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Automating Control Over Systems and Spaces with Mark Furness and Kally Kang-Kersey

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Jun 15, 2022

Summary: Louisa
is joined by Mark Furness, Founder & CEO of essensys and Kally
Kang-Kersey, Chief People Officer at essensys for the 8th episode
of season 9 of The Propcast. During the course of the episode, they
discuss what it means to digitally enable buildings and office
spaces. Mark shares his journey from founding essensys back in 2006
to listing it on the stock exchange in 2019. Kally speaks about
what people are looking for when joining a business in the
post-pandemic world and how to build a successful business in a
market that is constantly shifting. The discussion evolves into an
overview of the major trends in the market and predictions for the
future. 2019, 2020 and beyond have been a huge catalyst in terms of
the change in real estate; post pandemic, people want purpose in
their work and they want to be connected to the business that
they’re working in.


Resources:


Key Insights From This Episode: 

  • Digitalisation and frictionless building
    experience are right at the heart of the real estate industry, as
    well as sustainability. – Mark
  • Post pandemic, people want purpose in their
    work and they want to be connected to the business that they’re
    working in. – Kally
  • 2019, 2020 and beyond have been a huge catalyst
    in terms of the change in real estate. – Mark 
  • The operation of real estate has not had huge
    adoption because the acceleration of digital-first type solutions
    and digital enablement has only really happened in the last few
    years. – Mark
  • We’ve got to create a growth mindset in our
    employees. – Kally

 

About Our Guests:

Mark Furness, Founder & CEO of essensys


Mark Furness

is the CEO of essensys, the world’s largest provider of
mission-critical software and services to the flexible workspace
industry. He has over 15 years of experience in building global
SaaS and IT organisations. With a focus on automation and
self-service, he founded essensys in 2006 to change the way space
providers deliver services and meet occupier requirements in the
flexible office sector. Mark is passionate about innovation,
customer success and company culture. He is a determined leader and
a visionary, guiding essensys to a public listing on the AIM market
of the London Stock Exchange in May of 2019.

 

Kally Kang-Kersey, Chief People Officer at
essensys 


Kally Kang-Kersey

is a true commercial business HR
leader with over 25 years’ experience driving inspirational
approaches to enable organisational change and human capital
management at international and globally scaled technology-led
businesses. She was most recently VP, Talent & Organisational
Development at Zebra Technologies, a $4bn revenue global technology
business, where she led their global talent function, and
previously served as HR leader for EMEA. Prior to Zebra
Technologies, she held various senior HR and leadership roles at
Xerox, American Express and Yellow Pages Sales Ltd
(BT). 

In this newly created role of
Chief People Officer, Kally joins essensys’ Executive and Operating
Board, and will lead on all HR and human capital matters across the
group, including talent development, culture, employee engagement,
inclusion and diversity.

 

essensys

essensys is a leading global technology company for
commercial real estate. Our platform is designed to solve the
problems faced by today’s modern landlords and flex workspace
providers, providing the intelligent digital backbone that enables
the real-time provisioning of digital services through intelligent
network automation.

essensys delivers a simple,
secure and scalable solution that helps our customers to create
digitally enabled buildings and spaces portfolio-wide, to deliver
seamless experiences, and realise smart building and ESG ambitions.
We simplify network management, reduce operational complexity,
provide enterprise-grade security, deliver on-demand digital
services and access the data and insights to drive
success.

Founded in 2006, and AIM-listed
on the London Stock Exchange since 2019, essensys is active in the
UK, Europe, North America and APAC.

 

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.

 

Timestamps:

[03:05] Mark: Talk us through
founding essensys in 2006 and give us some information about the
product. 

  • essensys is the word ‘essential systems’
    chopped up and I started it in 2006 because I wasn’t sure many
    people would consider employing me at that time or in the
    future. 
  • The world of technology especially IT and
    Service Delivery as well as the technology around network services
    was hugely complicated. 
  • The genesis of the business was could we
    automate and make self-service, the management to control IT and
    infrastructure in an enterprise? 

[08:10] Mark: Can you give an
example of someone who might be your customer? 

  • Think about the world’s largest real estate
    brands and companies, whether it is flex, industrious or big asset
    owners. 
  • We have a global private network and then we
    have technologies that we control – imagine walking into a
    building, you can get your phone out and you can tap your phone and
    not only will it connect you to the network, but it will also open
    the door as well as book the space and charge you, all in less than
    half a second.

[11:30] Kally: What have you
seen post-pandemic in terms of what people are looking for when
joining a business? 

  • People want purpose and they want to be
    connected to the business they’re working
    in.   
  • Communication and how we engage are more
    imperative than how many days we are working. 
  • Aligning your culture to the actions you want
    to see.  

[16:20] Mark: In 2019, essensys
IPO’d and raised a significant amount of capital, what has changed
in the business since then? 

  • We bootstrapped to 2019 but we had to set our
    stall out for the future and the ambition of the
    business. 
  • It was an evolution in the real estate sector
    that drove that thinking.

 [18:50] Mark: What are the
major trends you’ve seen? 

  • I think the trends are the same, but I think
    they are accelerating. 
  • Since 2006, flex was already moving in the
    direction I thought it would go in. 
  • Finally sustainability. Do we do this as a tick
    box exercise? Do we do it because we’re forced to? Is it part of
    the responsibility of real estate as such a huge contributor to
    greenhouse gas emissions?

[21:15] Kally: How do you build
for success in such a rapidly changing market? 

  • We’re evolving fast so companies can get
    wrapped up in the transactional but we’re trying to
    transform.
  • We launched our first sales academy from a
    structured methodology but also evolving and getting people to
    understand the impact we make.
  • Everybody should be able to have a connection
    and passion for the company.

 [24:45] Mark: What’s next
for essensys and what are your future predictions for the
market?

  • For essensys, we are looking for where we can
    work with those big global real estate providers and those at-scale
    flex providers to help them with their growth, with their digital
    transformation and to make their operations more
    efficient.
  • Real estate is going back to the era of let &
    forget because buildings are becoming more
    autonomous. 
  • The main lesson I have learned is to be
    yourself, have authenticity in every part of what we do. I want
    people to challenge me and be passionate about what we are doing.
    The importance of a work-life balance. 

[28:20] Kally:
What are you excited about in the
future of PropTech?

  • Excitement through empowerment.  If you
    are high energy, you’ve got curiosity, and you want to solve
    problems. It’s a great culture. And, even when you fail, it’s still
    a great culture.

 

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