Voice of the Occupier: Shelley Boland

Hosted by Adam Hoy, President of the CoreNet UK Chapter, this episode features a fascinating conversation with Shelley Boland of Standard Chartered. Tune in to hear their thoughts on the pressing challenges facing occupiers in today's CRE landscape. 

Listen now to gain valuable insights and to stay ahead of the curve. 

#VoiceoftheOccupier #CREInsights #CoreNetGlobalUK

Thanks for listening. Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Thanks for listening. Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Transcript

 Welcome to the voice of the occupier, the podcasts from the UK chapter of cornet that dives deep into the world of commercial real estate from the perspective of those who truly inhabited.  I'm your host, Adam Hoy, and I'll bring you insightful conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and visionaries.

Shedding light on the challenges and opportunities facing occupiers today. Let's get started. 

Hi everybody. And welcome back to another episode of the voice of the occupier podcast brought to you by the UK chapter of Cornette's really, really happy to be here with Shelley Bolin today who looks after corporate real estate for standard charter. Shelley, welcome to the show. Really glad to have you today.

Thanks, Adam. And really glad to be here. We were talking a little bit pre show and, and you've had the opportunity to listen to, to some of the episodes that we've done. We've had some great guests on really, we'd like to have a, kind of an overarching conversation about what's going on in the industry.

Obviously you're in a very interesting industry in terms of kind of how things have gone with regard to, to back to the office and you know, navigating through COVID maybe to start, can you, can you give a little bit of an introduction to yourself?  Yeah, no problems. Thank you. Oh, I'll approach that two things.

For those of you on the call who aren't as familiar with standard charter bank, we're, you know, over 160 years of history and got quite a unique franchise. We're in 52 markets globally with a strong presence in Asia, Africa, Middle East, Pakistan, and then Europe and Americas. This is powered by around 90, 000 colleagues.

And we offer both retail services. So this includes a branch network. So the role of global head of corporate real estate and services that I'm in the privileged position of, we oversee a portfolio, probably around 1300 locations of which almost half of those are retail outlets. And we've got a mix of owned versus leased.

So there's some core assets in the franchise that.  we have in terms of an ownership position, but largely that's leased. And it broadly covers office, obviously retail, I just mentioned. We've got a small residential portfolio, and then we've got some sort of unique assets that sit outside of that, but that's the,  I'm based in Singapore and I head up a group of around 1600 plus  staff.

And that's everything from the standard charter real estate team, in addition to our partners of which they come from Cushman and Wakefield, Jones Lang LaSalle and Turner and Townsend. So together we're responsible for running all of that strategy around our workplace, our branch,  We're accountable for the branch transformation as we pivot to affluent. 

We are the leaders for scope one, scope two, and most of scope three in our sustainability. And clearly  we manage and deliver services every day, whether it's guest relations, security, health, and safety resilience. So it's quite a, quite a broad portfolio, which comes with lots of excitement. But. can be quite challenging at times.

Yeah. Very interesting. I think the, you know, what maybe we can talk about a little bit later is as you navigated through COVID, obviously the type of space you have in your, in your portfolio is very interesting. And I'm assuming you had to use different strategies in terms of how you navigated COVID, but maybe we could get to that in a bit.

So really just understanding, obviously we are post COVID. I think there's There's been a lot of talk of things like back to office in the last couple of years. I think, you know, we, we hear about, and we talk about a lot at Cornet and other industry events around flight to quality and a lot of corporations and companies are really looking at ensuring that they're in quality office space, you know, the, the total amount of space that, that they're in might be going down, might be different for some, but I think we're seeing that a lot.

But the quality of space that, that, that companies have is certainly going up. So workplace experience, employee experience, wellness, I think these are all things that, that are, that are, you know, we're focusing on a lot. I'd say, you know, given that portfolio and a really big portfolio and a big remit that you just kind of took us through, can you talk a little bit about some of the biggest challenges that you believe occupiers are facing right now?

Yeah, look, good question. And I think if I look ahead around the future of work and how we're thinking about strategic location the design of our facilities and that purpose of the office. I think of three things really at the moment that, that are Both challenge and opportunity. The first one being, you know, the efficiency of our operating costs.

I mean, clearly there is a drive to lower occupancy costs, but  not at the expense of creating a experience for our colleagues and clients that really meets their expectation and showcases the brand and the strategy for the organization.  I think the second big one is the You know, the attraction and retention of, of talent.

And I think of this in two ways.  If I think about office portfolio, I'm, I'm looking at colleagues and how do I in create an environment that's part of the employee value proposition, and it allows the business to expand and reach that talent that we want to tap into.  The second lens though, there is I want to attract.

And retain customers. You know, we offer a number of retail services.  So again, we need to be part of a sales and servicing model through our retail outlets that complements our drive  to grow that affluent business. So I really need to work with the teams to ensure we've got  And a, and a tractor in terms of our square foot services, both through a colleague, but also a customer lens. 

And the third one  is really the alignment to.  Our ESG objectives.  I think that for us, you know, we've made a very public commitment that by the end of 2025, every square foot in our portfolio will be in a net zero position.  And we are absolutely on track for that.  But ESG is more than just environment. So I think for  many of the occupiers, we're trying to see how we can better align to these objectives. 

And in some cases, We may be prepared to pay for that privilege  where locations will deliver those green credentials that we are seeing are becoming more So important  to our brand,  our colleague and our customers expectations.  Very interesting. I think and really appreciate the lens that you're looking through in terms of the different types of space that you have and the different drivers that you kind of took us through attracting, retaining talent in more of the office portfolio, attracting customers in the retail portfolio, just maybe a follow up on that one in terms of.

Looking at your talents and, and how a company like yours would, would recruit looking at your objective of the different portfolio that you, you know, space types in your portfolio. Do you have to go after different? You know, sources of talent, right? So looking at looking after a retail site versus an office site do you see comparable skills across that?

Or have you had to look through the lens of, you know, how are you recruiting people into your organization to, to be able to hit some of these objectives that you, that you've laid out? Yeah, look, it's a good question. I think if, if anyone looks at the, the strategy around. Standard charter. It's very clear that we play in, in two key areas.

We want to be the cross border corporate investment bank of choice.  So all roads lead back to these two objectives in terms of  talent that we bring into the organization.  And then secondly, Customers that I look to work with  to your first point. I think we are looking at more of a skills based approach.

If I look at the talent we're bringing on, I mean, AI has been a huge enabler, but also a disruptor in our pursuit of talent. And so we are looking at. more of a skills based economy rather than job roles to ensure that we've got a future fit workforce that can  really support those aspirations around a cross border and affluent business. 

Now what that means from a real estate and services perspective is in partnership with HR,  I really need to create an environment  that brings that experience to life. where we're bringing in different skills to enable those groups to lead businesses in the most productive way that they can.  So it has meant that the design of the office, the purpose of the office, the reason for going for to the office has changed.

Yeah, that makes sense. I think, you know, one of the things that we talk a lot about at Cornet and other industry organizations is looking at the,  the, the proposition to potential people for coming into our industry and, you know, the type of careers and the type of experiences they can have in it, it sounds like, you know, at a company like yours in an industry like yours, it's, it's an interest. 

opportunity for them, right? Because they not only get to look after  the, the offices, but they get to look after some of the, some of the, you know, profit driving spaces that you're creating, which I think is, which I think is extremely interesting. Maybe picking up on on some of the sustainability bits that you talked about.

Cause I think there's a lot of us out there and a lot of occupiers listening that definitely have some of those targets 2025 right around the corner for sure. So I'm sure your team is very focused on, on hitting those targets. And it's very interesting that, that you mentioned that the team is involved in helping deliver scope three.

I think, you know, scope one and two, you know, relatively easy for us. To, to calculate and, and to kind of go after scope three, I think for a lot of us has been more of a challenge in terms of understanding, you know, exactly what our scope three is, then working with either our suppliers or, you know, customers in terms of looking at how we reduce it, can you just maybe expand a little bit, if you could, on kind of what your team's role is.

in, you know, specifically scope three, if you could talk about it, but just in ESG, how, how has your team working with the broader company in terms of looking after targets and, and, and, and executing on those? Yeah. Thanks for that. I mean I'm sure a number of the listeners on the call would work across You know, cross collaboration with their business as well as supply chain, as well as, you know, a number of the other functions in partnership to, to deliver these accountabilities.

But if I think of our team in particular clearly the. As you say, the scope one and scope two are more obvious than than others, and this is where we work in partnership with our supply chain team, our partners, really, to make sure  that we are not only looking at those emissions and impact in terms of the, Areas we control, but I'm also looking for, you know, the partners that I work with and that we've got, you know, the.

the  activity in place to offset those indirect admissions. So  they're, they're probably two areas that scope one and two are more influential.  If I think of scope three,  I think for, Here we've lent in on this where we're trying to impact the indirect upstream downstream emissions and the categories that I'd look at there that we are taking a lead position on is data centers waste, especially emissions from the disposal and treatment of all streams of waste.

We're looking at employee commuting  and then obviously I'm looking at those. Emissions from our least premises,  but our team has taken a very active position in making sure that we are aware and minimizing that indirect upstream are a little broader in nature. And they maybe things that less easy to define  if I think you know, specifically where we're, Taking various actions around those emissions, clearly the optimization of your portfolio by retiring unused or inefficient space is an obvious one, but I don't want to sort of shrink to greatness.

I don't want us to meet our environmental targets because I'm  optimizing a portfolio. You want to make sure this is, you know, truly here for good.  So this is where we make sure we're focused on that asset replacement strategy. We're simplifying our technology estate. You know we're proactively ensuring a proportion of our electricity usage comes from renewable sources  and where need we're investing in you know offsets but primarily we focus on energy attribute certificates rather than carbon offsets because we really want to make sure that we try and do this in the right way and over time we'd like to reduce the reliance on purchasing of those EACs.

But we, it, the reality is in some markets, we do need to use these mechanisms at the moment to close the gap.  Yeah, that makes sense. And I wrote down one of the terms shrink to greatness. I haven't heard that before, but it's interesting. I, I agree with you. I think, you know, obviously, we're all doing the right thing with regard to our portfolio.

And if we have space that we don't need, we take that space out. But for sure, that shouldn't be, you know, the major lever that we use to hit our ESG. So extremely interesting. And I think it's really great to hear you know, a group like yours as involved in The, the setting of targets and the execution of targets.

I think that's something, if we look at the, you know, the industry we're in, we, we play a huge role in, in achieving these targets, not only for our companies, but you know, the greater good in terms of you know, the built environment and the effect the built environment has on carbon emissions across the world.

So it's really important that we all kind of step up and, and do our, and play our role. So it's great to hear that your group is as involved. One of the things that you mentioned in your intro and you've kind of spoken a little bit about it through your, through, through your, your conversation is, you know, you introduced your group and you included the partners that you work with, the CNW and JLL among others.

And I, I do the same when I introduce kind of my role in what I do, cause they're really a part of the team, right? There's no separation between. An internal team member and a partner because at the end of the day in our, in our, in our space, we're here to, to provide services. And we do that through you know, quote unquote, direct employees and our partners.

So very interesting that you kind of positioned that way, I think from a partnership perspective. perspective we're not going to succeed without having great partners around us. I'm just wondering in your opinion has that changed over time? You know you know, you go back 10 years in the role that the, the, you know, the service provider played within our, you know, with our type of groups, has that evolved at all in your opinion?

Or, you know, in my opinion, I think we've, we, we see that partnership becoming closer and closer over the years, but really interested in, in the role that. your service provider partners play in the objectives that you're trying to hit and how that may have evolved in recent years. Yeah, look, good question.

And I'm quite deliberate and standard charter is quite deliberate when we use the word partnerships. I don't use vendor. I don't use supplier. I don't use outsourced. I use partnerships. And if I look at the strategic priorities that our team needs to deliver, which is around transforming, transforming that office network, you know, really driving that affluent branch network.

We just talked about. You know, delivery of sustainability across our footprint and that delivering every day.  One of the key enablers to that is partnerships.  And that is not only the operational delivery and the execution on the ground, but it's the industry expertise that they bring to the discussion.

It's the challenge around our thinking. It's the helping us understand what our peers are doing. It's providing, you know, resourcing that otherwise I wouldn't have access to. So I think that the way that Standard Charter has approached is that these partnerships are integrated. I have those account directors of the partnership sit on my global management team. 

They interact directly with customers  and we try and ensure that it is a one corporate real estate and services experience so that regardless of what t shirt you wear,  you're actually all  working towards The group's goal, which is clearly best in class customer experience, position ourselves as an employer of choice and clearly a commercial outcome in terms of return on tangible equity to our shareholders. 

I think you're right in terms of has that evolved. I mean, this is. It's sort of my second time around doing major global transitions with partners and the conversations we were having,  you know, 10 plus years ago are very different. My KPIs are exactly the same as the leaders on the account for Cushmans, JLL and Turner and Townsend.

We have shared objectives. We have a one team approach, which is why I talk about 1600 plus in my team, and we are the leaders around us, a  group of people that is 10, 000 plus if I, if I think of that broader supply chain,  but they are so integral to your point, Adam, they are the front door to the organization. 

Most people will form a view on the brand and the experience of standard charter.  And the first person they're likely to meet is someone from corporate real estate and services. And in actual fact, the first person they're likely to meet is somebody that is a partner.  So if I don't have that same ethos, that same culture, that same drive for the strategic outcomes,  then clearly that partnership won't work. 

is not going to be an enabler to our success, which is why that integration for me is key  and that we have a shared objectives to deliver for the overall franchise.  Yeah. Very interesting. I think shared objectives and ensuring that one term one team ethos is, is so important. And, and I, I definitely like the the reference to the shirts, right?

So I, I, I've definitely seen the same over the years in terms of, you know, people used to seem that if they had a different shirt on, they, they worked in a different way. But I think that the companies that are really, you know, doing well in this space, you know, build that one team. So, so very interesting.

One of the things that I've noticed over the past couple of years, and, you know, just listening to kind of you take us through your story, there's definitely a lot that is coming on our plates in terms of different services and different expectations from internal clients, maybe external clients as well.

And what I hear a lot in. Speaking with people is that teams tend to get overwhelmed, right? So I think we, we lead teams that, that want to delight our customers and it's hard for them to say no to to people when they come and they ask for things. And one of the things that I've seen. You know, I've, I've seen myself get involved in his conversations around, okay, what do we really want to be good at as a corporate real estate team?

And what do we need to kind of put behind us and, and almost stop doing as, you know, we, we get limited on resources, whether that's money, time. People, et cetera. So just wondering your opinion you know, what, what types of things over the years or recently, if you'd like have you had to stop doing in order to focus on things that add more value to your enterprise?

Yeah. Look, Adam, it's a great question. I'm actually in my, in Singapore this week with my top leadership team answering that exact question. Because we're very good at experimenting, trying new things and, and saying yes, but we often do it at the, at the expense of, of, you know, not taking anything away that, that isn't meaningful.

I, I'd approach it in two things. When I looked at setting the 2. 0 strategy for when I took on the global role, it was a very deliberate, Strategy that anchored back to those three objectives for the bank, which as mentioned was the best in class customer experience. We want to be employer of choice and we've got the commercial outcomes in terms of return on tangible equity. 

Underpinning all that is four key priorities. And, and that relates to that office branch sustainability and delivery every day.  And then to do that, I'm going to unlock that through five key enablers. And that's really through driving portfolio performance,  investing in a  digital and data experience, clearly stakeholder engagement is paramount,  our people and culture and ways of working, and as mentioned the partnerships. 

So if you ask someone in Standard Charter CREST team, Corporate Real Estate Services team, they will tell you  the strategy equals three, four, five,  three business outcomes, four CREST priorities, and five enablers.  So to answer your question around when it can get super overwhelming and You, you've got a client interaction that, that's really challenging. 

My question to the team is if you cannot connect your activity back to the 3, 4, 5, then you have to ask yourself why.  And so a good example recently is we had been looking at Running a number of surveys across our office to try and improve that experience.  Almost 80 plus percent of the portfolio was at a You know, platinum, platinum plus level. 

So this year, instead of running it across office,  we've put that energy into branch. I want to know what the experience is for our colleagues in our branch, for our clients and how they feel about how productive that environment is and how proud they are to walk in there every day.  So instead of adding to the team by doing branch and office,  We took a pass this year on office because we feel like we've got enough knowledge to continue to maintain and improve.

But I put that energy into branch because it's really important we understand what an affluent experience is going to be to achieve those goals for the bank.  It's not easy,  but it's worth it. The team really asked themselves  about the 3, 4, 5 and, and challenged themselves, is this the best use of the time? 

Now, it doesn't mean you don't experiment, you know, there's absolutely capacity there to experiment with new things, but it does mean you need to be ruthless in prioritization,  given scarce resources, you know, time. investment people. So that's, that's the way we've approached it. And, and I would arguably say so far it's allowed us to be, you know, really high performing function as with two years into our three year plan.

Very interesting. I think the, the key there is, you know, is, you know, simplicity in terms of having the team understand what they're there to do every day. And if they have that, you know, the three, four or five that you mentioned in terms of what they could come back to and make sure that what they're doing is in line with that.

I think that's, that's provides for an easy conversation with the team and something to focus them on, which is great. And, and very interesting to hear about the focus on Branches you know, we haven't talked about this, but, but standard charter definitely is a leader when you look at leaseman scores, you know, the standard charter record is phenomenal.

You know, we had a, a platinum plus building come on and looked at the, the rankings and it's dominated by standard charter. So congrats on, on the types of space that you're putting on.  Oh, I thank you. We're very proud of that. I suppose that's where we're pushing leasemen. We're doing an experiment and say, can we get that, you know, how do we develop something that helps me understand that pride and productivity when I build the retail outlets, how do I attract,  you know, customers to that space?

So watch this space. We will say, it could be a great idea or it could be, it could be something that's just a quick experiment. Yeah, that's, that should be interesting. Okay. Shelly, listen really appreciate having you on. One last question for you. I think the one of the things that CoreNet prides itself on is really providing space for young leaders to come in, learn the industry, grow, network, et cetera and you know, if you look at seasoned veterans like yourself in terms of The industry very vital part of the organization to make sure that these younger folks coming in can, can look to people, learn from them, et cetera.

So if you had the opportunity to talk to a young leader, somebody that's just come into the profession and you were talking up. the corporate real estate profession to them. Can you just give me a little bit about, you know, an elevator pitch, if you will, to somebody younger coming into the industry on the benefits of a, of a career in corporate real estate?

Yeah, look, good, good advice. And I must admit, Cornett's been, you know, somewhere that I've. I've got a lot of mentor guidance and sponsorship over the years. So for those of you who don't know my background, I didn't actually start in the real estate space. So it's sort of something I've evolved into, but, but two things I would think about as a young professional, just starting the career. 

If you love solving problems, if you're an experienced creator and you're a people centric mindset, a bias for action, then corporate real estate, is a fantastic  area and specialism to get involved in.  You are working, as I said, with colleagues, clients, and broader communities to really bring to life a business strategy through the physical space,  the services you provide and the partnerships you bring.

to the franchise. So for me, those things really excite me when I think of the opportunity for a real estate leader.  I think the other part that I really valued was I started my career in, in the front office for want of a better term, retail banking, investment banking, and to be able to walk in the shoes,  And be on that front line, be a teller, work on an M& A deal.

You know, be the COO of a mortgages operation.  When I then moved into corporate services and business services, real estate type function, it gave me such a better appreciation  for the impact I could make and the environments I could create. Because I understood from experience of being a client.  So I would also encourage our young professionals out there, if there is an opportunity for you to spend time, whichever customer you service, whether it's financial services, technology, etc.

I would really encourage you to try and walk in those shoes because it would just give you far more broader and diverse thinking to ensure that what you're creating are products and services that meet and exceed those expectations.  So those would be two two things that I thought would give you a steer if you were just starting out.

So best of luck to our young leaders who are listening today and happy to always help if I can.  Yeah, fantastic advice. I agree. I think the, the ability to solve problems, learning the company from the inside out, I think a really great value proposition in terms of career. Shelly thank you again for joining us today.

Really enjoyed the conversation. I think our listeners are going to learn a lot from, from what you were sharing. So thank you for being so open in the conversation today. I think I think the listeners will get a lot out of it. Appreciate your time today. My absolute pleasure. An amazing idea from the UK chapter to host these podcasts.

I, even though I'm sitting in Asia, I love to listen to them and get some really great advice. So, so thanks for having me on Adam. Yeah, thank you. And thanks to everybody that's listening today. Really happy to be able to bring another episode of voice, the occupier and we'll be back with you again soon.

Thank you.