Triovest Bets on the Future of Office Space

Amid the global shift towards remote working, Brad Merchant of Triovest uses a systems thinking approach to examine the evolving dynamics of office spaces. As corporations debate remote work, the demand for physical offices is in question. Triovest, a Canadian commercial real estate firm, is strategizing with a working investment thesis, "The Future of the Office." This approach involves buying undervalued office properties, modernizing them, and reselling them. Merchant and his team need to predict the interplay between remote and communal workspaces in their investment decisions. Would Triovest’s investment thesis affect these trends—or vice versa?

The case uses the example of Triovest to introduce students to foresight, future studies, and the practice of sketching plausible future scenarios. It also raises the issue of how a societal actor (in this case, Triovest) can intervene in ways that help bring about a desired future. The notion of betting on the future of office space is not one of gambling or taking random chances; rather, it is about affecting the course and the direction of unfolding trends that shape plausible future trajectories. After working through the case and the assignment questions, students will be able to do the following: <ul><li>Identify key components and relationships in the evolution of office spaces, considering both historical trends and larger societal and technological systems.</li><li>Evaluate potential future trajectories of office space utilization using foresight methodologies, while understanding feedback loops and causal pathways influencing these dynamics.</li><li>Utilize systems thinking principles to enhance foresighting techniques, ensuring a comprehensive view of potential futures while accounting for system-wide interactions and effects.</li><li> Integrate systems thinking and future studies principles to design holistic interventions that can influence the desired direction of unfolding trends in office space dynamics.</li></ul>

• systems thinking
• foresight
• future of work
• investment strategy