Interview with James Dearsley, Member Advisory Board at workcloud24
1. What is the significance of ESG for you personally?
I could wax lyrical on the statistics we are all likely to have heard previously, and the significance and importance this has to society. Given the seriousness of these data, they are obviously a motivator, but it is more than that.
ESG is the driving force for change. It gives businesses, and the leaders that run them, a defined reason, an excuse even, to instigate the fundamental societal change that is needed to progress.
Before this there was an inertia for change. A resistance to take risks and upset the status quo.
I was for a long time an evangelist for the PropTech sector. However, after over a decade it has barely moved the industry forward. All of the conferences I have attended, all of the speeches, roundtables and fireside chats have not moved the industry forward at all. PropTech was a ‘nice to have’ and it was never really a reason, in isolation, to take a risk and innovate on the ‘Business as Usual’ (BAU). Leaders were not willing to risk their professional and personal reputation on a technology that wasn’t proven with little evidence of upside.
The Sustainability Development Goals are creating a driver to instigate true industry adoption of technology. ESG is the driver of change and PropTech is the engine. This provides both a carrot and a stick to instigate industry change, as it gives the leaders and the various stakeholders and shareholders the justification that they cannot stick with the Business as usual. They have to take the risk.
Businesses now have a reason to transform. That is why ESG is so significant. It is a protagonist for business and leadership transformation. As a global speaker and consultant on innovative leadership, and organisational change, this is where I am placed to support companies, adn the leadership teams, to understand how they should structure the next business for ultimate success.
2. What is particularly important to you in your role as a member of the advisory board?
I feel very lucky to be asked to be an advisory board member. Any insights on the global market I have been fortunate to witness, I want to be able to share, to help companies that can make a difference to do exactly that.
It is only through the collective wisdom of others, that we all thrive. Being close to a company like workcloud24 is one part of my own education at the same time. I will be learning from them, and I hope I can share my learnings in return.
3. You are an entrepreneur yourself – what drives you, in particular, every day?
I was one of the earliest adopters to the PropTech market. Even back then my only interest was to support the evolution of the industry. To help the real estate market realise that technology was a force for good.
PropTech, I soon realised was not the change. It was a symptom of the change. It was really about a far broader topic of Digital Transformation. There are many components to this, with technology being just one small part. Aspects of culture, leadership, strategy are far bigger and more important angles.
My aim is to support the global ndustry, and its personnel through its digital transformation journey. This means more conferences (I am already booked in to speak or emcee at over 10 conferences in 2024 already), and writing (I have a book being published next year looking at innovation in the built environment), not to mention lots of discussions with key industry leaders, and officials about how the industry must move forward.
ESG is the driving force for change!
James Dearsley, workcloud24
