Location and building, the herbs for value creation

What spices are in a dish is location and building for the value creation of an organisation. A relatively small amount of spices can make or break a dish. Occupancy costs represent on average ‘only’ about 8-12% of the annual budget. Personnel costs represent on average approximately 70-80% of the annual budget. Accommodation is a lever that affects the productivity of the largest cost item in an organization, the employees.

Positioning is making choices. What do you show who you are as an organisation and what not? A building is more than just a functional and affordable shelter. With accommodation, you contribute to the process of value creation for the occupant of the building. A balance of experience and utility value provides significant added value. How can you use the accommodation for value creation? You have the bookkeeper approach of ‘Measuring is knowing and guessing is missing’ and the entrepreneurial approach of ‘First believe, then see’. Value creation is created by forging both approaches into a jewel. The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

Each choice process is determined by the influence of the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Every person has a preference for ratio or emotion and is, therefore, more likely to be attracted to figures or images. The fact remains that every person has a left and right hemisphere of the brain that influences how we see, experience and judge things.

In the marketing of cars, people understand this and apply it. Do you want a car for the left side of your brain or rather one for the right side? The left side emphasizes “What can the car do?” And the right side emphasizes “What does the car do to you as a person?” The hard rational approach versus the soft feeling approach.

A building is comparable to clothing. What clothing is to a person is a building to an organisation. Both clothing and building must be protective and functional. In the case of clothing, these rational demands are the tip of the iceberg. The emotional demands are the part underwater. A building involves a lot of reason and little emotion. The choice of clothing is mainly about the emotional aspects. About wanting to belong, embellish yourself, express your identity and feel good. Aspects that make the difference in peoples’ choice behaviour. In accommodation, these emotional aspects are heavily underexposed and the ratio predominates.

For decades, there have been only three reasons that accommodation is a topic of discussion for management. Firstly, when the organisation grows. There is a need for extra accommodation. Secondly, turnover is declining and cuts need to be made. Third, the second has been done for too long now that the accommodation is outdated and worn out and there is not enough set aside for replacement. There is a fourth reason. There is an increasing awareness that accommodation is more than a cost item. Accommodation can also add value. Value for the organisation and for the people working in the building. Accommodation contributes to the common organisational goal and is the reason why people work together every day.

Accommodation says a lot about the organisation that uses it. Just like clothing says something about the person wearing it. Accommodation is therefore much more than a functional shelter. It makes tangible what you stand for as an organisation. It is about the message that the building communicates and the effect on people’s behaviour. It stimulates the imagination and inspires action. The successful organisation knows how to address and balance both hemispheres of the brain. She knows the balance for her own organisation and the balance that suits the target group she wants to reach. This gives inspired buildings where it is pleasant to stay. Places that work instead of just workplaces.

Accommodation supports the policy of an organization, it is comparable to a ‘theatre stage’. Entourage, message and props should therefore be congruent. It helps to create a sense of community, it makes people proud and connects. It mobilizes people’s desire to belong and make a difference together. Organizations are more effective if employees are intrinsically motivated and involved and therefore think along and participate. They are the engine and the heart of an organization. Accommodation helps facilitate desirable behaviour. To realize the organizational goals and increase the well-being of the employees. To realize ambitions.

You can use the accommodation for the marketing of your organisation. Accommodation is an effective means of communication that contributes to the brand experience of an organisation. It makes the brand tangible for employees and visitors. A building as a 3D billboard. The synergy between business strategy, corporate branding and accommodation. A building is a tangible spatial representation of the identity of an organisation. If the mission of an organisation can be experienced through and in the accommodation, this contributes to attracting the right employees. People who identify with the mission and therefore show greater involvement. An involvement that transcends the employment contract.

When an organisation stands for money-conscious, it doesn’t make sense if the accommodation radiates grandeur, which automatically invokes in many people the thought “what will it cost?”. Or when one stands for sustainability and builds a new office, while the old one apparently still meets or can be adapted to the requirements and wishes. You can put on a tracksuit and think it has made you sporty. The same applies when measuring a building. A building can be used as a compelling corset or as seductive lingerie. But it is the culture, management style and exemplary behaviour that ensure that the desired change takes hold and lasts.

Most of the programs of requirements are characterized by an analytical enumeration of requirements and functions. The emotional approach, “What does the building do to you as a person?”, is minimally present or is completely absent. While we still know that a building has a major influence on job satisfaction and therefore the productivity of people. Most buildings are so-called ‘market compliant’ buildings. Or ‘uniform buildings’. Suitable for many but not really distinctive for anyone. How do you make it your own accommodation? You achieve this through the right balance between ratio and emotion, Yin and Yang, male and female.

Passionate management uses its building to make the organisational mission tangible. It is the things people want and feel that breathe life into a soulless building. In this way, accommodation helps to position the organisation and to motivate its users to realize the business goals together. A building with the right dose of relevant emotion inspires employees to behave properly. A building as a 3D billboard to position your organization and show what you stand for. It is not reason or emotion. It is about finding your own relationship between reason and emotion. BE YOURSELF!