The Propcast Louisa Dickins

In this episode of the Propcast, host Louisa Dickins discusses how to future proof your portfolio and nurture a robust company culture with Edi Demaj, co-founder of KODE Labs, and Ilene Goldfine, SVP and Chief Digital Strategy Officer of Hines. They explore how a change in people and culture can help address the pace of innovation and, ultimately, impact profitability, efficiency and sustainability. 

Edi shares how a small building operating system can transform the way real estate is managed and experienced. Ilene dives deep into how two very different types of businesses can facilitate a healthy, inclusive, and innovative culture, as well as a strong partnership. The episode highlights the importance of collaboration, agility, and diversity in driving change and successfully navigating the evolving landscape of the real estate industry. 

Tune in to hear innovative strategies for future-proofing real estate portfolios and cultivating a dynamic company culture. 

 

Shout outs 

Naqash Tahir, Executive Director - Global CIO Office at PGIM Real Estate 
Imran Nasir, Head of Client Delivery for Europe, Asia Pacific & Latin America at PGIM Real Estate 


 

Episode Highlights 

Edi and Ilene’s common mission of driving change and innovation in the real estate industry 
How KODE Labs and Hines have created a successful partnership 
A cloud-based smart building operating system, and the significance of data in driving efficiency and innovation 


How flexible and diverse cultures foster innovation and collaboration 
The importance of a listen-first mentality, cultural contribution and diversity of thought 
What the future holds for KODE Labs, Hines and the wider real estate industry 

 

Key Takeaways 


The real estate space functions completely differently from anything else around us. Our view is that it needed to get on par with everybody else with all the other industries. - Edi 
One of the reasons that did away with the word ‘innovation’ is because the mindset of Hines is that we're constantly innovating. - Ilene 
We're big believers that if automotive companies can make autonomous moving vehicles, then standing buildings can be autonomous as well. - Edi 
We have an aging industry of people at buildings that are going to retire. You have to meet the people where they're at. You need to think to yourself, what am I doing differently in the real estate industry to attract some of these people? - Ilene 
What we've done over the last six years is that we're now in thousands of buildings, and what we'll do over the next six years, is that we’ll be hopefully in hundreds of thousands of buildings. – Edi


 
About Our Host - Louisa Dickins 

Louisa is the Co-Founder of LMRE, which has rapidly become the market-leading global built environment recruitment platform and search consultancy, specializing in finding the best strategic talent for the most innovative organisations in PropTech, ConTech, Smart Buildings, ESG, Sustainability and Strategic Consulting with operations across North America, United Kingdom, Europe, Asia-Pacific and MENA. 

To promote the industry she is so passionate about, Louisa set up the Global podcast ‘The Propcast’ where she hosts and invites guests from the built environment space to join her in conversation about innovation. 

Did you know that office temperatures can affect cognitive performance? This episode of the Propcast explores the concept of creating smart and empathetic buildings, addressing crucial topics like gender bias, neurodiversity, and office space design. 

Host Louisa Dickins speaks with two pioneers developing innovative solutions for workplace efficiency and employee satisfaction, Dr. Ken Dooley, Chief Product Officer at Haltian, and Dan Drogman, CEO of Smart Spaces, who share insights into their companies' growth and trends in the smart building space. 

The conversation extended to the evolving preferences of the modern workforce, with Ken emphasizing the value of offering options like warmer zones or quiet spaces to create a more inclusive and productive environment, and Dan sharing how Smart Spaces uses data-driven design to address these challenges, giving people the flexibility they need while avoiding tokenism. 

Tune in for an exciting discussion on smart buildings, inclusive workplaces, and the evolving needs of today's workforce. 

 

Shoutouts 

Elizabeth Nelson, Author of The Healthy Office Revolution
 


Episode Highlights  

Ken’s journey from consulting in energy and sustainability to working in the field of smart buildings 
The evolution of Smart Spaces from providing meeting room booking software to offering smart building solutions 
"Hotelification" of offices, where offices aim to provide amenities and experiences better than home to attract employees back to the office 
Why personalization in office environments is crucial to cater to different needs, preferences, and neurodiversity 


The evolving workforce, including the great resignation and changing employee expectations 
The growth of PropTech in the Nordic region 
The importance of educating end-users about energy consumption to achieve sustainability goals 

 

Key Takeaways 


Our purpose at Smart Spaces is optimizing environments for the people and the planet. - Dan 
We allow the organization to create beautiful spaces, communicate that they exist, and measure if it's popular enough. - Ken 
It's about offering people personalization. You want to create the future workplace where everyone wants to work. - Dan 
Yes, there is a gender bias. There's a brilliant article called Battle for the Thermostat that really talks about how female employees in office buildings would prefer maybe two degrees warmer. – Ken 


 
About Our Host 

Louisa Dickins 

Louisa is the Co-Founder of LMRE, which has rapidly become the market-leading global built environment recruitment platform and search consultancy, specializing in finding the best strategic talent for the most innovative organisations in PropTech, ConTech, Smart Buildings, ESG, Sustainability and Strategic Consulting with operations across North America, United Kingdom, Europe, Asia-Pacific and MENA. 

To promote the industry she is so passionate about, Louisa set up the Global podcast ‘The Propcast’ where she hosts and invites guests from the built environment space to join her in conversation about innovation. 

Following yet another fantastic response for our ConTech-focused 11th season, we are thrilled to unveil what we have planned for the upcoming season! 
As the demand for secure, energy-efficient developments continues to soar, the number of smart buildings worldwide is projected to climb from 45 million to 115 million by 2026. This is why for season 12 of the Propcast we are focusing on all things ‘smart’, where I will be joined by some of the leading Smart Building companies in the space, featuring the likes of Kode Labs, Haltian, Drone Deploy, Smart Spaces, and many, many more!  
Make sure to subscribe to the Propcast and leave us a 5* rating for this season - you’ll not want to miss it! 

About Our Host
Louisa Dickins
Louisa is the co-founder of LMRE, which has rapidly become the market leading global PropTech recruitment platform and search consultancy with operations across North America, United Kingdom, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
To promote the industry she is so passionate about, Louisa set up the Global podcast ‘The Propcast’ where she hosts and invites guests from the built environment space to join her in conversation about innovation.

About LMRE
LMRE is globally recognised for leading the way in Real Estate Tech & Innovation talent management.
From the outset our vision was to become a global provider of the very best strategic talent to the most innovative organisations in PropTech, ConTech, Smart Buildings, ESG, Sustainability and Strategic Consulting.
At LMRE we are fully committed at all times to exceed the expectations of our candidates and clients by providing the very best advice and by unlocking exclusive opportunities across our global network in the UK, Europe, North America, MENA and Asia-Pacific.

In the tenth episode of Season 11 of the Propcast, host Louisa Dickins is joined by Meirav Oren, CEO and Co-Founder of Versatile and James Barrett, Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at Turner Construction

Episode Highlights:
• The founding story of Versatile and their vision
• What Turner Construction are trying to achieve for the industry and the synergies they have with Versatile
• Key challenges with innovation adoption within the sector
• The work they are doing to empower people working in construction 
• Where Meirav has seen the biggest growth in their product
• Pressing  issues in construction that James wants to try and resolve
• How robotics can be implemented into the industry
• Making the industry appealing to the future workforce 
• How they work on making products that will make people’s jobs and change management easier 
• The different partnerships Turner Construction have and the reasons behind them 
• The Entrepreneur and Residence Program that Turner Construction have set up

Resources:
• LMRE Global Recruitment and Search Consultancy
• LMRE YouTube Interviews
• PropTech Salary Report, LMRE 2022
• Innovation Lab
• Omers Ventures

Key Takeaways:
• We put the data that we believe is most critical in the hands of the people who build. - Meirav
• Productivity is everything to us in construction. We're trying to get more work in place with fewer people and that's how you drive schedules, that's how you drive cost savings. That's how you improve. - James
• Evaluating and deploying solutions is working at the pace of change that people are comfortable with. - James
• We're facing a huge issue with a lack of skilled labour. We have an ageing workforce that’s retiring and it's not being replaced. - James
• When Venture capitalists told me that the industry is laggard and antiquated and simply not a good investment, because it's not going to adapt fast enough, I said, it's the second largest industry in the world. It's right for innovation, it needs it. - Meirav
• I think the worst thing you can have is incredibly bright, talented people wasting 2, 3, 4, 5 years of their life producing a solution that nobody wants. It's probably the greatest waste of human talent you can imagine. So that's why the whole program was born. - James

About Our Host
Louisa Dickins
Louisa is the co-founder of LMRE, which has rapidly become the market leading global PropTech recruitment platform and search consultancy with operations across North America, United Kingdom, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
To promote the industry she is so passionate about, Louisa set up the Global podcast ‘The Propcast’ where she hosts and invites guests from the built environment space to join her in conversation about innovation.

About LMRE
LMRE is globally recognised for leading the way in Real Estate Tech & Innovation talent management.
From the outset our vision was to become a global provider of the very best strategic talent to
the most innovative organisations in PropTech, ConTech, Smart Buildings, ESG, Sustainability and
Strategic Consulting.
At LMRE we are fully committed at all times to exceed the expectations of our candidates and clients by providing the very best advice and by unlocking exclusive opportunities across our global network in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.

Sponsors
Launch Your Own Podcast
A Podcast Company is the leading podcast production and strategic content company for brands, organisations, institutions, individuals, and entrepreneurs. Our team sets you up with the right strategy, equipment, training, guidance and content to ensure you sound amazing while speaking to your niche audience and networking with your perfect clients. Get in touch hello@apodcastcompany.com

 In the ninth episode of Season 11 of the Propcast, host Louisa Dickins is joined by Mateo Zimmermann, Investment Manager at CEMEX Ventures,  Chris Bone, Co-Founder & CEO at Modulous and Tim Davies, CEO at HiiROC Ltd.

Episode Highlights:
• The work that each of the businesses do and how they collaborate
• The work HiiROC are doing to try and make hydrogen more affordable
• The main issues currently facing the construction industry and the work being undertaken to try and find solutions 
• How these issues can impair innovation and make the industry quite risk averse
• The work Modulous are doing on ESG 
• The challenge with bringing new talent into the industry who can help drive innovation and technology adoption
Why it can take longer to see the rollout of new technologies within the space
The different speed of innovation adoption across the industry and the frustrations this can cause
• The investments CEMEX are making in companies working on green construction
• The issues with supply/ delivery of materials and the work CEMEX are doing to try and resolve this
• The future they all see for construction

Resources:
• LMRE Global Recruitment and Search Consultancy
• LMRE YouTube Interviews
• PropTech Salary Report, LMRE 2022
• Leaplab | CEMEX Ventures
• Construction Startup Competition
• McKinsey
• Modulous
• Synhelion
• PartRunner – Home

Key Takeaways:
• CEMEX have been amazing for us through this process because they're thought leaders in their space. They have great views on how the industry can be changed and that's something that we're very keen to help facilitate. Our vision is to help solve the housing crisis while protecting the planet. - Chris
• We are rolling out the production of hydrogen, but we're working with partners like CEMEX to say how do we use it in the right setting? So how do you use it to produce cement? How do you use it to produce steel or for transport? - Tim
• We can only tackle the challenges our industry are facing, and I want to emphasise on that,  if we industry players collaborate to build a better future. - Mateo
• We're continually looking at both the physical product and the carbon content of that product. And until you understand the carbon content, it's very difficult to drive change, to improve that, or to be able to track it and understand exactly what level of carbon is, in our instance being put in our buildings. - Chris
• It’s a very tight margin business. Therefore, when you look at cement or steel and the like to suddenly introduce a much higher energy cost because you're using hydrogen, not natural gas or whatever else is nigh on impossible. So we as technology providers have to provide the solution that makes it affordable. - Tim
• I think the paces are also a little bit different. There's obviously a lot of innovations in terms of materials that are happening, but not necessarily there is an adoption on the job site right on construction. - Mateo
• It's very inefficient and obviously materials are a large part of the construction budget. So from 40 to 60% depending on the country and it's highly inefficient. It's actually one of the biggest  reasons for delays in construction. - Mateo

About Our Guests:
Mateo Zimmermann
Mateo Zimmermann is Investment Manager at CEMEX Ventures, responsible for the Corporate Venture Capital Investments in startups in the Construction technology space.
Before joining CEMEX Ventures, Mateo worked at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) from 2013 to 2017 as a Management Consultant, where he promoted to Project Leader. He previously worked at StepOne as an Advisor for startups and corporates in their Digital Strategies. Before that he worked as an Investment Analyst in Private Equity and Corporate Debt at the Asset Management division of Arcano. He also worked for UBS and Electrolux Group. Mateo has a double degree in Engineering and Management. H

In the eighth episode of Season 11 of the Propcast, host Louisa Dickins is joined by Maria Davidson, CEO & Founder of Kojo and Dan Babcock, President at James Babcock Inc
Episode Highlights:
•  What was behind the creation of Kojo and the issues they believed they could resolve
•  What Kojo stands for
•  Common questions clients of Kojo want to have answered
•  The reasons why Dan’s company became customers of Kojo and the benefits they get from it
•   How Dan found introducing a new technology solution into the business that had been running since the 50’s
•  The impact the increase in the cost of materials is having on profitability
•  The different product changes that have occurred for Kojo and their future plans
•  What drives the development of different products and their roadmap
• Other products Kojo integrates with
• Trends Maria is seeing within the industry
Resources:
• LMRE Global Recruitment and Search Consultancy
• LMRE YouTube Interviews
• PropTech Salary Report, LMRE 2022
• Procore
• OpenSpace podcast
Key Takeaways:
 •  When we started Kojo back in 2018, the question that we were really obsessed with was how could we make the built environment faster, more efficient and less error prone to build? - Maria
 •  In the last three years, with an extremely volatile supply chain and volatile material prices, the difference between being profitable and unprofitable can really come down to one project going well or going badly.  - Maria
 • A big thing is pricing. We’ve seen huge savings. Because back in the day, my purchaser would've taken an order and called our favourite vendor and ordered the materials. Now we're sending it out if it's a smaller order, to three to four vendors and I can see on my dashboard the amount of savings between if we would've just gone with the one vendor. - Dan
 • So we take baby steps on anything we do, because people in construction are a little behind on, I'd say technology, but we don't want to be, not all of us. - Dan
 • We just had a customer who got an invoice for $12,000 that should have been $120  because the unit of measurement was off. And they said, that's the kind of thing that we could have just paid because we're getting thousands of invoices a month, and it's impossible for us to know that each one is being meticulously checked. - Maria
About Our Host
Louisa Dickins
Louisa is the co-founder of LMRE, which has rapidly become the market leading global PropTech recruitment platform and search consultancy with operations across North America, United Kingdom, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
To promote the industry she is so passionate about, Louisa set up the Global podcast ‘The Propcast’ where she hosts and invites guests from the built environment space to join her in conversation about innovation.
About LMRE
LMRE is globally recognised for leading the way in Real Estate Tech & Innovation talent management.
From the outset our vision was to become a global provider of the very best strategic talent to the most innovative organisations in PropTech, ConTech, Smart Buildings, ESG, Sustainability and Strategic Consulting.
At LMRE we are fully committed at all times to exceed the expectations of our candidates and clients by providing the very best advice and by unlocking exclusive opportunities across our global network in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.
Sponsors
Launch Your Own Podcast
A Podcast Company is the leading podcast production and strategic content company for brands, organisations, institutions, individuals, and entrepreneurs. Our team sets you up with the right strategy, equipment, training, guidance and content to ensure you sound amazing while speaking to your niche audience and networking with your perfect clients. Get in touch hello@apodcastcompany.com