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Unethical behavior hurts everyone, including the offending person or organization. Unfortunately, the effects of unethical behavior are often long delayed, so the consequences are thus often attributed to the wrong cause. When librarians purchase automated systems, unethical practices—whether committed by consultants, vendors, or librarians—will cause significant harm to the libraries because they can not only acquire inadequate systems, but encounter many managerial and operational problems as well. In this symposium, five major consultants—Rob McGee, Howard Harris, Jose‐Marie Griffiths, Susan Baerg Epstein, and James Rush—share their experiences and thoughts on related issues.

This paper investigates how large UK corporate occupiers perceive the potential role of flexible office space in their office portfolios in a post-pandemic context.

The research methodology is qualitative and applied. For a longitudinal survey, convenience sampling was used to obtain co-operation from 11 corporate real estate managers with responsibility for managing large corporate real estate portfolios spread across a range of business sectors and countries. Semi-structured interviews were selected as the core research method to seek and to optimise the balance between discovery and generalisability.

Although the pandemic has led corporate occupiers to fundamentally re-appraise where and when different work tasks are performed, it is not yet clear whether this has major implications for the flex space sector. The flex space model, with its blending of various occupiers and activities, is perceived to be poorly aligned with an increasing emphasis on the office as a core corporate hub facilitating connection, collaboration, enculturation, learning and creativity. Since most flex space is concentrated in central locations, it is also not well positioned to benefit from any decentralisation of office functions. However, as the flex space sector evolves in response to structural shifts in employment and working practices and business change, its various products are likely to be a continuing requirement from corporate occupiers for short-term solutions to demand shocks, the need for rapid market entry, accommodation for short-term projects and access to desk space in multiple locations.

Understanding occupiers' drivers in their decision-making on selecting the method of occupation will assist investors in how they might adjust what they offer in the marketplace.

Whilst there has been a substantive number of surveys of corporate occupiers' perceptions and intentions regarding their office portfolio, this paper focusses on a specifically on the flex space sector. Whilst previous research has mainly been extensive, this research study is intensive.

The purpose of this paper is to outline key changes occurring within office occupier businesses that will have a medium- to long-term impact upon the nature and design of the office workplace, and the implications for the corporate real estate manager.

The paper is based upon research involving detailed consultations with corporate occupiers in the City of London, as well as representatives of the property supply chain. This has been developed here to include practical experience and to relate the lessons of the work directly to corporate real estate management.

The findings suggest major changes are taking place in the demand profile of office occupiers, in terms of both quantitative and qualitative demand for space. There are a number of practical implications arising from the findings, not least the need for investors to consider the appropriateness of current standards for base building design and fit-out in contemporary offices, and the need for corporate real estate management to adapt.

The paper contains a number of implications arising from the changing workplace for the corporate real estate management profession.

The paper reflects direct practical experience and the output of primary research and consulting. It is also highly relevant: while much has been written about agile working, much less has covered the practical implications for building design and corporate real estate management.

According to the CBI's Employee Relocation Council (set up in 1986 as an information exchange and lobbying body), around 250 000 people move home each year, at an average cost of £6600/person, either because their employers ask them to work in a new location, or because the company moves lock stock and barrel to a different part of the country. This involves a cost to British industry of over £250 million pa.

This paper aims to provide a perspective on the office productivity debate, with a particular focus on providing a framework for examining those factors relating to the design and management of the office environment.

The approach taken has been to examine the plethora of factors that might be involved, principally through a literature review, and then to group these into four generic areas of enquiry. Within each of these, potential measures of productivity are described, and these are connected to building lifecycle decisions.

Combined, the findings produce a practical framework within which various actors in the design, delivery and management offices can understand and influence the productivity question. In this way, the findings have practical implications rather than simply describing the factors that influence productivity.

The paper develops a report produced in 2017 for the British Council for Offices. Building on the main findings of the original work, this paper expands the literature review, provides more context regarding the significance of office productivity and expands upon the conclusions. The author fully acknowledges the contributions of the whole research team behind the original paper. The originality of the work lies in its development of a framework that can be applied by practitioners in the built environment.

Readers of Bernard Williams' recently completed series on premises audits — now updated and published as a book by Bulstrode Press — will be aware of the growing realisation of the importance of that activity in the management of facilities. The audit is not necessarily, however, the first step in premises planning. Although it is an essential part of the process of establishing the status quo, it can be carried out in the absence of a premises policy — nor does it, of itself, establish or lead to the establishment of a premises policy. This article introduces a series which will explore and develop the concept of a premises policy — what it is, how it is produced, when and why it is necessary and, moreover, how the corporate business plan must necessarily impinge upon the premises policy. Whether the premises policy will respond flexibly to the pressures of change, or whether facilities management will be thrown into disarray as a consequence, is clearly going to be a critical factor in the ability of the organisation to carry out its business plan efficiently and effectively.

Last month's introduction to this series (Facilities Vol 6/No 1/ January 1988) placed great emphasis on the role of facilities management vis‐a‐vis the business plan. It clearly stated that a coherent, proactive and flexible facilities management strategy must, necessarily, be a product of the business plan. This second article in the series examines the initial stage of the formulation of a premises strategy: a review of the existing stock of space occupied by a company.

Developing on the theme of this series — that the premises policy should evolve to meet the need to accommodate the requirements of the corporate plan — we must now look at the options available to the organisation with a premises problem. We will also consider how strategies can be compared by costs, by performance and combinations of both.

This paper examines the realignment that is currently taking place within the property supply industry. It traces the origin of service provision within the industry during the last recession. It then outlines the evolution of service provision into a range of products, or occupancy solutions, to suit the increasingly complex needs of occupiers. The paper identifies the ‘new’ providers and explains the subtle differences in the breadth and depth of their offers. The paper ends with the key challenges facing both suppliers and occupiers of flexible solutions.

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the way that corporate real estate (CRE) has developed in the UK since the early 1990s.

Review of how various professional bodies, occupiers and landlords have responded to the changing business and workplace environment.

CRE managers and the professional bodies that represent them are at a crossroads. Whilst the business world has evolved since 1990, the CRE sector has not and faces the prospect becoming purely a technical rather than a strategic subject.

A review of what has happened and not new research.