Virtual lunch series combines exchange of experiences, innovation and personal career paths
Current issue shows how new business ideas emerge from experience in corporate real estate
How are new technologies changing corporate real estate, and how do concrete challenges of daily practice give rise to new business ideas? With its virtual "Young Leaders-only Lunch" series, CoreNet Global (CNG) is creating a format in which young executives discuss precisely these questions. The focus is on the direct exchange of experiences, insights into current developments in the industry and the personal paths of the people behind them.
At the fourth edition on 28 September, Chiril Matei, founder of the PropTech company LeaseWizard, gave insights into his journey from corporate real estate to business start-up. The starting point was a challenge he knew from practice: the time-consuming and error-prone manual evaluation of lease agreements. Matei developed the idea for an AI-based solution for the automated collection and structuring of lease data.
"With our Young Leaders series, we deliberately want to be close to practice and at the same time open up a view beyond one's own everyday work. Personal stories like Chiril's show that innovation often begins where someone experiences a concrete problem over and over again and at some point decides to develop a better solution themselves," says Sipho Fuhr, Chairman of the Young Leaders Board at CoreNet Global. "For our Young Leaders, this direct exchange is particularly valuable: They learn about new developments and at the same time learn about the decisions, detours and experiences behind a start-up."
From practice to business idea
Matei's professional path led from a technical activity in the BIM environment to corporate real estate and portfolio management. At the same time, he worked intensively on software and automation. The rapid progress in the field of AI finally gave him the idea of using appropriate technologies for processes in real estate management. Before he started development, Matei says he held around 70 discussions with industry representatives to check the specific needs. Only then did a prototype emerge and finally the confirmation of the business model with the first paying customer.
"It is precisely this connection that is exciting for us. Not to see technology as an end in itself, but to start from a concrete problem," says Fuhr. "At the same time, we want to encourage our young leaders to take their own observations and ideas seriously. Innovation can start with a very simple question: Why do we still do this process this way?"
AI as a concrete tool in corporate real estate
The exchange also focused on the possibilities and limits of current AI applications. Matei used the example of lease analysis to show how AI can already support time-consuming processes today. He also presented a planned benchmark in which different AI models are to be examined with regard to their performance in the evaluation of lease agreements. For CNG, the focus is less on the individual application and more on the exchange of information about the changes in the job profile and everyday work of corporate real estate professionals.
Exchange for the next generation in corporate real estate
The virtual lunch series is aimed exclusively at CoreNet Global's Young Leaders. In a compact form, CNG brings young professionals together with personalities who are shaping new technologies, business models and career paths in corporate real estate. "We want to create a space in which young leaders can ask open questions, share experiences and also get to know career paths that are not straightforward," explains Fuhr. "Because it will be crucial for the next generation in particular not only to observe changes, but to help shape them."
