For most people, the answer to this question is usually no, "I have more important things to think about." But for some reason, this is something that has caught my interest lately. Especially with the advent of recent articles pertaining to some of the greatest company offices around the world; to name a few, these include Google's office (of course) in Zurich equipped with a slide and free gourmet meals three times a day, Facebook's office in Palo Alto, which includes its very own DJ booth, and YouTube's office in San Bruno, where indoor put-put, Segway riding, and swimming is not uncommon.
But to those of us who don't work there, this means nothing to us, right? I would have to disagree. A company's headquarters and the way it's set up is actually a lot more important than one would think. The way in which different departments are set up and the flow of information is crucial for a company to consider.
According to the late Steve Jobs (I know, I'm going on an Apple rant again), the power of space is pressing when it comes to enhancing the work of groups. In 1999, when Jobs was planning Pixar's headquarters, he had the building arranged around a central atrium, so that Pixar's diverse staff of artists, writers, and computer scientists would run into each other more often. He soon realized that simply creating an airy atrium isn't enough, he needed to force people to go there. He began with the mailboxes, which he shifted to the lobby. Then he moved the meeting rooms to the center of the building, followed by the cafeteria, the coffee bar, and the gift shop. Finally, he decided that the atrium should contain the only set of bathrooms in the entire building... Until the women had a complete uproar. He was then later forced to compromise and install a second pair of bathrooms. Darla Anderson, a producer of several Pixar films, said "I didn't want to have to walk all the way to the atrium every time I needed to do something. That's just a waste of time. But Steve said, 'Everybody has to run into each other.' He really believed that the best meetings happened by accident, in the hallway or parking lot. And you know what? He was right. I get more done having a cup of coffee and striking up a conversation or walking to the bathroom and running into unexpected people than I do sitting at my desk."
One of my absolute favorite Steve Jobs quotes comes from "The Lost Interview", a television interview filmed in 1995. He starts out with a story of a widowed old man that lived in the same neighborhood as him when he was young. He got to know him a little bit through mowing his lawn for him. One day the old man invited him to his garage and showed him a can of rocks, just plain old, common, dirty rocks. He closed the can and put it in a motor and told young Jobs to come back the next day. So he did, and they took out the rocks to find these amazingly beautiful, polished rocks; the same old, dirty rocks that went in through rubbing against each other, creating a little bit of friction and a little bit of noise, thus producing these beautiful rocks. "This has always been my metaphor for a team working really hard on something that they're really passionate about. It's through the team that you've got really talented people working together, bumping up against each other, having arguments, having fights sometimes, making some noise, and working together they polish each other and polish ideas, so what ends up coming out are these beautiful and innovative ideas."
So, the importance placed upon the people is huge for a company to really get great ideas flowing, thus the layout of the office is critical. So what is Apple's office like then? In fact, this was one of Steve's last projects that he was determined to make come true. On June 7, 2011 Jobs stood before the Cupertino City Council to present plans for the new corporate campus for Apple. The headquarters is intended to accommodate more than 12,000 employees in a single, circular building. It would look a little bit like a spaceship and two-thirds the size of the Pentagon. The budget for the Apple Campus 2 originally was planned at $3 billion, but has recently ballooned to nearly $5 billion, which would eclipse the spending on the new World Trade Center complex as well as many top-of-the-line downtown corporate towers. Jobs passed four months later and the move-in date was pushed back from 2015 to 2016. The multibillion-dollar budget for Campus 2 could add fuel to the debate about what Apple's doing with all its money. Shares have fallen 38% since September amid rising competition and critics are sure to question whether curved glass is the best use of funds. Although this is a legitimate question, Jobs has clearly proved that the people come first, thus the office is important. Nonetheless, I wouldn't mind working at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino, California!
No comments:
Post a Comment