Envisioning the Future Office
The San Francisco architecture firm, KMD, retained Business Place Strategies to help them evaluate their “officing” approach in light of an upcoming decision whether to remain in their current office location or to relocate. The firm’s vision is to focus on and leverage their long-term commitment to innovation and the ebb and flow in the activities of daily practice. The “place” that the firm conducts its practice was the focus of a deliberative exploration, led by BPS. The approach emphasized a broadly integrated emphasis on the organization, the people, the culture and the work of the firm. It purposefully addressed potential future ways of working that emphasize the broader corporate goals of reinforcing innovation as creative ideas that are implemented (the two components of innovation). As in all businesses today, both the physical and technology workplaces were of critical interest and importance. It culminated in a future portrait of the firm based on goals, characteristics and values that were brought out through the process in the form of a strategic workplace program. That portrait addressed work process, planning guidelines and recommendations for undertaking pilots to test the proposed planning guidelines.