Now everyone has a shot at building the best "office building" in the world

On 6th June 2011, in what would be his final public appearance, Steve Jobs, said the following:

“It's got a gorgeous courtyard in the middle, and a lot more. It's a circle, so it's curved all the way round. This is not the cheapest way to build something. Every pane of glass in the main building will be curved. We have a shot at building the best office building in the world. I really do think that architecture students will come here to see it.”

He was talking about Apple Park, the company's corporate HQ located in Cupertino, California.

The project was first dreamt of in 2006, ground broke in 2013 and it opened in 2017. The total cost was a cool $5 billion.

It became the epicentre of the most famous company on the planet. It can accommodate 12,000 employees every single day, in total it covers 360 acres.

If you can think of it, it exists inside Apple Park, no expense was left spared. It's essentially an Apple principality inside of the Californian hills.

Apple isn't alone in having no expense spared mega “office”. Most of the silicon valley giants followed suit. From California to London, the tech giants employed top architects to build spectacular symbols of their immense global power.

At the top, there is an appetite to outdo each other. In part, it’s to attract the best talent they possibly can. Who doesn’t (or didn’t) want to work in a space that had everything you could dream of???

Before the pandemic, we all thought because we didn't know any way else that they had to be in these luxurious, inspiring spaces and companies who couldn’t compete lost out to talent. There wasn’t a whole load else you could do.

Then during the pandemic, we were pushed to breaking point. The thing is, we didn’t break. For the majority of us, we adapted to home working quickly. The billion-dollar glass and steel structures still existed, but had nobody in them and work still move forward.?

Heck, in the tech world most of these companies grew faster than they ever have before.

This is simply what happened, in a way you may not have thought about it.

We transitioned from a world where digital technologies supplement in-person communication as the means of aligning people to accomplish their objectives to the other way around: in-person communication and collaboration supplement the digital.

With that, the game was up for the silicon valley giants. They couldn't use these massive Investments as ways to attract talent, to differentiate themselves from other employers.

That’s the fascinating thing that a lot of us don't talk about.

The playing field was levelled.

It overnight that any company on the planet can now provide a better working environment to those of Apple, Google or any of the big companies. The physical location or fit out of an office isn’t a factor anymore.

Now, of course, the silicon valley giants don’t have the best cultures (How do you define best) but they had their unfair advantage which was the resource they could deploy in offices.

That's what the move from physical to digital has allowed, and the key is right now are you taking advantage of this?

The time spent on office budgets, build-outs, design, leases and sublets, seating plans and all the other aspects of a physical headquarters, is likely an order of magnitude greater than the time spent thinking about your digital HQ.

The digital HQ is where your company lives. It’s where your employees come together, where communication & connection happens.?

Guess what, the building blocks of Slack, Zoom, Google Workspace etc are the same for every company. It’s up to you to realise that you have the ability to make them the best they possibly can be for you.

These tools should be working as hard as they possibly can for you and your employees

However, because it is intangible, it’s easy to overlook the digital HQ. We have not, historically, given enough attention to these critical systems, despite their importance to organizational performance and even wellbeing. It’s time to start.

Before any ambitions of improvement, you have to understand how work is done right now and what the starting point is. Gaining situational awareness of your current workplace is the first step you need to take.

That’s what I help clients with every single day at Temporall. To surface the insights that exist within their workplace tools and the net of that is “where are we now, where do I need to focus on improvement, and how can I quantify that improve against business impact”

Going back to Steve Jobs “We have a shot at building the best office building in the world”

No, “You have a shot at building the best office building in the world”?

That phrase should be ingrained in any business leader reading this piece. It relates to the reality of your situation right now.

Are you taking advantage of this, especially with the economic situation the way it is, you need to squeeze everything you can from your technology.

The move to digital-first has taken away lots of red tape, you don’t need to have billions of dollars to even compete with anyone else. You can get started with the same tools as everyone else.

This is your biggest asset to building the best “office” in the world and focus more on a safe inspiring and rewarding workplace for anyone who interacts with your company.