Please indulge me; I want to combine two thoughts and ask for some input.
Firstly, let’s look at this story from the BBC (http://bit.ly/adss1pl). In summary, Mike Faith couldn’t find any headsets for is California based business. While on the journey to source them he has ended up being one of the leading suppliers in the US through his site headsets.com. On the face of it a fairly typical tale of a US entrepreneur that Tony Robbins would point to the happy ending.
Mike’s advice is “look for those things in your life or business that annoy you, where you can’t get the satisfaction that you want; if you can’t find what you want in the market place, and you try hard, it’s probably likely there’s a business opportunity there.”
See, all very law of attraction.
Now let’s consider what I simultaneously love and hate, the office. Now I’m a pretty social guy, always up for a work night out, love to engage people in the lift and around the coffee machine in how their day is going and pretty effective at dropping by people’s desks to get quick decisions to move things forward. I’d go mad at home all day; stir crazy could have been coined just to describe me working at home.
However, I hate the commute, and resent having to be so far from my home all day. I hate lugging a laptop or tapping away at emails on my PDA. Let’s face it; very few of us get to live close to our office production lines do we?
Firstly, let’s look at this story from the BBC (http://bit.ly/adss1pl). In summary, Mike Faith couldn’t find any headsets for is California based business. While on the journey to source them he has ended up being one of the leading suppliers in the US through his site headsets.com. On the face of it a fairly typical tale of a US entrepreneur that Tony Robbins would point to the happy ending.
Mike’s advice is “look for those things in your life or business that annoy you, where you can’t get the satisfaction that you want; if you can’t find what you want in the market place, and you try hard, it’s probably likely there’s a business opportunity there.”
See, all very law of attraction.
Now let’s consider what I simultaneously love and hate, the office. Now I’m a pretty social guy, always up for a work night out, love to engage people in the lift and around the coffee machine in how their day is going and pretty effective at dropping by people’s desks to get quick decisions to move things forward. I’d go mad at home all day; stir crazy could have been coined just to describe me working at home.
However, I hate the commute, and resent having to be so far from my home all day. I hate lugging a laptop or tapping away at emails on my PDA. Let’s face it; very few of us get to live close to our office production lines do we?
I like the idea of local working hubs that I first saw floated 15 years ago. Open plan offices with break out areas, meeting rooms and a canteen. A space with my own desk where I can dress for the office and virtually be there while being virtually at home. Where I could cycle to in 10 minutes. Where I could have random conversations in the lift or waiting for some warm brown liquid to be released into a paper cup.
But who would pay for it. I have no idea what real estate costs, but let’s say my company pays £500 sq metre for my desk in London, with overheads, why would they pay for a desk for me where only a couple of my colleagues work? What about travelling in for meetings, who pays for that? Could we conference effectively from our laptops?
Is there a solution here, or am I just in need of a summer holiday?So let’s put some crowd sourcing into place, what do you think the solution is?
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