Steve J.’s Post

A huge announcement for team Desana: Introducing FlexPay! 💥 When it comes to how global companies pay for and manage real estate, this is a game-changing product. Why? 1. Workforces are no longer centralised and companies are changing how they use traditional office space, forever. 2. Traditional leased offices alone simply can't serve this new model, leading to historically low and lumpy office space utilisation. 3. Companies are becoming more financially disciplined - burning money on office space that’s barely used can't be tolerated. As a result, employers worldwide are procuring workspace solutions from thousands of vendors to accommodate up to 80% of workers that don't / can't regularly utilise their own offices. At scale, procuring, paying and managing hundreds of separate flexible workspace agreements, across multiple countries, is massively inefficient and unmanageable. FlexPay is here to fix that 🚀 If you’d like to hear more about why we've launched FlexPay then join our exclusive webinar on the 3rd April (5pm GMT / 9am PST) with Desana CEO & Co-Founder Michael Cockburn and Rob Sadow, CEO & CO-Founder at Scoop and creator of the renowned Flex Index. Links in comments ⬇️

I'm going to change how you think about your company culture. Here's three core things I've learned from helping to build a global team ⬇️ 1️⃣ First up; it's culture*s*: Each team has its own. Each culture will be made up of rituals, in-jokes, specific ways of working etc etc. Each will be quite unique. So, unless you're a business of <20 people, company culture is likely going to be defined by the sum of multiple cultures across the business. A lot of companies overlook that, which means some team cultures can be suffering, even if it feels like overall company culture is great. 2️⃣ Founders don't own culture: If culture was a tree, your founders planted the seed. The seed defines the genetic makeup of the tree; willow, larch, ginkgo... But, once the seed is planted, a whole host of variable conditions define how the tree grows. Sure, your founders should have a hand in giving culture it's best chance of thriving, but ultimately it's you and your team that defines whether your culture ends up a jacaranda in full bloom or a withering "snag" (had to Google that one). As an individual, you have huge influence over your companies culture, and the right culture for you should thrive more because of your ability to grow as an individual within it. 3️⃣ Remote doesn't mean "removed" Remove the office; remove your culture. That seems to be the sentiment of some companies. Desana is a fully remote company. Despite that, we've had folk joining from office-based cultures saying that ours is the best culture they've been part of. How? Purposeful recruitment coupled with facilitating meaningful interactions regularly. We work hard to constantly fine-tune our recruitment process; our goal is to become operationally world-class at finding the best humans for each role and for their value add (note: not "fit") to both team and company culture. We also have an amazing social committee that empowers Desanians to get together frequently, both online and in real life. As part of that, we run two offsites a year. Each lasts a week and is a mixture of socialising, events, alignment, activities, good food and more socialising. But, delivered well, people in remote cultures should arrive at in person events saying "It's weird because I feel like I already know you really well". ------- Check out our December offsite in the vid below and throw any observations you've had into the comments below ⬇️ #culture #bestcompanies #globalgrowth

What a start to the year it's been at Desana! In a few weeks we've already: 1. Launched our 67th country (Morocco) and our 68th (to be revealed) 2. Launched a brand new Event Space offering that enables people all over the world to easily book spaces for off-sites, local meet-ups, and company events 3. Welcomed more people to Team Desana including the most excellent Jamie Lee as our Head of Account management (and we've gone live with a number of new roles that we're hiring for) 4. Onboarded a number of new customers (some very well known brands based in San Francisco; more to come 😏) 5. Onboarded 42 EXPANSIVE locations across the US that can be booked today! I ended 2023 pretty seriously ill and had to take some time out to recover. Coming back in 2024 with so many massive things going on is a HUGE testament to the power of team Desana! Roll on the rest of 2024 🤘🏻

A couple of weeks ago, Desana was mentioned on BBC News 😮 Dougal Shaw's brilliant piece suggests "Work Near Home" as a sensible middle-ground to "The Office" or "Work from Home" and talks about why: 🚉 2-hour commutes and, 🤪 Fraught distractions while home working in a small flat Aren't exactly productive. And it's true; neither are particularly optimal for *everyone*. That's why we care about companies having "Agile" workspace strategies. Agile enables employers to transition to an ecosystem of more fluidly used solutions across: 🏢 Flagship (HQ) commitments (reduced number of desks etc) 🛰️ Shorter leases at smaller satellite sites (WNH) 💻 Dedicated flexible workspace (hot desks etc) (WNH) 📆 On-demand workspace, where and when needed (WNH) 🏡 Work from home Desana is taking a big swing at addressing the challenges companies are facing as they move towards a more decentralised models for hiring - as driven by the needs of their people. Our big focus is on the "Workspace for decentrailised workforces" problem, where we're giving employees from some of the word's largest companies: 1. Access to the best flexible workspace brands 2. Data to determine where and when people are working 3. The ability for companies to optimally contract with providers based on data 4. The ability to evolve workspace strategies around the needs of business, people and the planet. Thanks a mil for including us alongside the excellent article along with Arc Club, Oru, and Patch, Dougal! Link: below #worknearhome #remotework #wework

Do you think a 15 year old today expects to be commuting to "the office" in 10 years? New generations entering the workforce will want options. That's my bet. "On-demand" is becoming the default for nearly every part of our lives. Why should work be different? And why would future generations expect anything less? Work from anywhere; that's where I'd place my bet. What do you think upcoming generations will expect? #futureofwork #futureleaders #genz

NYC office occupancy is at 48% right now. In San Francisco, more than 30M square feet of space is available for lease. CRE giant, Blackstone, defaulted on a $308M office building. This ⬆️ is according to a brilliant recent post by Joseph Woodbury. Conversely there's a lot of news in the media about Return to Office. Problem solved? Frankly; no. No matter what we hear in the media, the problem's bigger that it may seem. The office space industry is valued at more than four times the total market cap of gold - a bunch of that value is stored in your pension. And, although there's news of aggregate vacancies of up to 50% in major cities, at Desana, we're hearing of buildings with up *96%* vacancy all over the world. That's only 40 desks occupied for every 1,000. People fundamentally don't want to be in "the office" all the time. That's pretty well understood. We're never going back to 2019 levels. Therefore, how we use buildings needs a radical rethink or, boom! $1.2 trillion CRE capital deployment into personal pensions very quickly becomes... well... an issue for a lot of people. We're working to scale a solution. It won't be the only one, but it's something. We already support companies like Dropbox, Nike, Github, Microsoft, Sonos, Elastic (and loads of others) to: - Transition to an ecosystem of more efficiently used workspace solutions. - Move to smaller, more purposeful footprints. - Make data-driven workplace decisions. - Achieve higher utilization rates. - Offer a better employee experience. - Save 60%-90% on real estate overhead. That means: - More efficiently used buildings. - A redistribution of occupancy. - More bums on seats across a more distributed portfolio. All these things also ladder up to work place experiences that are better for people, businesses and the planet. More efficiently used buildings AND a better workplace experience. Do you agree that's a good thing? #commercialrealestate #economynews #workfromanywhere

When we first started Desana, I never imagined we'd be launching in Rwanda... but we just have 🎉🎉 Here 10 other amazing places I never dreamed we'd be operating in: 🇦🇷 Argentina 🇧🇭 Bahrain 🇪🇪 Estonia 🇮🇸 Iceland 🇯🇵 Japan 🇲🇰 North Macedonia 🇲🇾 Malaysia 🇲🇽 Mexico 🇻🇳 Vietnam 🇿🇲 Zambia Launching in Rwanda takes us to 902 cities across 68 countries worldwide. That's 902 cities with thousands of workspaces to choose from. I'm so proud of Team Desana for making this all happen. Next stop: 1,000+ cities across 100+ countries 🚀 #international #rwanda #hybridwork

If your employer wants you to commute, should they compensate you for your time? Or would you value something more? A commute equals: 1) Increased risk of time spent with your face in a strangers armpit. 2) Discomfort to recover from before your day really starts (not counting potential chaos before you leave your front door). 3) Cash out of your pocket. The last few years have shown we don't always NEED to be in the office (a central place of work) to be productive. Meaning: - You've had more of your life back and spent more time with family. - You've also likely benefitted from lower monthly spend. So, if you're forced back to the office, should increased spend be compensated? Or are there other drivers at play? According to the Boss Class podcast by the The Economist, people would rather give up a portion of their salary to avoid the commute. This means that you might attribute more value what a commute-less life represents instead: time back. Alternatives to the commute include: 1️⃣ Work From Home (WFH) 2️⃣ Work Near Home (WNH) The WFH argument is well trodden. Conclusion: it doesn't work for everyone; others like it. But the WNH concept is relatively untouched. Desana was actually mentioned in BBC News last week because of what we unlock re WNH (article link in comments). It's part of what we offer global employers. We also offer an Option 3️⃣: a blend of solutions designed around people / business needs. But, back to WNH. The benefits of WNH: - You still have access to an office space - You can escape home if needed - You don't have a long commute when you do - You can still meet your colleagues - You can more easily find the best location for everyone - You can find spaces better designed for your tasks and needs - You can apply all of the above to wherever you need to be - Summary: You have freedom of choice. Added to this: - Your employer can reduce overhead on long-term office commitments - Your employer only pays for what you use if it's "on-demand" - Your employer can still keep office space for when it's needed, just smaller - Your employer can better understand how you work, adjusting workplace strategies around your needs. So, to come round in a circle; additional compensation from your employer sounds like a good compromise, but is it really what's best for you and your company? Thanks a mil to Nick Bloom for sharing the Boss Class podcast and for his brilliant insight in the "Out of Office" episode (linked below). #worknearhome #futureofwork #workplaceculture

As we near 900 cities worldwide, here's to the last 3 years of evolution @ Desana 🍻 We're building toward a world where: 🏆 Everyone has better access to economic opportunity regardless of their background. 💰 You have the best chance at building a better future for yourself. 🌱 The playing field is levelled worldwide for: parents, people with disabilities, rural communities, developing countries, lower socio-economic areas, … At the beginning we had a plan and a bit of a vision, but no idea how things would evolve, or who'd join us along the way! We're unbelievably fortunate to have had so many great people join us on this journey! So here's to the last 3 years, and here's to many more 🍻

WeWork. The news is already well trodden. But some folk have been wondering what it all means for the flex industry. You might be surprised ⬇️ Amidst contrasting shifts toward and away from remote work, amorphous workforce flexibility, and tumultuous RTO transitions, the "household" name of the flex industry files. Ironically, though, we reckon the workplace dynamics that have been filling your news feed since 2021 actually strengthen the case for WeWork's model today - there are loads of flex providers absolutely killing it. In fact, WeWork was / is one of them - revenue generation isn't the issue. The company's current challenges stem from historical unsustainable arrangements, entered when cash seemed near infinite. But what it comes down to is this: we anticipate a surge in flexible workspace supply as companies seek more agility and efficiency in their real estate strategies. While the (potential) demise of WeWork - Chapter 11 doesn't necessarily mean the end - is pretty big news, the impact of their legacy is arguably bigger. 15-year - sometimes longer - leases used to be the mainstay thing. Shorter, more flexible commitments were brought to the world's attention in a BIG way by WeWork. That disruption catalysed a shift away from long-term commitments at a global scale. Flex flies in the face of unflex, to coin a term. Big orgs are no longer interested in lengthy commitments, not in the same way they used to be at least. Flex is a clear response. It's a 100 year black swan, marking a pivotal shift in how "the office" works. So how does this all impact Desana? Positively. We empower global employers to utilise the entire flex market seamlessly. That's access to all providers - complete market coverage. AND they only pay for what they use; not fixed commitments. Unlike traditional leases, this approach shields companies from the risk of a single space operator closing and creates unprecedented economic efficiency, all while driving business / brand exposure to operators, meaning they can instantly service orgs that they may not otherwise have had exposure too. Our thesis: the evolving landscape doesn't signal the death of flex; it simply transforms how companies deploy their strategies. We're confident that uncapped flexibility, especially through platforms like Desana, will play an integral roles in the real estate strategies of global employers. This is the dawn of a new evolution of flexibility and agility; workspace strategies that continuously evolve around the needs of people, businesses, and the planet. These strategies are unlocked via choice; ecosystems of more flexibly used solutions across:   1. Flagship (HQ) commitments (reduced number of desks etc)   2. Shorter leases at smaller satellite sites   3. Dedicated flexible workspace (hot desks etc) in faraway geographies   4. On-demand workspace, where and when needed   5. Work from home Onwards 🤘🏻 #wework #returntooffice #futureofwork