Friday, October 22, 2010

Get your company's associates to help with cash, even though they DON'T have direct cash responsibilty! My great mentor and former boss, Red Scott, very cogently observed that "cash ain't cash unless it's cash." What he always meant is that a promise to be paid or a check or a banker's promise or any other substitute is not really cash. You can run out of cash too easily by relying on those assumed, supposed, or "promised" cash sources.

As a result, we need to get EVERYONE around us to turn their actions, activities and thoughts toward real cash! Get your operations, marketing, sales, support, and service people to re-evaluate what they do and it's impact on cash. Get them to understand whether what they do and spend really contributes, or doesn't, to cash; are those things really necessary? Do they contribute more cash than they use? Talk frequently to your associates about this.

Do let them know we're okay, but need to focus on cash due to the long-delayed recovery. Get them to FORECAST where they're going, and how it impacts cash. Get your people to forecast more accurately, and to begin forecasting if they haven't in the past. This alone can change your cash situation. Get them to look at the "Forecaster" and "Cash Manager" tools at www.ceotools.com (scroll down through New Tools Catalog to those tools).

By simply creating cash awareness, your cash will improve! Pretty simple concept: just get your people and associates (including employees, suppliers and supporters) to think a bit more about how what they do affects cash!

It's now clear we're facing a very long, cash-crunching delay in the world economic recovery, so please prepare now for cash improvement through your associates' actions.

With very best regards,
Kraig Kramers
President & CEO -- CEO Tools, Inc. www.ceotools.com
info@ceotools.com www.ceotools.com/blog
Copyright © 2010 Corporate Partners Inc.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Industrial Real Estate Market News 2nd Qtr 2010 - Tick Tock

Atlanta Industrial Real Estate Market Trends 2nd Quarter 2010 The Atlanta distribution market now sits with 21 percent of its 512 million square foot inventory available for lease or for sale. Since the official onset of this latest recession in December of 2007, 30 million square feet have been added to the availability column. The current 107 million square feet available represents a 38% increase over the available square footage before the recession began.

Take into consideration that spec construction accounts for a mere three million square
feet of that shift in availability and we’re looking at 27 million square feet returned to the market in the 10 quarter period since the recession began. The slow down in spec construction has reduced the percentage of new space to only eight percent – significantly down from the 19.4 percent seen at the end of 2007.

It’s also interesting to note that approximately 10 percent of all available space is on the market as a sublease opportunity. We are likely to see rates being held artificially low as long as this level of sublease space remains on the market.

Although, in a statement released in April, the National Bureau of Economic Research
agreed that most economic indicators had turned up, they thought it premature to announce an end to the recession. Our analysis of the Atlanta industrial market also shows signs of hope as the downward trend appears to be slowing.

In looking at the 10 quarters endured during this recession, net absorption has averaged –2,833,792 square feet. Second quarter 2010 net absorption came in at –1,829,349 square feet; negative, but better than the average we have seen. Activity held steady at 8,575,662 square feet this quarter; right in line with the 8,892,958 square foot average during this recession. With activity holding and net absorption improving, it is a sign that the upheaval in tenant stability may be subsiding.

The trends appear to show a beginning of the end of this difficult cycle. Historically,
the industrial real estate market recovers 18 months after the end of a recession. The bottom line is that tenants and buyers continue to have many opportunities . . . but the clock is ticking.

Submarket trends and summaries can be downloaded instantly here