Dr. Gleb Tsipursky – The Office Whisperer
Cat Johnson – Coworking Marketing Maven
Angela Howard – Culture Expert
Drew Jones – Design & Innovation
Andrea Pirrotti-Dranchak – Competitive Advantage
Jonathan Price – CRE & Flex Expert
Jeremy Fennema – Tech Innovation Alchemist
Once deemed as the darling of coworking, WeWork’s reputation has been tarnished after the company’s IPO, which valued it at $47 billion, was delayed and co-founder Adam Neumann stepped down as CEO.
While some competitors may be excited at the prospect of their largest competitor struggling, Richard Morris, CEO of IWG UK, said that no one will win if WeWork hits the wall.
“First of all we don’t want them to collapse,” said Morris. “We believe they’ve changed our industry in a very good way. The industry’s a beneficiary from what they’ve done because they’ve increased the understanding and awareness of flexible work space amongst customers, property owners and investors.”
Just a few months ago, it was hard to believe that WeWork would be what it is today. Last June, WeWork opened its third and largest location in Manchester in Dalton Place that would, along with the other two locations in the city, accommodate 2,000 members.
But WeWork’s lack of profitability and attempt to be seen as a tech company, rather than a real estate company, may have been the core of its downfall.
[bctt tweet=”IWG sees itself as a service company that uses technological advancements in real estate to boost productivity in their spaces.” username=”allwork_space”]
Since IWG is a publicly traded company on the London Stock Exchange, Morris said that if a firm wants to go public, it needs to have a detailed road map to profitability.
