Anticipating needs of the community for the built environment requires vision and innovation to develop, plan, create and manage. Keith Denham, Managing Principal, National Director — CohnReznick Advisory Group,  led a discussion around thinking two to three steps ahead.

Some thoughts around innovation:

Define your customer. Spend wisely – invest in innovations that benefit your customer base. Approach innovation in small bites.

Innovation leads to value creation. Value creation leads to revenue growth and increased margins.

Keith was joined by Jennifer Stanton, Retail Advisory Services, Emily Crandall, JLL, Alyson Craig, UNC Charlotte Childress Klein Center for Real Estate. Insights from the panel included looking outside of the industry for inspiration, ensuring that technology is easy to use and can be built upon as markets and needs evolve, and ask why things are done as they are, then, if/how improvements can be made. Some of the best innovations have come from times of desperation.

Suggested reading:

The Four, by Scott Galloway

The Anticipatory Organization: Turn Disruption and Change into Opportunity and Advantage

Click here for the full presentation.