This month we interview Meirion Anderson, who originally specialised in civil engineering, but, following his MBA at Imperial College, he turned his attention to workplace and change management, focusing on people and business within a building.
What is your background and experience in the property industry?
My profession is Civil Engineering with most of my experience focused on office buildings and I have been lucky enough to have worked in various places around the world. I took a year out and got an MBA from Imperial College in London and soon after realised that the building industry was too full of itself on the importance of the building rather than the people and business that occupied it. At this point I refocused on Workplace Consultancy and change management.
Can you tell us a bit about your business and what you do?
Evolve Digital Workplaces is a “traditional” Workplace Consultancy but with a digital twist – which is provided by OmniScanPro (OSP). Our tailored approach to workplace transformation combines data, insight, and experience to help organisations build environments that support their people and their goals. We empower organisations to embrace change and lead the way in the digital workplace era. OSP is a single point portal that brings together all the information real estate teams need to manage a property portfolio and support new and existing colleagues. The landing dashboard is organised into three main areas: Data, Documents and Delivery, with an additional link to Eva – your personal assistant for change and development. Scans of the buildings draw these areas together behind the dashboard, ensuring a single, consistent source of information.
Who are your typical clients and how do you market your service?
We support a range of public and private sector clients. The majority have a property portfolio and many thousand employees, but we also have clients with one lease and 250 people. Our route to market is often through repeat business, recommendation and word of mouth or when employees of existing clients move. Through the years we have undertaken networking which is probably the next level of access to new clients but this fits into the recommendations route. We are now undertaking pod casts and exhibitions together with speaking and panel events.
How did you first cross paths with Newmanor Law?
I first met Karen of Newmanor Law at Mipim over breakfast.
What are the key challenges facing the real estate sector and how are you addressing them?
- Providing the right size with the right work settings and the right flexibility to allow people to come together. This is where traditional workplace consultancy delivers
- Delivering change in a professional and regular format (digital is a significant element) that can be constantly updated – OmniScanPro is supporting change programmes
- Responding to an ever quicker changing world. New leases and better sharing
What trends do you see shaping the real estate industry in the coming years?
Allowing dynamic workplaces to be intelligently brought together