Reconfiguring the Use of Commercial Real Estate Through Web Platform

"The digital revolution is disrupting traditional business models and all organizations. It has given birth to the platformization of the economy with players such as Amazon, Alibaba, and others. SMEs are not yet ready to recognize this tectonic shift or to rethink their model to accept the advent of the platform economy. Yet Market Places - web platforms designed to connect buyers and sellers - give businesses the digital agility they need to ensure long-term survival." - Saadia Lakehal, Funding CEO of Emperia Industries Connect Inc. and moderator of the Women in Governance and Leadership Webinar.

 

by Nicolas Sacchetti

The need for rental office space has evolved. In the era of telecommuting, professionals are mobile and their time slots are changing. With this in mind, Louise Guay, CEO and creator of Montréal's *Living Lab*, is proposing an Airbnb-style setup of commercial real estate to reconfigure the use of spaces. A new way of distributing and sharing inventory using web-based office rental platforms.

 

"A Living Lab is an open innovation research method - [innovation based on sharing and collaboration] - aimed at developing new products and services. The approach promotes a process of co-creation with end users in real-world conditions and relies on an ecosystem of public-private-citizen partnerships." -Living Labs White Book

For several years, the *Living Lab of Montréal (LLM) wanted to help the City develop a sustainable mobility where the user would be at the centre of concerns. At LLM, we understood that to pull off this, we had to deal with the future of work: bringing work closer to people's living environments. "It took COVID-19 pandemic to make us realize that telecommuting is entirely feasible," says Louise Guay.

 

In this vein, the LLM had developed a partnership with the Finnish company Spacent. The goal was to « offer a platform to real estate owners and an application to users that would allow them to put into practice new uses of premises, diversify access to work spaces and pool available resources. » Thus, employers can give staff the choice of working from home or in third-party locations, while still having access to their digital workspace (hot desk).

 

Collaborative and Cooperative Platform

For Louise Guay, Quebec must find its place in the field of information technology and compete with GAFAM: « There is no reason for us not to be present. » To achieve this, she proposes the collaborative, even cooperative platform.

Louise Guay recalls that Québec has developed one of the largest cooperative platforms in the world and also a bank, namely Desjardins. "Why can't we share it?" The idea is to create value and share it. "Not like Big Tech with whom we share our resources, and who don't share their revenues," Guay is indignant. The inequality is unequivocal.

 

The CEO of Montréal's *Living Lab believes that we must rethink more social forms of the economy. She cites the example of French professor and economist Thomas Piketty, known for his fight against the socio-economic inequalities of capitalism. His book Capital in the Twenty-First Century, published in 2013 by Éditions du Seuil, focuses on the distribution of wealth. In it, « the fruit of 15 years of research », Thomas Piketty attempts to answer these questions:

« What do we really know about the evolution of wealth distribution over the long term? Does the dynamic of private capital accumulation inevitably lead to an ever-greater concentration of wealth and power in a few hands, as Marx believed in the 19th century? Or do the balancing forces of growth, competition and technical progress spontaneously lead to a reduction of inequality and harmonious stabilization in advance phases of development, as Kuznets thought in the 20th century? What do we really know about the distribution of income and wealth since the 18th century, and what lessons can we learn for the 21st century? »

Piketty's ideas have even been part of the American political debates in the Democratic camp in the 2020 elections. It must be said that in 2014, the English version Capital in the Twenty-First Century was ranked 35th out of 100 best-sellers of Amazon books. The economist's words have made their way into this society of ever-increasing inequality.

While Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren proposed, according to the French newspaper La croix on September 11, 2019, « to levy an annual tax of 2% on households with net wealth between $50 million and $1 billion », Piketty commented that no Democratic candidate went far enough: "Given the rate of growth in the number of billionaires, this is not going to be enough to curb the concentration of wealth."

According to Guay, the Scandinavian countries are also an example of a socio-economic model to consider. The Living Lab in Montréal was working with Finland and Sweden on projects to platform commercial real estate. She reminds us that the Swedish social-democratic model is one of the best in the world: « Socialism is the ability to share for more egalitarian societies while being flexible, » she defines.

Unicorns

Louise Guay, who has extensive experience with startups, comments: "Startups are a world created by white men on the West Coast who took no responsibility for the effects of what they created. There have been incredible impacts, such as video conferencing platforms, but there are difficult aspects in terms of inequality: a tiny number of people are managing colossal fortunes with incredible stock valuations."

Third Places

Third places are the ones between home and office, where people go to work. They offer places with private and lockable workspaces, workstations in a shared space, or with access to the company's digital environment (hot desk).

For entrepreneurs, the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montréal has published a directory of coworking spaces on its website. To access it, you must use the Google Chrome browser. There are some gems, depending on the region where you live. Like the project îlots d'été d'aire commune (Mtl) and Continuums (Longueuil).

It should also be noted that the political party in power, Coalition Longueuil, made a commitment to its voters in the last municipal elections to « Update the urban planning regulations in relation to home offices, particularly the issue of the certificate of authorization for the place of business required for teleworkers. »

Collective Intelligence

Louise Guay sees collective intelligence as the future of governance. The evolution of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) - very competitive, hierarchical, and elitist, to the Collective Intelligence Officer (CIO) - which is more a matter of orchestration.

Regarding female governance, she comments: "Women have the ability to manage complexity with creativity. Women tend to put others ahead, because we believe in collective intelligence."

As shared by Dr. Alexander Frech, CEO of Amiblu Group - in his article Collective Intelligence And New Ways Of Work, Forbes Media July 13, 2021: « In our complex times, it has become clear to me that the capabilities of a shared or group intelligence exceed those of its individual members. »

Louise Guay concludes her presentation with these words, "The true performance indicator (KPI) would be to be able to excel in monitoring the collective intelligence mobilization processes of the stakeholders of the innovation ecosystem in the organization."

Louise Guay passed away on September 5, 2021, four months after this Conference on Women in Innovation Ecosystem Governance. After having heard so many good things about her and witnessed my colleagues great sadness, I was able, through this article, to get a glimpse of her greatness and to realize how much this woman was ahead of her time. I am joining the 4POINT0 team in offering my condolences to all those who had the privilege of knowing this exceptional woman. Thank you Mrs. Guay for your teachings through this conference,

Nicolas Sacchetti

* Upon the death of Mrs. Guay, Claude Faribault, interim director of the LLM, I was informed that the institution has closed its doors.

This content has been updated on 2022-10-21 at 1 h 05 min.