From cost center to workspace catalyst.

Episode Overview

Commercial real estate is having a reckoning—and Chris Kane has been on the frontlines of it for decades. In this episode of The Flexible Office Economy, Mark Gilbreath sits down with the former BBC and Disney workplace executive to explore the radical (and overdue) reinvention of the workplace.

Kane makes the case for a bold transformation: from cost center to value creator, from analog systems to digital platforms, and from space-as-commodity to space-as-enabler. Drawing on stories from his new book “Where’s My Office?”, Chris shares why the traditional model of landlord-tenant relationships is broken—and how the power is shifting toward the user.

We explore how flexible work is exposing a decades-old mismatch between supply and demand, and why the next wave of corporate real estate must serve not just shareholders—but society. ESG isn’t a sideline; it’s the brief.

What You'll Hear

• Why corporate real estate must stop chasing savings and start creating value
• The workplace as a strategic lever—not just a sunk cost
• The missing human connection between landlords and occupiers—and how to fix it
• How digital transformation is finally reaching the real estate sector
• What agile working really means (and what it’s not)
• ESG and the office: where purpose and property must meet
• What leaders need to unlearn to truly embrace the Flexible Office Economy
  
  Why Listen

Chris Kane doesn’t speak in buzzwords. He speaks from the boardroom, the studio lot, and the boiler room—where change gets made. Whether you're a CRE leader, a landlord, or a workplace strategist, this episode will challenge your assumptions and spark new thinking about what office space is for in a post-industrial, increasingly virtual world.

If you're still treating workplace as a line item, you’re missing the point.
This is about people. Potential. And possibility.