The value chain of coworking: how will coworking scale and develop?

This four-slide presentation from Coworking Europe 2020 examined coworking’s potential value chain through the historical development of hotel asset management. Produced under the Glion Institute of Higher Education brand, the deck compared the scaling of hospitality businesses with possible routes for coworking growth. It cited Hilton’s first public offering in 1947 and Marriott’s in 1953, then reported that hospitality companies recorded seven IPOs per year during the 1980s and 16 per year during the 1990s. The presentation separated three value components: ownership of the property, operations management and customer experience. It arranged four business structures along a progression toward asset-light, fee-oriented models: owner-operator, lease agreement, management contract and franchise. The graphic indicated that these structures involved different combinations of property ownership, operating responsibility and customer experience. The deck used this hospitality comparison to consider whether coworking could adopt a similar range of operating and contractual models, and it linked that question to an ambition of reaching 30% penetration by 2030. The presentation did not present a conclusion or supporting analysis beyond this framework.

Key findings

• The deck cited Hilton’s first IPO in 1947 and Marriott’s first IPO in 1953.
• It reported seven hospitality IPOs per year in the 1980s and 16 per year in the 1990s.
• The model compared owner-operator, lease, management contract and franchise structures along an asset-light, fee-oriented progression.

Presented at Coworking Europe 2020