So I saw this tweet from @mindshare this morning:
Now don’t get me wrong, the office space looks spectacular. I mean look at the views. Look at the cool space for town hall meetings. That’s a lot different than what you see at Northampton Consulting each morning. [Truth be told, my space looks the same in the afternoon as well.] Am I at least a little bit jealous? Nope.
I have been lucky enough to work in some very cool workspaces in my career. 600 Battery, San Francisco. 27 Maiden Lane, San Francisco. 777 Third Avenue, New York. 318 Blackwell, Durham. Amongst others.
They all screamed creativity (well, 777 Third Ave. not so much but that was a long time ago). They were designed to make collaboration happen without anyone actually knowing they were collaborating. Lots of big, shiny conference rooms to impress not only current clients but key prospects as well. They were spiritual incubators for the ever-elusive big idea.
And because every one of these agencies spent piles of f*@king money building these spaces out, they had to show them (off) to everyone they could. The birth of the agency tour. Forget a visit to the Met, or the Guggenheim or the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Come tour the ad agency. “Let us tell you about how the conference rooms were named (each one is a little known Anime character, cool huh?)” They’ll tell you about the time they blew through that wall, “the one right there”, as the current space simply wasn’t keeping pace with the agency’s meteoric growth. And while you might not catch it, there’ll be inside jokes sprinkled throughout the tour, clearly indicated by the little smirks of the well-meaning agency folks giving you the tour.
I have to ask though, who really benefits from the space? It’s certainly not the client/prospect. Sure, they get to go to the agency and sit in a badass conference room sipping Pellegrino as they review the latest concepts for Brand X Energy Drink (not competitive with Pellegrino, not at all). All good until they realize just how much that Pellegrino cost their company. Is it the agency employees? Sure, I guess, a little. But I’d wager that most employees (i.e., the ones not giving the agency tour) don’t really give a shit where they work (right Starbucks?). Or maybe they do when they realize they could be making a lot more money if the agency refocused their attention on them and not the state-of-the-art virtual reality experience in the main conference room, aptly named Haruhi FujiokaI.
It’s pretty clear that companies like WeWork or the Union Member House in Durham understand the need for alternatives to the traditional office space.
So if you want to spend a lot of money on bricks and glass and cool views, go right ahead. I’d prefer to invest those same dollars on my employees. Making sure they understand that my priority is on them and the work they do for our clients.
Arghh, gotta run. I have a call I have to get on from the comfort of my home office which has no bricks, limited glass and a partial view of the Smith’s house next door.
Northampton Consulting 