The impact of EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

computer-pc-workplace-home-office-159760.jpeg

The RSA’s latest white paper outlines the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and its impact on our cybersecurity strategies. By 25th May 2018 our data privacy regulations will see the biggest change in 20 years as the GDPR has replaced the Data Protection Directive (1995), designed to streamline data privacy laws across Europe and protect the rights of individuals regarding their personal data. The application of the regulation exceeds EU boundaries, applying to any business anywhere in the world handling data from an EU citizen.

The GDPR defines personal data as “any information related to a natural person on ‘Data Subject’, that can be used to directly or indirectly identify the person. It can be anything from a name, a photo, an email address, bank details, posts on social networking websites, medical information, or a computer IP address.”

As the white paper outlines, EU citizens are entitled to the following rights under GDPR:

-          The right to be informed

-          The right of access

-          The right to rectification

-          The right to erasure – also known as the right to be forgotten

-          The right to restrict processing

-          The right to data portability

-          The right to object

Businesses will face hefty fines if not in full compliance with the terms of GDPR by 25th May 2018, starting from 2% of annual global revenue. There were several inconsistencies in how businesses could apply data protection policies, so the introduction of the GDPR will make the laws clearer and easier to adhere to. As the white paper explains, non-compliance will ‘propel data protection as a business risk directly into the boardroom’.

Understanding the risk associated to GDPR and cybersecurity is the first step in avoiding it. Businesses need to understand exactly where and who they are getting their data from and must show accurate records of this. Getting on top of data documentation is essential, and as the white paper advises, encouraging an understanding of technical risk to all business leaders will ensure all decision making considers this legislation. Compliance has to be independently verified, so it is important that a data management process is developed in house to avoid additional auditing costs.

The RSA advise the implementation of a Business-Driven Security Strategy to GDPR to avoid any compliance issues and to promote better risk management practices. The strategy would cover the assessment of IT infrastructure, business processes, technical and organisational measures and electronic and physical security.

Read the full paper here.

EG Event Round-Up 'Question Time London'

 

5 December 2017 at White Collar Factory

Last week’s EG event ‘Question Time London’ saw a great reception, and an insightful discussion amongst both the panel and the audience. Chaired by Damien Wild, Editor at EG, the panel consisted of Bill Hughes, Head of Real Assets at Legal & General Investment Management, Max Farrell, Partner at Farrells Architects, Emma Cariaga, Head of Operations at British Land and Benjamin Lesser, Development Manager at White Collar Factory.

Damien Wild opened the discussion by addressing the fact that the property industry is seeking stability, and unfortunately many have felt that in the past year politician have done very little to restore faith in them and their support of the industry. Max Farrell supported this statement when discussing general views and opinions of Sadiq Khan and his efforts, arguing that what the industry needs is more leadership and as a result, Khan should ‘champion big projects’ and participate on panels. Bill Hughes continued the debate by addressing his ‘aggressive approach to affordable housing’ and the questioned the practicality of creating targets before considering what the city actually needs.

The New London Plan was discussed at length as an audience member asked if will help the industry and answer London’s housing needs.  Emma Cariaga was the first to speak on this and suggested that the plan is essentially flawed and does not address the issue of affordable housing in a practical way. She argued that the plan was ‘focused on ambition, not practical solutions’. Public sector agencies should be granted the resources to deal with this, rather than focusing on selling land to the biggest bidder. On the commitment to build 300k houses per year as outlined in the plan, Cariaga highlighted that such a target has not been achieved for decades and when it was achieved, it was led by local authorities.

In addition to the suggestion that the public sector should lead the initiative, Farrell drew attention to a need to adopt modern methods of construction in order to achieve or come close to achieving such targets. Modern methods of construction prove to be cost effective, better quality and ensure a quicker build. Farrell argues that we can still put a warranty on homes built via modern methods as the quality can be better that those built via traditional methods. In the UK less than 5% of homes are built using modern methods, compared to Japan at around 30-40%. We need to look to how other countries deal with housing demands, like the success seen where minimum space standards don’t exist for example.

Benjamin Lesser was more optimistic about the New London Plan and suggested it was a positive step in refining the previous plan. He argued that the 1847 Town & Country Act is in need of revision and it does not reflect how we are living now.

The debate continued to discuss whether we should stretch the GLA region, in which there was a resounding response led by Lesser that there needs to be a strategic review of boundaries as we now consider speed of travel rather than distance, which widens the existing boundaries. Cariaga agreed that a wider region will be part of the housing solution moving forward as ‘transport improvements have made London feel very small’.

The big buyers of 2018 were identified as China, Hong Kong and the rest of Europe, with the common understanding that London is a safe place to invest. Hughes suggested that investors may start looking outside of London based on affordability.

As a roundup to close the debate, Wild asked each of the panellists to make a prediction for the industry in 2018. Hughes predicted that the market will see fragility around the occupier and a bigger difference between winners and losers, Farrell more optimistically suggested we’ll see a radical mix use of spaces and more connectivity along the river, Lesser urged for a need for a more ‘acute focus on what we are doing as builders of space’ to get it right for long-term value, and Cariaga predicted that London will have a well-deserved seat at the table during Brexit debates.

Five takeaways from the Estates Gazette Marketing Summit

pexels-photo-301988.jpeg

I was lucky enough to have attended the inaugural "Estates Gazette Marketing Summit" in London, just off Victoria Street. It was a packed day with some excellent speakers and excellent content. There was far too much to report in full, but here are my top five points/comments/thoughts from the day:

1.The most excellent Kim Tasso (@RedStarKim) suggested: "If you can' win the news race, provide the back-story."

If David Meerman Scott had been at the summit he would probably have talked about the back-story as a chance for "Newsjacking", and he would have underlined the importance of the speed of response to a news story.

It has to be Real Time people.

2. Sean Curtis of Land Securities (@seanc_marketing) asked: "Do shoppers want to be Friends with a shopping centre?"

The incredible number of Facebook 'Likes' accumulated following the launch of the Trinity Shopping Centre in Leeds (currently over 115,000) tells us that the unequivocal answer is "Yes they do."

3.Tim Watson of DixonBaxi informed the Marketing Summit that: "NOTHING is more important than customer insight."

It all boils down to what drives your customer/new business prospects. What are their needs, desires, motivations?

Having this insight will give you a clear idea of the type of content that you should be providing and what will stimulate your customers to interact with you.

Ultimately this will drive revenue.

4.John Williams (@JWKnightFrank): "There is a blurring of the lines between personal and professional lives and stating on a Social Media profile that 'The views expressed here are my own' is meaningless."

As John stated, the prevailing cult of personality means that customers and clients will look at what you say as a representative of your business and its brand - regardless of if you said it at work, at home or down the pub.

5. Caroline Mills CBRE (@ccsaurus) suggested that we should: "Forget B2C and B2B, it's all about B2P communication." Marketing and communications should be personal.

Bonus take away:

According to Caroline "FOMO" (Fear Of Missing Out) is a big motivator in B2C marketing.

And if your weren't at the Marketing Summit, I'm afraid you missed out.

Flexible working or a flexible workplace?

people-coffee-tea-meeting.jpg

Every employee in the UK, provided they have been in the same job for six months, can now make a request to their employer to be allowed to work "flexibly". Employers have the legal obligation to supply an answer and to "provide a valid reason if they cannot say yes".

According to BBC News "flexible working" can mean: Part-time working, flexi-time, job-sharing, working from home or remotely, compressed hours, term-time working or agreeing annual hours.

There are, according to ACAS, a number of legitimate reasons for refusing that include:
• Burden of additional costs
• Inability to reorganise work among existing staff
• Inability to recruit additional staff
• Detrimental impact on quality
• Detrimental impact on performance
• Detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand
• Insufficient work for the periods the employee proposes to work
• Planned structural change to the business

Many businesses already allow staff to have such flexibility and commentators have suggested that the new legislation will have little impact. It does however bring the question of home working and flexible working practices into sharp focus. Will the result be an increase in people looking to work from home? What impact will this have on the demand for office space? Will even more home based workers mean an increase in vacant office buildings?

I'm not sure that it will.

The fact is that home working is not always easy. Not everyone has the facilities to work from home and there is more to going to work than just sitting at a desk (well - there should be!). There are those "water cooler" moments, conversations and opportunities to feed off the ideas and experience of others.

Teleconferencing is fine for those in different cities and countries, but conference calls are not great substitutes for face-to-face meetings with colleagues.

And what of those who have little experience of the workplace? What if they have a minimal level of "the culture of work"? Working from home may suit someone with a career spanning decades as they know what is needed, but would it suit a school leaver? Giving a fresh-faced teenager a laptop, a broadband connection, a smart phone and the green light to work from home could be seen by some as a recipe for disaster!

On the assumption that more people will take up the chance to "work flexibly" maybe will we see more "flexibility" built into the workplace? Will we see an increase in hot-desking and collaboration space and, if so, what does this mean for the office market?
Perhaps it is timely that JLL has recently published its report "Forget the Workplace... for Now", that suggests at "a new approach that contradicts the one-size-fits-all thinking behind then current conversations about flexible, mobile or collaborative working."

The study looks at balancing traditional office functions with "collaborative work", and suggests that "Getting this delicate balance wrong can significantly inhibit your ability to develop new products and services and deliver them to your clients."

This move towards collaborative working practices could see the growth in office accommodation that more and more resembles an airline business lounge - somewhere for colleagues and teams to come together for relatively short periods before dispersing to their chosen place of work? Maybe more and more office buildings will begin to resemble hotels, coffee shops?

Or even shopping centres?

Completion of Skanska's Monument Building changes EC3 skyline

SK_Monument_Exteriors_160217_AP_033.jpg

Skanska has completed the development of The Monument Building in the City of London and has brought about a transformation of this historic part of the capital.

Demolition of the site began in 2013 and the new building with its distinctive exterior, designed by Ken Shuttleworth's MAKE architects, has produced 94,000sqft (8,733sqm) of Grade A office space on nine floors and 3,892 sq ft of valuable retail space on the ground floor.

The Monument Building is Skanska's first London development under its Workplaces by Skanska brand.

At the time of completion three of the nine floors of office space had been let, along with one of the two retail units. 

More information is available at www.themonumentbuilding.com