I am not a consultant who studied this sector. I ran companies in it.
Igor Mody / Tallinn, Estonia / Working in English across Europe.
Fifteen years in flexible workspace and commercial real estate. Chief operating officer and partner before becoming independent.
I have spent my working life inside flexible workspace, first at Regus and then building Workland. The second of those taught me most. A business that grows sevenfold in five years does not do it evenly, and almost every useful thing I know came from the parts that went badly before they went well.
As chief operating officer and partner I carried responsibility across several markets: the P&L, the pricing, the leases, the people, and three acquisitions along with the integration work that follows them, which is where most of the value in a deal quietly disappears.
I advise independently now because the questions I found hardest as an operator are the ones almost nobody was equipped to answer. Brokers knew the market but not the margin. Consultants knew the frameworks but had never signed a lease they would have to live with. The useful position is the one in between, and it only exists if someone has actually done the job.
Three ways of learning the same industry.
Regus — serviced offices at scale
The corporate end of the industry, where the systems already worked and the job was to run them properly — local operations first, then across the Baltics. Where I learned what disciplined operations look like once somebody else has already paid for the mistakes.
Workland — chief operating officer and partner
Multi-market responsibility for a business that grew roughly sevenfold between 2019 and 2024. Pricing, operations, leases, hiring, three acquisitions and the integrations after them, and a stretch of effectively running the company.
Advisory, on both sides of the table
Operators, capital and occupiers. The same sector seen from three positions, which is the only reason any of the advice is worth paying for.
Five things worth knowing before you call
- You will always know who pays me If anyone besides you pays me in connection with your work, whether a landlord’s commission, an operator’s referral fee or a contractor’s fee, you will know who and how much before you commit. And I never act for both sides of the same deal.
- You get a recommendation, not a menu Options exist to be weighed and then decided between. Handing you four scenarios and leaving the judgement with you is not advice, it is homework.
- The arithmetic is always available Every number I give you can be traced back to where it came from. If it cannot, I will tell you it is an estimate and say how confident I am.
- The work is layered, and it can stop Nothing continues automatically. Each stage is commissioned once the one before it has answered its question, and plenty of engagements end after the first.
- I will tell you if I am the wrong person It happens. Saying so early costs both of us a conversation, and saying so late costs you considerably more.
Two situations that shaped how I advise
- 2020, and a lease portfolio under stress When the pandemic arrived there was no clever way around it, globally or here. The entire lease portfolio had to be renegotiated with landlords, supplier costs taken out line by line, and the business held together while demand disappeared. What I took from it: an operator’s lease portfolio is its real risk position, and almost nobody knows what theirs does under stress until they find out the hard way.
- An acquisition that changed shape halfway through We acquired two locations that needed demanding restructuring from the outset. Then the market turned and the original plan stopped making sense. Rather than restructure what we had bought, we opened a larger location, closed both acquired sites and consolidated their members into the new one. What I took from it: what you acquire is rarely what you keep. The value sat in the customers and the contracts, not in the premises.
Bring the difficult question.
- What is on your mind, and where you are today.
- What result or change you are looking for.
First conversations are 45 minutes and cost nothing.
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