Why is Coworking becoming one of the major trend of the decade ?

We turned off the lights of the second Coworking Europe conference a few days ago.

Besides the wonderful spirit and the incredible energy we experienced during these outstanding three days, one strong impression remains from all the discussions we had  : Coworking is becoming huge ! 

Coworking to shape the coming decade 

More than 220 people, originating from the five continents, gathered in Berlin.

If Europe was the most represented, an important North American delegation attended the event, alongside representatives from Asia, South America and the Middle East.

Coworking is not marginal anymore nor is it a western phenomenon. Coworking is a solution which naturally and independently arises in different locations of the world. It sounds like a common answer to emerging needs in the our fast changing economies and societies.

Accordingly, my conviction is that coworking is not only there to stay and grow. Coworking will be one of the most impactful trend that will shape the coming decade.

Similarities with the expansion of the internet

As a matter of facts, the short history of Coworking reminds us of some identical milestones of the early days of the internet.

Internet, just like Coworking, emerged out of a handful of isolated initiatives led by small groups of people motivated by different purposes. One day, those actions converged. The US Army was investigating the way to build a resilient communication and information infrastucture which wouldn’t be interrupted in the case of a damage in the physical network. Besides, universities had the need for a more convenient way to share knowledge and documents between academics. Many usages popped up with time. One day, Tim Berners Lee and other pioneers managed to connect everything. The internet, as we know it, was born.

The coworking movement surfaced, according to some consensus, simultaneously, in San Francisco and London. In 2005, developers in the Bay Area had a need for a new location to meet and get rid of the burden that was working out of a coffee shop. In London, the initiators of The  Hub  network, wanted to set up a platform and a community for social entrepreneurs. In the meantime, other players around the world had the idea to create – either as a side project, as a non for profit association or as a regular business – open platforms where nomad workers could drop in, either . One day, all these independent communities acknowledged they were part of a bigger one : coworking.

The common name and the values shared by the coworking promoters helped to build bridges between coworking spaces on the national and on the international level. In a way, the shared values of coworking (openness, collaboration, innovation, entrepreneurship, freedom, sustainability,…) are the TCP/IP and HTML of the coworking movement, the common understanding allowing the nodes to connect with one another.

a new way of working in the 21st century

Both, the internet and coworking, have grown thanks to the support of free, verry committed and value driven people.

Nevertheless, nowadays, as Alex Hillman puts it, coworking is not anymore in the hands, solely, of altruistic entrepreneurs or associations, although their role as pioneers is and will remain critical (just as the role of the “sharing driven” open source developers remain critical for the improvement and the strengthening  of the internet).

In the coming future, I expect Coworking to be more understood as a “new way of working”, a new way to set up inspirational working environment based on human factors, people openness and a collective will to achieve exciting things as well as to enjoy a meaningful professional life.

So, it’s likely that coworking will steadily spread out to new layers of the economical landscape, maybe under different shapes (“hybrid coworking“, or, as Sebastian Olma nicely writes :”something between between anti-corporate activism and Goldman Sachs investment banking” ?).

A matter of style and tastes

Alex Hillman compares the broadening scope of styles in coworking spaces with the variety we have in music. Individuals can enjoy jazz more than classical, listen to pop instead of esoteric… We all know these different styles belong to a bigger thing which is music.

I fully agree. I would add that tastes change.

I can, one day, be in a mood where I will be keen to listen to a rap. The day after, I could be looking for an opera soundtrack. Just as I will pick an Italian restaurant, one day, and go for a Japanese combo the day after…

Accordingly, the challenge of the multi-membership (individuals being members of a bunch of different coworking communities) could possibly arrive on the agenda of the coworking community, as well.

Coworking answering different challenges of our time – A list

So, why will coworking become a structuring trend of the coming decade  ?

According to me, due to the economical, cultural and societal shifts of the current time…  Here, is a list of reasons, I see,, partly inspired by the conference’s speaches :

The rise of the independent workforce

As the Emergent Research study showed during the Coworking Europe 2011 conference, the rise of the independent workforce is structural (at least, within the western world). Even more striking, the majority of the independent workers and entrepreneurs choose to become independent. They will need locations to meet, work and network.

New open innovation models

The technology is getting every day more complex. Innovation cycles shorten. Big companies are always more risk averse. Most of them can’t dance in a time of agility. Innovation is already coming from the outside, especially from startups and creative individuals. As the Otto Group company said, during the conference, coworking spaces can both play a role as trends watchers and serve as a bridge between innovators and big organisations.

The quest for a new corporate contract and for new corporate values

Not working “for” but working “with”. “Consider employees or freelances not as a ressrouce but as partners”, underlined Mutinerie. The economy is becoming more and more collaborative. So business organisations will (cfr Seats2meet presentation as well). Again, coworking sounds like the perfect platform/ecosystem to transform a human organisation into a more collaborative platform.

The integration of the GenY

The “twenty something” are turning their back to the traditional corporate model. They intend to be respected. They don’t tolerate to be yelled at by a boss just for the reason he or she is the boss… Nowadays, the perfect spot for them to work seems to be… a coworking space.

The emergence of a global “startupsphere”

We are at an age of rising micro-multinationals. What do you do, if you are a startup and need to expand abroad fast to breakeven, according to your business plan ? Ok, you can browse the web. But beyond that? What if you know no-one outside the walls of your city ? The coworking network is a community of communities where you will be able to get, at least, advices and connections, if not support. Nice to say, less obvious to achieve, however, warned us Liu Yan, from Shanghai (Xindanwei). Building a business, locally or internationally, is first a matter of trust building and, more and more, of sharing. Start with that. With respect to that, the coworking movement can help.

Need to bring the creative economy in cities and to interconnect local ecosystems

Coworking spaces create local ecosystems wich help to connect organically many players in a given town or city, much more efficiently than many other public intiatives with the same aim. The Berlin city, for instance, confirmed its interest regarding the impact coworking can have in the bridging of the local communities.

Jean-Yves Huwart

Coworking Europe 2011 conference initiator and co-organiser

Deskmag 2nd Global Coworking Survey

Coworking – a movement changing the way we work – Coworking Europe 2011 conference

For the second year in a raw, Global Enterprise organises the Coworking Europe conference.  This year, the conference takes place in Berlin, Germany. 

There are over 375 million independent and mobile workers around the world, they do not work in the traditional office and they are propelling a massive change through collective necessity of workspace and a community with which to belong.

Coworking Europe 2011, organized by Enterprise Globale, CLUBOFFICE, and betahaus, with the support of Deskmag, will serve as an investigation into how spaces are developing as well as the greater effects on creativity, education, and entrepreneurship.

Over 200 people from Europe, China, and the U.S. will converge in Berlin 3-5 November at betahaus and CLUBOFFICE, two of Berlin’s very successful coworking spaces. Participants will represent the spectrum stakeholders in the emerging field delving into university systems, city development, start-up incubation, corporate entities, as well as community building within spaces themselves and creating broader networks for the individual coworkers.

The from coworking spaces to large corporations, the diversity of speakers is one of the strengths of this meeting of minds. Alex Hillman, founder of the coworking space Indy Hall and a figurehead in the global movement, will encourage discussion on the importance of community in taking coworking to the next level. Christoph Giesa from the Otto Group, a large German corporation, will share how even traditional companies have need to pay attention to the movement. Giesa says, “Like all big companies we are facing a shortage of skilled personnel, and we have to accept that there are people who want to work in a different way from now on.”

One of the leading publications documenting the movement, Deskmag, will also be presenting early results of the 2nd Global Coworking Survey. Findings of the research will be extremely valuable to current and potential space owners, learning from coworkers wants and needs, as well as from successful and failed spaces around the world.

There is not one voice which represents the coworking movement. They are in fact quite varied. All people who attend are encouraged to present in an accelerated Barcamp style session. Coworking Feng Shui? Coworking party planning? Green office conditions? Could be any or none of these ideas, the exciting thing will be to see what the coworking community would like to share with eachother.

Berlin holds one of the highest concentraions of cowokring spaces in the world. Coworking Europe will bring the crowd to them individual spaces for a first-hand experience in the different manifestations of coworking spaces in the city. Often the needs of the community found within the space define both the physical space and the community interactions.

The idea of coworking has progressed from its beginnings of groups of freelancers, who had been working alone, collaborating to create a new work environment. These days they are joined by employees of large companies, scientific researchers, students, and more. As with all new things the exciting thing is watching it transform and grow, utilising potential that was before unknown, and creating and idea that may change the way we all work.

www.coworkingconference.com

Notes to the editor:

The figure of over 375 million independent and mobile workers around the world comes from Foresster Research.
Coworking Europe was first held in 2010 in Brussels, Belgium, and was organized by Jean-Yves Huwart of Enterprise Globale.
Coworking Europe 2011 is co-organized by Enterprise Globale, CLUBOFFICE, and betahaus, with the support of Deskmag.

Global Enterprise is an economic “think and do tank”, which analyses new trends impacting modern economy dynamics : creativity, networks, collaboration, entrepreneurship, values, innovation are just some of the major topics covered every day. Global Enterprise is playing an active role in supporting economic operators to develop and browse new physical and digital ecosystems in order to grow their agility and their innovation potential.

CLUBOFFICE is a network of new workplaces where freelancers, enterprise employees and even entire companies can find more than just a space in which to work.

Betahaus is a coworking space which meets the requirements of independent creative professionals and knowledge workers, and expands their opportunities. In a mixture of relaxed coffee house atmosphere and concentrated working environment they create room between work and privacy in which innovation and creativity is fostered. is

Deskmag is the magazine about the new type of work and their places, how they look, how they function, how they could be improved and how we work in them. We especially focus on coworking spaces which are home to the new breed of independent workers and small companies.
Sponsor information:
Deskwanted allows easy online access to working spaces, enabling those with a need for a place to work to easily find their space.
Airbnb are proud to sponser Coworking Europe by providing accomodation to many of the international speakers. Airbnb connects people who have space to spare with those who are looking for a place to stay.

Press Contact:
Coworking Europe press contact:
Julius Ruecker, CLUBOFFICE
julius.ruecker [AT] club-office.com
Mobil +49 (0)1525 364 05 08
Office +49 (0)30 21 50 2041

At HCL Technologies, employees come first, than the customers…

“Our people are our best asset” often look as empty slogans displayed on companies front office.

The Indian IT company HCL Technologies (55.000 people, 3.6 billions US$ turnover) has made it real. To the extend that the CEO of the group, Vineet Nayar, proudly state : “Employees first, customer second” (E1C2).

First implemented in 2006, the E1C2 model has strenghtened since then at HCL Technologies, with success. The company is one of the most succesful IT services organisation in the world.

Management reversed accountability

The key principle of the E1C2 model is defined as “reversed accountability” and is described in the following way :

“The value generated by an organisation if created by its employees, mostly those in contact with the customers. The managers are not creating the value. Managers should be their to listen and support the employees. Not the opposite”, says Vineet Nayar.

For HCL Technologies, it’s in the interest of the company to understand that the employees create the value, not the CEO or management. If the staff members feels good about their job, it they get enough autonomy, support and transparency from the top, the impact for the customer will be positive.

A 360° evaluation system is put in place. Anyone in the organisation can comment the work of a colleague, no matter what’s his/her position otr department. A transparent online questioning system is available for all the company members. More actions are explained in the herebellow slideshow.

Employee First Customer Second

“With Geny Y, we are digitalizing the corporation. This change who is in power, really. Where will the solutions be found ?”, observes Vineet Nayar, interviewed by the Harvard Business Review.

Bring the human back to business

But how to convince traditional managers to endorse this new management values ?

“Good question, says the CEO of HCL Technologies. There is a number of beliefs that have to be accepted by today’s anagers. First, believe that you don’t have all the answers. Believe that it’s ok for brighter people to exist in the world. Believe that the future answers you need to make the right decision for your company will come from manager and CEO but from the rest of the organisation or from the outside. Believe that the command and control way of runninging an organisation will not work if you believe democracy value  is the best way to run a country. And believe that by opening yourself to accounbility to evaluation, you will unleashed a new potential for your company”.

“Bring human back to business !“

“The free writing technique helps you to produce online content faster”

A global survey on the benefits of coworking for coworkers

The economic think tank Entreprise Globale/Globecorp.biz and the Coworking Europe 2010 conference are partners in the first global survey on coworking users, initiated by the Technische Universität Berlin and Deskmag.

Click here to take part in the Global Coworking survey

This survey is part of an academic, non-commercial study examining the working conditions of coworkers in coworking spaces. It’s the first global survey on coworking. The results will be published for free on a magazine or blog in your country.

All replies are anonymous. We don’t at any point ask for your name, or the name of any coworking space.

The questionnaire is simple to use. You also can switch between languages in the upper right corner. The continue button is at the bottom of the page. Have fun and thank you for your participation!

This survey is organized or supported by:

Lukas de Pellegrin, Technical University of Berlin
Carsten Foertsch, Deskmag – Coworking Magazine
Jean Yves Huwart – Coworking Europe / Enterprise Globale – European conference on Coworking 2010
Carolyn Ockels, Coworking Labs – Coworking Research USA
Cadu de Castro Alves, Global Coworking Group
Anderson Costa, Movebla – Brazilian Coworking Magazine
Massimo Carraro, Cowo – Coworking Network Italy
Sebastian Sooth, Hallenprojekt – German Coworking Network
Manuel Zea Barral, Working Space, Coworking Madrid
Akira Matsuda, Coworking JP – Coworking Blog Japan
Nicolas Koreni, moboff – Japanese Coworking Network
Joel Alas, Deskwanted – Global Coworking Space Directory
Nathanaël Sorin-Richez, Silicon Sentier – La Cantine Paris
Pernilla Raj – Coworking Sweden

Coworking Europe 2010 conference was a huge success – here are the feedbacks posted on Twitter

More than 1224 tweet including the Coworking Europe 2010 hashtag have been posted on Twitter in the last days. It has been a great buzz all around the social network.

Here is a Twitter feedback (via Storify)

Roadmap for enterprise 2.0 implementation : start small and move fast

One great insight taken out of the Enterprise 2.0 Summit, held end october in Frankfurt, is the roadmap to implement deeper collaboration dynamics within an organisation.

Anthony Poncier, a French consultant working for Useo, has recognised skills and experience in the implementation of enterprise 2.0 projects within big corporations.

According to Anthony, the implentation of social communication and collaboration tools within a company would better start with small pilot project. But after some (positive) experimentation, the company should speed up the process.

“At Auchan, a major French retail group, for instance, the fishmonger departement set a collaborative/information sharing platform with photos and videos, says Anthony Poncier. Thanks to this social tool, supermarkets had the capability to share best pratices in shelves management, fish storing, etc. Accordingly, Auchan supermarkets’ fish departments improved their presentation and arrangement. Eventually, fish sales have increased…”

Pilot projects will make the proof of concept. So, the management will be able to sell more easily the Enterprise 2.0 tools and principles to the rest of the organisation. Although the management should build a long term vision of where the company needs to go in terms of collaboration and 2.0 spirit, it’s better to move step by step and to seek for the support of early adopters and community leaders at all levels of the hierarchy.

“You need to find community leaders, tells Anthony. These leaders can be early social tools adopters [...] You can find roles for other members. In the meantime, you should spot the communities within the company, find their common goals and topics of interest. Highlight the benefits, for them, of social communication, information sharing and collaboration [...] You should organise events to facilitate integration, relationships, trust and exchange…”

Here bellow, the video interview of Anthony Poncier (in French)

Top management involvement

Though, stresses Tobias Brenner, another attendee at the Enterprise 2.0 Summit, you need the involvement of the top of the company in order to have 2.0 trickle down :

“Surely it would be wonderful, if the whole implementation process of Enterprise 2.0 would be a kind of grassroot development. But to be honest, without any top-down strategy, there will be no implementation. Especially if you prefer a holistic idea of Enterprise 2.0, you need the top-management on board. It is necessary that there is support from the top-management and help of the leadership. The whole process must be supported and maintenance of the implementing process should be secured. And if this is accomplished, I’m sure that there will emerge a kind of grassroot development. People will recognise the will of management, making enterprise 2.0 work. This will motivate them to be part of this development and as more and more people discover the arising opportunities of enterprise 2.0, the more people will join this development.”

Would Nokia face its current turmoil if it was an enterprise 2.0 ? Likely not…

“Nokia said it would delay again its flagship smartphone N8 model, hitting its shares on the day new chief executive Stephen Elop started at the helm of the world’s top cellphone maker”, wrote Reuters, a few weeks ago.

The year 2010 sounds like a hell story for Nokia.

The world number one mobile handsets manufacturer is still financially very sound. Though, the global market position of the Finnish company is eroding (30% in Q3, coming from 34% year on year).

In the end of this summer, Nokia’s management top has been reshuflled.
The company, once the most admired and profitable in the industry, laid off 1.800 people. It encounters very annoying delays in design and commercialisation.

Nokia missed a number of critical steps, during the last couple of years, especially :

• the move to the new generation of smartphones
• the open applications service plateform
• tactile screen handsets

Surprising enough, though, all those ideas, today making the succes of Apple, HTC or even Samsung, had been investigated and discussed within Nokia’s teams, years before.

So, what happened ?

A lack of collaborative/open culture, a too tech focused approach

Juhani Risku, a former Nokia executive, responsible for Symbian’s design user experience, wrote a recent best-seller in Finland : Uusi Nokia (New Nokia).

“Altough Nokia remains one of the best companis on Earth for its logistics, manufacturing, sourcing and R&D, a risk-averse bureaucracy has grown up that stifles innovation – it makes progress slow or non-existent, writes Risku, in the book. The company is the obsessed with data gathering. Turn to almost any page on the website, and you’re invited to fill in an questionnaire”

“I had about 5,000 innovations in front of me – a huge portfolio. And many, about 500, were very good. But there’s a huge approval process. When the people and designers and product specialists get their own strategy it’s first of all, a bit old. There’s a four month delay, so the strategy reflects the business situation four months ago”

“Nokia’s product portfolio is made of phones, each with minuscule differences to other similar units, that wouldn’t look out of place in a phone catalog from 1997″, writes Fast Company magazine, commenting Risku’s book.

“This strategy, adds the magazine, has served Nokia well in delivering cheap low-power phones to the world’s poorer nations. But its lack of innovative, game-changing phones at the high-end of the market. Nokia is bogged down, suffocated, and squashed by its many layers of management.”

So, how can you fix Nokia ?

“Gut the management structure, injecting some vitality and speed to the way new projects proceed from concept to reality”, seems to think Juhani Risku.

Would enterprise 2.0 be one solution for Nokia ?

Back from the E20 Summit in Frankfurt, we can definitely think so.

1. Information and idea management

The issue at Nokia is not data collection. The company, according to Risku, funds and buy a lot of studies in many fields (anthropology, marketing, etc.). However, the Finnish company is struggling with its ability to digest information and use it in a proper context. The collected datas should support the idea generation and idea killing process within the organisation, not (only) be used for months-long validation procedures…

Social tools, information sharing culture and communities, some key aspects of the Enterprise 2.0, could help Nokia better to filter and to let the relevant information find the right persons in the organisation, at a proper timing.

2. Speed up decision process

Furthermore, Nokia is trapped in its own organigram.  The decision process is far to long in an industry where changes happen in months.

Enterprise 2.0 flattens the pyramid, bringing quicker decisions and more reactivity, though with a double check brought by the collective intelligence embed in the company.

3. More disruptive innovation

Nokia was, sometimes, stuck in an engeneering mindset. Technology had the first word, rather than having a more diverse set of inputs driving the group’s actions. Nevertheless, unless Nokia’s engineers achieve a real technological breaktrough, dribbling the competition with a two year advance, strategic moves remain expectable.

Again, the Enterprise 2.0 approach could balance the “hardware” focused culture thanks to the transversal discussions and collaboration initiated between people with different backgrounds across the whole the company. This increased diversity should ignite more original ideas and disruptive innovation.

As we heard at the E20 Summit, companies such as Renault, BMW, Hypoport, Telecom Italia, Danone, Auchan,… are slowly embracing this shift. Thanks to new social platform,

Why not Nokia ? But maybe is it already the case ?

Lingo24: a translation services micro-multinational, active around the Globe

In 2001, at the age of 22, young Scotsman Christian Arno launched translation agency Lingo24 from his bedroom in his parents’ house. Two years later, the agency had employees in New Zealand and China, and by 2005, more than 20 people on its payroll.  Soon, the company had a website in three languages and four offices abroad.

Today, Lingo24 directly employs more than a hundred members of staff and has a network of over 4,000 translators around the world.  Its clients are based in more than 60 countries. It provides round-the-clock services and has branches in Panama, China, the US and France.

In 2009, the company, whose head office is still in Scotland, achieved a turnover of 4.67 million euros.

A global SME, a micro-multinational

Lingo24 is a global SME that now operates in practically every timezone, managing several teams. It occupies a clear place in the ever-growing category of micro-multinationals. Christian Arno, its founder, has been recognised as an entrepreneurial figure in the eyes of several British daily newspapers.

Of course, these days the Internet is the company’s strategic field of operations, with its customers arriving in ever-increasing numbers via the web.

What steps did the Scottish SME take to establish itself at this level?

Dan Aldulescu, Lingo24 Marketing Manager, provides some answers.

“Addressing the global market? A natural progression”

“Any company offering a good product or a quality service will sooner or later find a need to globalise. If the company in question is large enough to have the financial resources to launch into markets outside of its home country, the expansion process will be straight-forward: once its marketing resources are strategically in place, it won’t take long for the public to hear about it”.

“The real challenge facing SMEs wishing to open up internationally is using the appropriate strategies, all the more so when, in addition to localising marketing and communications material, they also anticipate setting up physical offices“.

Accordingly, in 2008, Lingo24 opened an office in Panama and an additional office in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Seizing niche opportunities on which to base international expansion

Initially, the international expansion was aimed at diversifying markets in order to reduce the risks associated with exchange rate fluctuations. Gradually, however, the Scottish company developed a highly realistic deployment strategy, from analysing the following:

• “Identifying countries where employees master the linguistic and technical aspects and where salaries are competitive (such as Romania) in order to be able to cater to Europe and North America
• Targeting poorly exploited markets such as Scandinavia and the Netherlands.
• Adapting linguistically and culturally to each new market or office as well as adapting staff proportionally to requirements”.

Global Internet marketing, but with an approach tailored to each country

For Lingo24, the Internet is key to reaching out to international prospects.

“Localising (adapting to local customs and cultures) regional search engine optimisation of websites was one of the main strengths of the globalisation strategy”.

The company’s online presence is achieved primarily through a search engine positioning strategy, as well as targeted keyword pay per click campaigns.

“Today, over 50% of searches entered on Google are in languages other than English. More than a third of these are entered in another European language”.

“Adapting the online marketing strategy into foreign market languages offers competitive advantages”.

“As searches demonstrate, the majority of consumers (approximately 85%) look for information in their own language before making a decision to buy online. Speaking these prospects’ language determines their confidence in the company and the services or products it offers”.

A paid-for geographically targeted digital strategy

“With a quality US online marketing strategy, sales in target markets soared”.

“For the US, this increase reached 1,000%. For Scandinavia and the Netherlands, growth exceeded 500%. Overall sales in Europe also recorded a sharp increase of 300%, and now represent 37% of total sales”.

Managing remote teams in all four corners of the world

To support its development, Lingo24 had to adapt its organisational structure. Managing a world-wide network of service providers is no easy task.

The following teams have been set-up or expanded:

The Sales team, which also includes native speakers for Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Germany in order to be able to respond ever better to the requirements of potential clients.

The Project Management team, which takes care of production, the translation service itself. Project Managers have access to a network of 4,000 freelance translators who can provide almost any language combination.

The Linguist Management team, which is responsible for recruiting translators and ensuring that the work of all its translators meets with the quality standards set by the company.

• The Marketing team, which is in charge of ensuring the online visibility of Lingo24 in addition to other activities associated with brand image.
• The Human Resources team, which is responsible for the recruitment needs exhibited by each team.
• The Finance Management team, which oversees the effective management of the company’s accounts.
• The IT team, which provides technical support and develops new technological solutions for the increasingly efficient running of the business.
• Management is provided by the head of each team, who report to the Senior Management in the form of Managing Director, Christian Arno, and Operations Director, Jack Waley-Cohen.

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