The office of the future is like a hotel

“Hey Jelle!” says an enthusiastic voice over the phone. “Yes, I’m almost there. Let’s meet in the coffee corner at Strijp-T”. For our third conversation, we had the opportunity to sit down with Boudie Hoogedeure, a man who is all about nurturing personal relationships and initiating new things: from being one of the initiators of a mortgage shop, to turning old school buildings into social incubators. This last experience got Boudie involved in the real estate scene.” In 2014, Boudie joined GEVA Vastgoed, a family-owned commercial real estate business located in Eindhoven. Their properties, ranging from logistical warehouses towards complete business parks, are located all over the Netherlands.

GEVA Vastgoed has a strong belief in a long term vision and never sell their properties. “Being in it for the long term requires a different approach compared to other project developers who want to earn back their investment in a few years. You need to make sure your properties are long-lasting and have low maintenance costs. One of the ways to achieve this is by investing more upfront. Take a production facility with floor heating for example, these are big investments upfront, but result in lower energy bills and a higher rent due to increased comfort. This is the kind of long-term thinking that we do; nowadays, that’s called innovation, but we just used to call it grandpops wisdom.”

Another aspect of this long term vision is thinking along with the business occupying the building. “We see a building as a tailored suit. It’s the skin around the process of the company that’s in it. This means that if the company inside the building grows, the tailored suit needs to be adjusted to grow along. To do so, we make sure that the building has a proper foundation, and we usually buy the land surrounding the building, so we can extend the building, put more floors on top of it or completely rebuild the whole building for a different purpose.” Because at the end, Boudie Says, “as a family-owned business we do it for the next generation.”

We ask Boudie what changes he’s seen in the commercial real estate industry up until now: “What you’ve seen in the past, and especially in times of economic prosperity, is developing based on supply. A project developer sees a good location, constructs a building there, and inevitably the customers will come. In the past, enormous buildings (i.e. logistical warehouses or giant offices) were built before someone actually bought or rented the place.”

“However, this is a risky approach and doesn’t suit current times.” Boudie says. “Today, the industry has become much more demand-driven, which requires a different approach in commercial real estate development. This change brings up new questions to meet these demands: What do people actually need? What are their wishes? Does somebody want to have a special view over the water? Or be in a green environment near a train station? If that holds true, we need to build something in these locations.”

Locations have always been an important part of commercial real estate, and there is a strategic reason for that which has to do with credibility. “If you visit an accounting firm located in a pristine office at the Amsterdam Zuidas, it’s redundant to ask them for a reference on how good they actually are. In other words, offices are a business card for the company.”

“In Eindhoven, we got a lot of requests from business owners if we had properties on Strijp-S (see grey box to learn more about Strijp). Then, the opportunity of the nearby Strijp-T came about which, with a train station and park nearby, is a perfect location”, Boudie says. “Historically, our company had only constructed single properties, never redeveloped entire industrial areas but this was such a great opportunity that we thought: we don’t know exactly what we are going to do, but this must turn out to be a success!”

“At Strijp-T, we aimed to develop an environment not only focussing on the wishes of the client and the actual floor they rent, but to look more holistically and involve their employees as well. We wanted to develop a place where employees would love to go.”

There is a strategic reason to listen to employees, being the battle for talent. How do you attract and keep good employees? These questions have become increasingly important for business owners to look at. “I believe that an inspirational environment is key, a place where people would love to work. Not a suspended ceiling with fluorescent lights far away from town.”

In this new employee-centered paradigm, we ask Boudie how you find out what employees want. “First, we carefully watch trends in the industry, and second, we simply talk and listen to the employees,” Boudie says. “I constantly use informal meetings to listen to what the employees have to say. This is why we added table tennis tables in the office, a jeux-de-boules court to the rooftop, and benches in the garden for people to have walk ‘n talk meetings. It’s an active process to engage with employees and listen to their wishes, and if we get a request, we just do it.”

After talking about creating offices where people love to go to, we can’t help but ask how Boudie has experienced the last year, where working from home has been the imposed way of working. “The coronavirus has certainly sped up certain trends in our way of working, but I don’t believe it has introduced any new or unexpected ones” Boudie explains. “Already before 2020, we saw that working from home became easier and more acceptable to do, this year only forced us to immensely accelerate that trend.” However, Boudie is quick to add that he doesn’t think that we’ll never go to the office again after we return to normal life: “I believe in the combination of working from home and at the office. Although this year has proven that a lot of activities can actually be done remotely perfectly fine, people still want to come to the office to have meetings, meet new people, and to be inspired.”

Because of this, the function of offices will change. This also means that the layout, facilities and looks of the office are going to need to change accordingly. “You need to get rid of the cubicles, dreary fluorescent lights, and horrible coffee machines. If people come to the office to meet new people and be inspired, you need to create an atmosphere that invites people to do so.” Boudie says, referring to the tennis tables, jeux-de-boules courts and gardens mentioned earlier. “The office of the future is more like a hotel” he continues, “there’s on-demand facilities like meeting rooms, lobbies, workplaces, and even a restaurant and a gym.”

The combination of working from home and going to the office is also one of the reasons why boundaries between private and professional life are fading, Boudie explains. “The downside of work is that it costs so much time” he says, jokingly “so why not make it as fun as possible and make it feel like a second home? Suppose I really need to be in the office on a Sunday, why not set up a Playstation in the lobby so I can bring my kids? You’ll almost forget you’re in a corporate environment, because it’s just fun there.”

Boudie adds that this way, you can also let go of traditional working hours. “Let’s face it, some of us are complete early birds and others don’t really come into their own until after dinner; let’s not tell them both to work from nine to five. An office should be accessible 24/7 like a hotel, facilitating everyone in their strengths and needs.”

We always ask our interlocutors if they have any tips for upcoming young professionals, this time was no exception. “My biggest advice to younger generations would be to get out from behind your laptop and phone, and talk to people in person!” he replies. “So much is lost in an e-mail or a text; you don’t get the emotional nuances of a real conversation, there’s lots of uncertainty whether you truly understand each other, and you’re not building the same relationship in a way that you would in person.” In his opinion, getting to know each other personally and building these relationships is the foundation of doing business. “Emailing your colleagues should be prohibited, go talk to them!”

On top of that, Boudie adds that reaching out in person has much more impact than an e-mail and leaves longer-lasting impressions. He uses the example of opening a restaurant or gym in an office building: “Instead of asking for a mailing list and sending everyone a digital coupon, walk into their office and look people in the eye while you offer them a free coffee or introductory yoga lesson downstairs, that’s how you get people to like you and your business!”