Why innovation and diversity really matter

COMMENT: Embracing diversity of thought to propel creativity leads to competitive advantage. The real estate industry must continue to innovate and seek talent from a rich and varied global workforce not just to thrive but to survive, writes entrepreneur and Unicef business mentor Emma Sinclair. Harnessing cross-cultural intelligence ensures employers meet the needs of the changing workforce and, importantly, their clients too. The international labour pool includes everyone from those employed by global multinationals to immigrant workers, contingent labour and refugees: architects, technologists, artists and manual labourers. Diversity of language, thought, gender, culture, education, experience and vision – the wide source of talent the world relies on – that the real estate world relies on – needs to expand not shrink. But we risk that labour pool dramatically contracting if we don’t act now. Right now, 50m children have been uprooted from their homes and face unimaginable hardships. Their lives are on hold at a time when they should be free from worry and in education, preparing for their future. School, college, university: a privilege most of us were fortunate to enjoy. To provide some context on the size of the problem, the ongoing conflict in Syria alone has caused the largest humanitarian crisis since World War 2. I saw this first hand when I recently visited Azraq camp in Jordan with Unicef UK last month. The camp is relentlessly hot in summer, with almost no shade or breeze. The metal containers that serve as homes for more than 30,000 people are neatly arranged in a vast sea of white lines as far as the eye can see. Depressingly, this is a whole new type of real estate. A whole new makeshift town. Refugee camps across the world are places that will likely be home to many for some time.  And forces are currently colluding that risk creating an entire generation without schooling and skills. With millions of young people potentially lacking the tools to work or the opportunity to harness their talents, our labour pools will shrink. Our economies could deflate. The pace of innovation risks slowing. Einstein, Sergey Brin (the co-founder of Google), Madeleine Albright, Henry Kissinger, Freud, Freddie Mercury, Michael Marks (co-founder of Marks & Spencer) are all refugees who fled oppressive regimes. And where would we be without them? Last month I launched Unicef UK’s first crowd fund. Here in the UK, the real estate industry benefits from a supportive and accessible business ecosystem. Most of us have access to the internet and its rich resources, trade press like EG, industry talks and events, learning supported by an employer, alumni networks, friends, debt and equity, jv partners, investors, MIPIM… I want to help create similar access in refugee camps. In Azraq I met a young man called Mohamad, who taught me an Arabic saying: “It is the little drops of rain that carve the rocks; not by strength but by persistence.” The real estate industry are a generous, entrepreneurial and persistent bunch. You build houses, buildings, high streets and cities – and that can take months, years and sometimes decades. Property knows how to “carve the rocks” and think ahead to ensure the future is compelling. I hope I can harness a little bit of your power to help fund my crowd fund, which runs until 7 October, and beyond that, engage some of you in this idea, to roll out innovation labs in refugee camps all over the world. Because by arming these young people with the tools they need and deserve – education – we will be ensuring we survive and thrive. Donate here Emma Sinclair, entrepreneur and Unicef business mentor