How Corona is changing our downtowns
Prof. Dr. Rico Manb is Professor of General Business Administration and Academic Site Manager at the Leipzig Campus of the IU International University of Applied Sciences and will be writing specialist articles for IMMOBILIEN AKTUELL in the future. In the inaugural interview, he talks about the skills shortage in Germany and Corona's impact on retail, hotels and our downtowns.
The shortage of skilled workers in Germany
Young talent is a big issue everywhere, or better, the lack of skilled workers. You have done current research on this. What insights have you gained?
Rico Manb: Due to demographic change in Germany, a large number of jobs cannot be adequately filled in some areas. This shortage is particularly prevalent in STEM fields and in the healthcare sector and, geographically speaking, in the new German states. Companies must therefore increasingly present themselves as attractive employers and build an employer brand.
For this, we already know many approaches from academia to marketing and brand management. Instead of customers, however, we are now focusing on employees, and instead of focusing on customer needs, we are looking at the needs of employee target groups in employer branding. And this shows that the needs of younger generations in particular are changing. For example, recent studies show that Generation Z in particular places significantly more importance on a pleasant atmosphere in the job interview, the possibility of home office, open communication and active sourcing by companies, which means that companies need to reach out to applicants. Status symbols, company parties and money, on the other hand, are losing importance.
IU International University, for whose Leipzig campus you serve as site manager, is looking for collaborative partners in the business community, including the real estate industry. What conditions do the companies have to meet, and in which areas are the students trained??
Rico Manb: As an IU International University, we offer dual studies at the Leipzig campus: a combination of theory and practice. The training areas, just like the range of practice partner companies, are extremely diverse: We offer a total of eleven courses of study in the areas of business & management, health & social services, marketing & communications and tourism – a further eight courses of study will start in 2022. Students alternate days or weeks between theory in the lecture hall and practical application of what they learn on the farm. For companies, this means access to young, motivated talents with up-to-date, practical knowledge. Conversely, as a practice partner, one should offer these specialists and managers of tomorrow the opportunity to apply the course content and provide as broad an insight into the company as possible.
THIS is what needs to change in retail because of Corona
Concerns include a shortage of skilled workers and retail development. It's not just the Corona pandemic that has highlighted that consumers want different things. This is also one of your fields of research. Can you name three things that absolutely need to change in the retail industry?
Rico Manb: Not only in retail, but also in other industries with consumer interface, we have seen a real push of digitalization due to lockdowns and contact restrictions. The rise of online retailing does not mean that in the future people will only buy online and no longer in stationary stores in city centers. It is becoming more apparent that the online and offline worlds are merging even more and that the customer wants to be able to switch between channels at any time.
And it is precisely at this point that the retail sector must continue to step on the gas: Customers often come to the store well-informed, familiar with the assortment, more in need of eye-level advice, or just want to pick up the goods previously ordered via click-and-collect and get some tips from the expert staff. Retailers should therefore have a thorough understanding of the "customer journey" and know at which points in the journey customers want to engage digitally and at which points they want to engage analogue. Without a compelling, trust-building digital presence, fewer customers are likely to come to the store.
At the analogous places the actual USP of the stationary retail trade should be played out then fully: personal, "humanelnde" meeting, individual consultation, the possibility inspiration to find and feel well. In my view, the three levers for retailers are therefore: understand the customer journey, gradually enrich digital offerings, focus stationary offerings on USPs.
SO Corona is changing the inner cities
How will the pandemic change downtowns?
Rico Manb: After the lockdowns and contact restrictions, a lot of people are happy to go back to the city centers, to store in stores and to sit down in a cafe. Nevertheless, even before the pandemic, the online shift in retail has meant that downtowns will have to transform themselves. Here, too, the classic approaches from marketing help us: instead of a supplier-oriented design, demand-oriented concepts should be developed.
For the consumer, a visit to the city center usually means leisure activities – there is no need for a strict separation between shopping, gastronomy, experience and service routes. Future concepts should look at downtowns more from the needs of visitors and soften traditional vendor-driven boundaries. Visitors want a place with diversity, variety, experience, a place to linger and communicate. This means that in the future, city centers should focus even more on innovative retail concepts with a distinctive mix of uses and thus on an appealing branch mix.
In addition to a convergence of gastronomy and retail towards shopping cafes and farm stores, this also means that areas with a high quality of stay must be created and that visitors to the city centers are enabled to have experiences, through events, art/cultural offerings, showrooms.
Corona and the hotels
Hotels are an important part of the cityscape in most cities. This asset class also suffered and continues to suffer greatly. How will tourism and business travel develop from your point of view?
Rico Manb: These two areas will probably recover in very different ways. In tourism, especially in the area of city trips, we could reach pre-crisis levels again as early as 2022, at least in terms of domestic and intra-European guests. There, hotels may even be able to count on catch-up effects from consumers, but hygiene concepts and visitor management will continue to play a role.
In business travel, I expect a more complex development: for business relationships, personal contact still represents an essential trust-building element. Physical encounters at trade shows, congresses or initial customer visits are necessary to build a long-term and functioning business relationship. Still, many companies and business travelers have noticed that information-driven exchanges and internal meetings can be held very efficiently by virtual means. Surveys therefore show that large companies in particular will continue to plan with fewer business trips, even after the Corona crisis. Many companies are interpreting their travel policies more strictly and are more likely to invest in digital communication tools. For hotels, this may well mean a sustained decline in revenue in the business travel segment.
Do you think that, in addition to department stores, new usage concepts need to be thought up for inner-city hotels as well?
Rico Manb: Yes, definitely!
What might these look like?
Rico Manb: In terms of processes, hotels, like retailers, should know exactly the "customer journey" and accompany this entire journey via digital interfaces. For example, digital channels can be used for pre-arrival communication, but digitization of actual on-site processes such as check-in, trip planning, and room and trip customization would also be enriching.
In terms of concepts, hotels should be creative and focus on new target groups to close the corona gap as well as compensate for structural shifts. The basis for such considerations can be the regional demand structure.
Invitation to Real Estate Central Germany
For the 7. September 2021, a very special attendance event is in the starting blocks at the Congress Center Leipzig: The largest trade congress for the real estate industry in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia in 2021 – the Real Estate Central Germany .
Whether residential, retail, logistics or hotel, be our guest and get the concentrated overview of all assets in the region. Professor Rico Manb will also be present at the event and will initiate a discussion on the real estate market in Central Germany with a lecture.