Current Asia recently moved to a new office and although it’s not actually our first office, it is an office of “firsts.” And most of those firsts are actually things we don’t have or now can do without, rather than new innovations or equipment.
For one thing, we have no phones on our desks, and we have no central switchboard. Everyone uses their mobile, and with WhatsApp and Skype, there are no long distance charges.
We don’t have Ethernet cables going to our desks. WiFi connects us to each other and the printer. There is no central server in our office. Everything is in the cloud.
We have no receptionist. About once a day the DHL man arrives or someone comes to do some freelance work and everything goes crazy, but otherwise we don’t miss The Desk That Faces The Door. And of course we don’t have PA’s – that’s so last Tuesday. Their admin, scheduling and travel duties have been replaced by Expedia, Marketo, and even humble Outlook.
David Ogilvy is often quoted on the role of people in the advertising business ““The assets go up and down in our elevator every day.” Sometimes our assets don’t come into the office at all, and are in Starbucks or at home or in Nepal.
For those of you who wonder whether everything has changed and all is different, the water dispenser, tea kettle, tissues, Post It notes, and whiteboards all survived the change. For now. And we have a door but surely we can install a way to get in without using keys…
