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Engaging our team. Lastly, my IT Leadership Team and I spent a a community from a tenant perspective. Plus, it’s more efficient
lot of time on talent assessment and management last year and from a business point of view, since tenants are all doing similar
will continue this focus going forward. We found and implement- things to manage, maintain and staff their stores. All this can
ed a team buy-in tool called POPin, which we use extensively be more accessible, in a community fashion, so retailers are not
to anonymously listen to our troops and to make sure everyone tackling these tasks alone.
understands our direction. POPin has had a big impact on my Tenant services. We’ve partnered with facility and telco providers
department’s engagement and culture. to offer our tenants services through our extensive fiber infrastruc-
ture: it’s quicker, faster, cheaper and more
stable. No longer do we have 15 telco
providers in the mall each running their
own infrastructure through our property.
Telco rooms have changed over the
years; they’re no longer just power and
cabling. The rooms contain high-end
servers and switches that we need to
keep safe and performing. This is achiev-
able because all our building technolo-
gies can now run on IP devices, which
use a common fiber backbone that also
accommodates energy management
systems, cameras, digital displays, Wi-Fi
and more. We build these fiber highways
in our malls, and then manage and
sometimes lease the lanes.
What will your focus be in 2017? More mobile. Like most, we will continue to push forward on
For 2017, we’re staying with the Data Driven theme, because mobile solutions. Mobile’s the way for us, especially with our front
it’s just so prevalent in everything we do. We will focus on our office teams. Times have changed: 15 years ago there were no
continued transformation as a company that supports omni- real tech-current real estate apps out there for a company to eas-
channel strategies, which includes tenant relationships with not ily say, “I want to reinvent myself. I want to be scalable.” Today, the
only the front office but also CIO-to-CIO conversations regarding look and feel of our industry’s apps are a big improvement. Many
system integrations, tenant services and self-service tenant portal of the older legacy real estate apps are dated—they’re ugly,
concepts. I will also continue to focus matching our IT talent heavy and expensive. The newer real estate solutions are cloud
with our intentions and enhancing our PMO. I would love for based, attractive, easy to use and scalable. This transformation
us to utilize our PMO for the enterprise, not just IT projects. This has just come into our industry over the last couple of years.
is admittedly a lofty goal, but I think there are non-tech-related Cyber security. Cyber security is a priority, as it is for everyone.
projects that could use the discipline, organization, and visibility I’ve created a dedicated resource at the VP level for our own
of our PMO. Cyber security is also a priority. Another focus is security strategy and efforts; they work hand in hand with our na-
evaluating the real estate software in the market—this landscape tional security team and risk management. Critical to our success
has changed sizably over the last six years, with new cloud- is awareness and training, and then validating our strategy with
software companies focusing on our industry. best practice and outside resources. We’re good at collaborating
and utilizing steering committees, so our security efforts and
Additional specifics about ’17: direction are holistic and integrated across Macerich.
Smart building. On the smart building front, we will continue Talent management. I firmly believe in talent management
to build out and enhance our infrastructure, and determine the and culture creation. I feel personally responsible for my depart-
appropriate data capture, collection and analytic solutions. We ment’s engagement, growth and performance within Macerich.
will also collaborate with our tenants to provide a better and We’re competing with the Amazons and Apples and Googles on
more frictionless experience for their customer and our shopper. talent, so I have to create a culture where the team wants to stay
So the question is, “When can I make data another utility to our and play. We’re very thoughtful about our approach, and enjoy
tenants?” Here’s your water. Here’s your power. Here’s your data. the results of a talented and engaged team. Also, baked into the
Tenant portals. Tenant portals are another 2017 initiative: We’re fabric of our department is continuous improvement. It’s a key
committed to enabling our tenants to have a 360° view of them- role within our IT department—to measure, analyze and offer
selves within our company. Our goal is to allow tenants to easily ways to improve our business flow performance. We always say,
log into their portal, see their AR, pay their rent, report their sales, “It’s people, process, and then tools.” I’ve been doing this for 21
and tell us how good we are or where we need improvement. years in this industry. In the past tools were often the limitation
We also want to create an Intranet within the mall that creates continued on page 52

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