How TSPM. changes the principles of commercial real estate management in Kazakhstan. Serik Tulbassov, the founder of the TS Development group of companies and owner of class-A Dostyk Plaza and Shymkent Plaza shopping centers, has consistently adhered to the principles of open and transparent business conduct for many years, as well as long-term partnerships built on mutual support. “The world we live in is changing rapidly. When doing business in such conditions, it is necessary to redistribute the focus of attention between strategy and operational management. Only those companies that will quickly respond to environmental challenges, increase their own efficiency and ensure the transparency of business processes will be able to survive in such a situation, ”says the head of TS Development convincingly. This approach allowed not only to retain 90% of the group's SEC tenants throughout 2020, but also led Serik Tulbassov to rethink the mission and goals of his business. The crisis in the industry caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has finally formed the understanding that an experienced team of specialists, the availability of our own IT developments and analytical tools can not only successfully manage our assets, but can also help other market players build an open and scalable business in any situation, even a crisis. In June 2020, the staff restructuring of Dostyk Plaza and Shymkent Plaza, NB Development, TSD Construction, TS Development, STS was carried out and a new company TS Property Management (TSPM.) Was registered, the main purpose of which was the analysis, valuation and management of commercial real estate. Today, Forbes' questions are answered by the CEO of TSPM. Alexey Khegay. - How would you comment on the creation of TSPM.? What is your mission in the market? - The idea of creating the TSPM company. came to Serik Karabekovich Tulbassov in response to the unprecedented business challenges that we all faced last year. Our team actively supported his vision. Experienced specialists do not give in to general panic, but promptly look for an effective solution to the problem. The plan of changes affected not so much the restructuring of the TS Development group of companies, but the entire industry as a whole. In the commercial real estate market of Kazakhstan, there was an especially acute shortage of a new player - open, experienced, determined, possessing all the necessary tools and resources, ready to take responsibility for the development of retail properties of other business owners. With everything we need: resources, experience and cutting-edge development, we decided to fill this niche. Within the abbreviation TSPM, a deep meaning was laid, which reflects the main characteristics of the new brand: Technological (technological), Smart (smart), Professional (professional), Major (significant). We have done a lot of work to define the core values and mission of the company. And today, I can finally announce it. Mission of the TSPM. consists in the formation of an effective management ecosystem in the commercial real estate market in Kazakhstan. In the future, we plan to expand our presence in neighboring countries. -What do you mean by ecosystem management? What exactly will your company do? - According to James Moore's definition, a business ecosystem is a set of services united around one company. Today, the concept of "ecosystem" is also closely related to the digital revolution. Electronic platforms create flexible infrastructure for partners, suppliers, customers and owners of virtually any business. Amazon is a prime example of a digital ecosystem. We, in turn, have developed unique IT products for commercial real-estate owners: a digital platform for managing an unlimited number of business entities, TS-online and the Smart Plaza loyalty program. The latter is also an automated system for collecting information on tenants' turnover, to which we have connected the marketplace and other functions. We have not presented our work for a long time without modern analytical tools. Our clients not only regularly receive general data on the attendance of the mall, but can also find out the percentage of conversion of visitors to buyers of specific stores. Some tenants contact us with more highly-specialized requests: for example, with a request to evaluate the product line, and we help to identify the most popular positions with the highest marginality. Thus, in four years, the turnover of one of our anchor tenants, the Galmart supermarket, has grown by 676% as a result of consistent collaboration. Only the addition of human capital remains - twenty years of experience of our team in the assessment, design, construction, analysis of engineering systems, management and promotion of retail facilities. We can safely say that we are able to completely take over the management of the shopping and entertainment center, creating an effective ecosystem of services around a single facility. In addition, we offer professional consulting on individual blocks: technical and service maintenance, commercial real-estate brokerage, process automation, design and construction and marketing promotion. - What are your plans for the future development of TSPM.? - At the moment, we are meeting with the leading players of the Kazakhstan market, and we are also planning to participate in major foreign events, for example, the exhibition of commercial real estate MAPIC Russia 2021, which will be held in Moscow. In the perspective of 2021, we would like to take control of 3 or 4 new real-estate entities. If we talk about the plans for the development of the industry as a whole, Serik Tulbassov sees the global task much broader: to unite the developers of the republic in the Strategic Union of shopping centers of Kazakhstan to exchange information, carry out transparent benchmarking, and attract foreign investors to the country's market. We needed to create an open rating of the republic's shopping and entertainment centers for a long time. TSPM specialists. active work is underway on their classification, development of assessment criteria, and obtainment of primary indicators from the main market players. We are not talking about confidential data, however, in modern world practice it is considered normal to provide, for example, the average rate for a shopping center, the average turnover and the level of costs per square meter. Any investor can request this information. The introduction of open ratings for shopping and entertainment centers will be the first step towards the formation of fair competition in the industry and will enable business owners not only to compare the key indicators of the development of retail real estate, but also to greatly increase the efficiency of their own employees. To summarize, our company is convinced that open data exchange will help raise the culture of doing business in Kazakhstan to a new level. For our part, we will make every effort to implement this strategy. Source: Forbes Kazakhstan, 50 Richest Businessmen, May 2021, print version.