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<\/em><\/p>\nAs director of The Economist Corporate Network in Southeast Asia, William Thomas brings together C-suite executives from across the region for exclusive networking sessions and expert seminars that look at how macroeconomic trends and geopolitics could impact business strategy.<\/p>\n
Thomas, who is based in Singapore, is a former U.S. military officer, university professor, HR consultant, and small business owner\u2014as well as a competitive runner who, after taking up the sport relatively late in life, at 42, has completed the so-called Marathon Grand Slam, crossing the finish line on all seven continents plus the North Pole.<\/p>\n
The Economist Corporate Network\u2019s executive-level seminars, and the Regional Leaders Programme that Thomas ushered in two years ago, are designed to help business leaders better understand a range of complex issues, from cyber defence to supply chains, and guide them in their decision-making.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a top leader in a company is like being the captain of a ship,\u201d Thomas says. \u201cYou can\u2019t talk about everything with the crew. Only other ship captains are going to understand what you\u2019re going through. This is a chance for all of those captains to come together and share ideas and insights behind closed doors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sustainability is a particularly in-demand topic among corporate leaders these days, Thomas says. Environmental, social and governance issues (\u201cESG\u201d) are increasingly viewed not only as \u201cnice to have,\u201d he says, but as \u201ccritical gates or filters in your strategy that every decision has to go through.\u201d<\/p>\n As an example of ESG\u2019s upside potential for a business, he pointed to a Malaysian real estate developer\u2014a member of The Economist Corporate Network\u2014that recently built a new shopping mall that included its own sustainable water supply, as well as solar panels that produced so much reliable energy the owners were able to sell excess power back to the local grid.<\/p>\n \u201cThese factors allowed them to charge higher rent to their tenants than if they were dependent on the local system with occasional brownouts,\u201d Thomas says.<\/p>\n The developer also worked with the government to integrate public transport and create a dedicated bicycle lane to the mall. That allowed the owners to commit less space to parking, which would have been a zero-revenue generator. The project\u2019s \u201cgreen\u201d elements ultimately drove profitability.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I think will make a real difference for companies is when they stop seeing sustainability as a cost\u2014and start seeing it as a competitive advantage,\u201d Thomas says.<\/p>\n More: Climate heroes emerge in Malaysian real estate as value of ESG comes into clear focus<\/a> I saw a recent story you posted online linking to the Economist Intelligence Unit\u2019s Global Liveability Index. I know they\u2019re a sister organization under the Economist umbrella. What can businesses glean from that index?<\/strong><\/p>\n The biggest value, if it\u2019s used properly, is it can help you see the emerging expectations that people have when they\u2019re living in a city, choosing where to go, or choosing where to set up their business. Just looking at the numbers or rankings doesn\u2019t tell you very much. You need to look into the report to see why a city rose or fell. I think it also helps to look at the index over some time and not just one year\u2014because that\u2019s just a snapshot.<\/p>\n To see the emerging trends, go back a few years and see what changes are happening over time. Where is consistently rising\u2014and why are they rising? That gives you a sense of what people are looking for in a liveable city. And that\u2019s where I think it can be really valuable for developers and urban planners to get a sense of where they want to take their city in the next five or 10 years.<\/p>\n How might you use it to advise one of your clients?<\/strong><\/p>\n It would depend on the client. For example, with a tech company, we might take this year\u2019s index and look at the past few years and see what role tech has played in bringing a company up in the index. What is it that\u2019s so valuable? Is it simply a reliable infrastructure that supports e-commerce or work from home? Is it 5G? Internet of things? For a logistics company, on the other hand, we might look at traffic patterns or population dispersal from the city centre to the suburbs.<\/p>\n How has Covid-19 changed the way people and businesses think about urban development, especially in Asia?<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the biggest impacts I\u2019m going to be watching for is the changing nature of work. That, I think, has more impact in this region than other parts of the world. If you look at North America or Western Europe, the idea of flexible work arrangements and \u201cwork from home\u201d have existed for some time. Maybe not on a huge scale, but they\u2019ve been there. Compare that to Hong Kong or Singapore, where there\u2019s a long tradition of getting to the office before the boss arrives and leaving after the boss leaves because you have to be seen.<\/p>\n We\u2019re still figuring out what the nature of work is going to look like here in Asia. That\u2019s going to drive individual property developments in terms of commercial spaces. It\u2019ll affect the nature of residential development because more people will be looking for home offices. It\u2019ll impact how we design our cities. Do we have a commercial district? How do we design mass transit? Where are people going to live relative to where they work when that\u2019s not as much of an issue anymore?<\/p>\n From a macroeconomic perspective, what trends do you see influencing development in this region in the next three to five years?<\/strong><\/p>\n We need to watch government responses to inflationary pressures. Inflation popped in 2021 as demand started to open up again. It\u2019s very uneven in different markets. Also, there are a lot of supply pressures\u2014supply chains are blocked and logistics are still very expensive right now. We forecast that it\u2019s going to come down in the next couple of years, back down to levels that everybody is used to and comfortable with.<\/p>\n We\u2019re still figuring out what the nature of work is going to look like here in Asia. It\u2019ll affect the nature of residential development because more people will be looking for home offices. It\u2019ll impact how we design our cities<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But governments are under pressure to respond now. The challenge is to start raising interest rates. That will cool off the economy, but we\u2019re still in an economic recovery. So cooling off the economy may not be a good thing. In terms of development, this has a couple of different impacts. On the buyer side, as interest rates go up, it impacts demand for new property developments.<\/p>\n More: This will be Singapore\u2019s largest business district outside the CBD<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Also, governments took on a lot of debt in response to Covid. And servicing that debt is manageable now because interest rates are so low. When interest rates go back up, the government is going to have to pay more to service that debt. The money has to come from somewhere else. Fiscal changes, whether that\u2019s taxes going up or discretionary spending going down, then have an impact on infrastructure development and broader urban planning issues. Things are picking up again. We need to prepare for a slowdown because it seems like governments are going to respond to this pressure sooner than later rather than waiting it out.<\/p>\n What do you see in this regard in Singapore and Malaysia?<\/strong><\/p>\n I think we\u2019ll see it more so in Malaysia. Singapore is a little more content to ride things out. I also think debt is not an issue in Singapore because they didn\u2019t take on debt to pay for Covid. They pumped a lot of money into the system but it came out of their \u201crainy day\u201d fund. They didn\u2019t take on excess debt to do this. In places like Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Thailand, I think you can expect to see more of an impact if interest rates do start rising, as we think they\u2019re likely to.<\/p>\n The original version of this article appeared in\u00a0Issue No. 171<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0PropertyGuru Property Report Magazine<\/a>. Write to our editors at\u00a0propertyreport@propertyguru.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Marathon runner and director of The Economist Corporate Network in Southeast Asia William Thomas is thinking strategically about the future of the region\u2019s cities<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":30988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[86,97],"tags":[215,679,638],"class_list":["post-29402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-magazine","tag-asia","tag-interview","tag-real-estate","news_country-asia","news_author-bill-charles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.asiapropertyawards.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/shutterstock_652152799.jpg\")
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