“Since January 2020 ‘remote working’ searches on LinkedIn Learning have tripled as both employees and managers increasingly look for advice on how to navigate the challenges of working remotely and managing a remote workforce.” 

Balancing vs. Optimizing… Put Aside Perfectionism (For Now)

1. Federal Tax Reform
2. Real Estate
3. Economic Markets and Access to Capital

Federal Tax Reform Brings Both Tax Cuts and Complications

“Opportunity Zones are low income census tracts nominated by governors and certified by the U.S. Department of the Treasury into which investors can now put capital to work financing new projects and enterprises in exchange for certain federal capital gains tax advantages. The country now has over 8,700 Opportunity Zones in every state and territory.” 

Will Real Estate Investors Be Able to Take Advantage of Recognized Opportunity Zones in Time?

• “This is not a city of LA project. It’s a Federal project.”
• “It is a federal program. All I can say is it’s an education process – our best efforts will be to try to get the timing down to 30 months.”

Real Estate Products to Watch

• Industrial still has a lot of activity and is not slowing down, especially in the Inland Empire and East.
• Office has many submarkets that are positive, e.g., DTLA, Glendale, Pasadena, Irvine. Overall, people want to work closer to home, and that is driving demand in those areas.
• Multifamily continues to have strong demand, but rents are flattening out in 2019 and 2020 with increases expected in 2021 and 2022.

Challenges to LA Real Estate Development

1. Construction costs are increasing 20%. This has caused some issues with land values
2. Linkage fee for affordable housing. If no affordable housing is built, then there will be a 10% linkage fee. This has a huge impact on project economics.

LA Economic Markets Enjoy a Positive Outlook, with ‘Unprecedented’ Access to Capital

• The panel finds that access to capital is at unprecedented levels, and if anything, there is almost too much liquidity.
• Customer conversations are around growth, specifically increasing capacity on revolving loans, additional capital investment, and additional investment in real estate.
• We’re entering and seeing a slowdown in some areas, not a recession.
• When it comes to tech, we are not seeing any slowdown.  Tech investment continues to have a strong outlook.

The Aerospace Corporation

“There is a close resemblance between The Aerospace Corporation’s logo and the Avengers logo. In fact, our leadership team informally goes by the name Avengers.”

1. Civil Space
2. Commercial Space
3. National Security Space

Civil Space Future: Collecting Data Both Physically and from Satellites

1. Mars Sample Return (i.e., the return of samples from Mars), likely in 2020. An interesting nuance with the Mars sample returns is that, while unlikely, it’s important to make sure no infection is spread by the returned sample.
2. A lander going to Europa, which has conditions that make it possible for life, but a very challenging atmosphere.
3. Additional discoveries of Exo planets. The Keppler Satellite has found thousands so far.

Commercial Space Future: Small Satellites and Space Tourism

National Security Space: Innovating Faster

• The movement to constellations of smaller satellites means that some can be lost, allowing resiliency. Previously, nations relied on a small number of large satellites with a 10-20 year lifecycle.
• Prototyping and trying new technologies faster allows for more innovation. Work is underway to reduce decision cycles from five-year approvals to one-year approvals.
• In 2019, we will see a Unified Space Command and a Space Development Agency.

“First of all, it’s not really competitive in the way other games with ranks are, and there really isn’t much ‘skill’ to make progress.  It’s open and accessible to all.  Pokémon Go capitalizes on the appeal of collectibles and the major brand Pokémon with literally 25+ years of positive brand equity. It keeps me involved and going back by staging releases. Right now, I’m waiting for generation four.  I’m always checking out what’s cool around me when I’m outside or traveling in LA. And I can play it casually for a few minutes each day, or more intensely when it makes sense based on the cycle.”  

“It’s a whole collection of mini motivators, including some that have nothing to do with gaming. My dog, for instance, has to be walked. A big park with nine PokéStops is within walking distance of my house, and that makes it easier for me to make progress in the game.”

Friendships and Relationships are Critical for B2B

The Rise of Asynchronous Communication and How it Affects Work Friendships

“First, consider the work culture you are dealing with. Some cultures have Slack use engrained, where you can handle 100 tasks, seven seconds at a time. Other cultures are unfamiliar with asynchronous communication and might just go right for a face-to-face meeting for the most straightforward tasks. Both types of cultures need to identify what they are trying to achieve with each interaction. For a yes-or-no, binary answer, Slack will be more efficient and productive. But trying to hold a conversation that involves opinions and nuance is frustrating to do asynchronously. Then, it’s time to get on the phone and chat. If you're trying to broaden the conversation, it should be done in real-time. If you’re narrowing down, asynchronous might be better.”

Self-Driving Cars Factor into Commercial Real Estate Decisions

 

Future of Shared Office Spaces

Flexible Workspace in Malls: Blurring of Boundaries Between Retail and Office

What About AI and Smart Cities?

• Artificial Intelligence
• Smart Cities
• Neural Networks
• Zero-Knowledge Proof

Introduction to Safari

“Your concepts [derived from Safari] always test well quantitatively. That’s not the case with other methods.” [Safari is anything but] asking the customers if they like an idea that the company has already developed and pushing them to say yes.”

Introduction to Agile

• Individual and Interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan

Role of Cross-Functional Teams

“In consultation with the customer or product owner, the team divides up the work to be done into functional increments called ‘user stories.’ Each user story is expected to yield, once implemented, a contribution to the value of the overall product, irrespective of the order of implementation.”

Iterative Improvements Driven by Data

To Master Safari and Agile

Barriers to Safari and Agile

Safari and Agile in Business-to-Business (B2B)

“We use co-creation, and ‘how might we?’ activities, with structured brainstorming over a day-and-a-half process to create marketing and incentive programs for our clients. While this process allows us to solve for the issues we wanted to focus on, many times we’ve been able to surface unrecognized client business challenges even if they fall outside our functional support area. Finding and understanding these new challenges usually improves our solutions and makes them more effective. In addition, the client leaves our experience with new initiatives to address to make their business better. That is real value-add. And it would never have happened without a co-creation process.”

Wait, Aren’t Gen Z Kids?

“Growing up in a time of uncertainty (the post-9/11 world, economic recession) and changing norms (increased racial diversity, shifting gender roles), Gen Z is mature, self-directed and resourceful.”

“It’s more than being their own bosses, but to leverage their talents to create social change. Most want a small business that focuses on an issue they care about. Making a difference is more important than making money. Their way of contributing is different. They don’t come out to volunteer but prefer to attack the root cause of the problem, making volunteerism unnecessary.”

“The nature of play has also evolved with the rise of digital. Competition comes in many forms, not just products but how kids decide to spend their time and how lifestyles have changed. Maybe it’s a matter of competing for attention with YouTube influencers as much as [wondering] ‘Is there time to build a [LEGO] set?’ So the trick is, how do we get within that stream and really create collaborations to make play part of life.”

"I think this is a great idea. With just one set, you could have a whole LEGO world in half the time that it would take to make one physically. This is revolutionary! It expands LEGOs to so much more than they already were.” – Carson, age 12 (US)  “It looks pretty cool. I like that you can create a LEGO object and create structures and objects around them. I’ve done a lot of LEGO projects, but nothing like this.” -Michael, age 11 (US)

"While I can see kids enjoying this, I'm concerned that it gives them more reasons to use tablets instead of their hands to engage with the world. I love LEGO, and for me this kind of takes all the imagination out of it."

Augmented Reality isn’t the Only Reality