of milk model has significantly changed to an enhanced e-Com model that was in the shadows and for those who were not ready will be left behind - so the quintessential question - had I been writing this in 2030 - would we have still had 2700 Krogers and an average of 160,000 sq feet a pop or will there be the average size of 400,000 to a million sq ft fulfillment centers like that of amazon?
I gave you all that to prove that there is empirical evidence if you just scratch the surface - now let's look at the future impact this has on retail and the collateral impact on the real estate industry...rather how this would change. Here I would like to add the now very familiar WFH (work from home) - which has proven productivity merits globally and TCS has decided to continue this as their business model for the future by announcing 25/25 - (Aiyoo - English and Cricket - and Indian genes - note to self for another time) means that 75 % of the global staff of almost half a million will now continue to work from home and by 2025, there will be only 25% who will be going to an office - this is huge - think of the real estate cost reduction, the number of buses and cars that will be off the roads. Think of the internet service providers becoming more robust a build more redundancies, think of the security aspects that the IT folks who read this would know- the allied industries that would get benefitted - now think of the human aspect - if work can be done from home I am suspecting that there would be more bonhomie between the spouses or will they be fed up with each other? Maybe there will be more children (legitimate) and maybe for all we know will this drive us back to the old joint families of the past as work can be delivered from anywhere - so the pressure on the city infrastructure would come down?
Then comes the question of what happens to the office space - here is where the temp office suppliers - the #weworks, #regus, and their ilk should grow - corporates should hand over the leases to these entities and ask them to run the offices - as offices in the future would have to be enabled with airport-like security for health - temp scan, biometric scan and more - all non-invasive - so this should put the #clearme into the same league as Facebook and amazon ...
Now (for the future)... how many of you are ready to go back to the theaters to watch blockbuster movies - like pre-COVID ? have you given a thought about drive-in movies? from the world where I come from, the drive-in movie was a real experience - first-day blockbuster release, food served car side.. remember eating the cold and soggy masala crepes due to the evening breeze.. but what I learned about drive-ins stateside were more .. ahem.. paradise for uncontrolled hormones obviously they did not come to watch the re-run of the re-runs that were being shown. there is a lot more that is between the ears from where this came.. wait and watch...
So let's look at the impact Mr. Covid (guess it now deserves it) has on various human life experiences..begin with a day in our lives.. buying produce.. #amzn says it increased grocery delivery capacity by 60% in Q1 of 2020.. and they are probably less than a 5th (about 500) of the grocery world leader Kroger (Over 2700 stores) - so imagine the thrust on grocery delivery - America was used only to Pizza delivery - the culture of let me go and grab my gallon of milk model has significantly changed to an enhanced e-Com model that was in the shadows and for those who were not ready will be left behind - so the quintessential question - had I been writing this in 2030 - would we have still had 2700 Krogers and an average of 160,000 sq feet a pop or will there be the average size of 400,000 to a million sq ft fulfillment centers like that of amazon?
I gave you all that to prove that there is empirical evidence if you just scratch the surface - now let's look at the future impact this has on retail and the collateral impact on the real estate industry...rather how this would change. Here I would like to add the now very familiar WFH (work from home) - which has proven productivity merits globally and TCS has decided to continue this as their business model for the future by announcing 25/25 - (Aiyoo - English and Cricket - and Indian genes - note to self for another time) means that 75 % of the global staff of almost half a million will now continue to work from home and by 2025, there will be only 25% who will be going to an office - this is huge - think of the real estate cost reduction, the number of buses and cars that will be off the roads. Think of the internet service providers becoming more robust a build more redundancies, think of the security aspects that the IT folks who read this would know- the allied industries that would get benefitted - now think of the human aspect - if work can be done from home I am suspecting that there would be more bonhomie between the spouses or will they be fed up with each other? Maybe there will be more children (legitimate) and maybe for all we know will this drive us back to the old joint families of the past as work can be delivered from anywhere - so the pressure on the city infrastructure would come down?
Then comes the question of what happens to the office space - here is where the temp office suppliers - the #weworks, #regus, and their ilk should grow - corporates should hand over the leases to these entities and ask them to run the offices - as offices in the future would have to be enabled with airport-like security for health - temp scan, biometric scan and more - all non-invasive - so this should put the #clearme into the same league as Facebook and amazon ...
Now (for the future)... how many of you are ready to go back to the theaters to watch blockbuster movies - like pre-COVID ? have you given a thought about drive-in movies? from the world where I come from, the drive-in movie was a real experience - first-day blockbuster release, food served car side.. remember eating the cold and soggy masala crepes due to the evening breeze.. but what I learned about drive-ins stateside were more .. ahem.. paradise for uncontrolled hormones obviously they did not come to watch the re-run of the re-runs that were being shown. there is a lot more that is between the ears from where this came.. wait and watch...
