Workplace for Organization Change

Now successive waves of rapid change are sweeping over the market as well as the technology which supports business activities, and the scale and speed of competition are multiplying. In this milieu of rapid change, many corporations are grappling with the issue of how to reform their organization as a means of survival. They face diverse tasks ranging from the restructuring of business systems to the reform of corporate cultures. Whatever their tasks are, how the reform is implemented and what facilities are available are often interlocked and affect each other. As the society becomes more knowledge-oriented, the workforce belonging to a corporation and the workplace serving as their operational base will gain more significance as management resources. This will require a new assessment of the workplace, which is an important supportive element of reform.


 
TBWA/CHIAT/DAY/ California, USA
Change The Rules
Chiat/Day (TBWA/Chiat/Day since 1995) has always been an advertising agency spearheading the times with theslogan, "INNOVATE OR DIE." With a firm belief that what makes it the most creative agency is its ability to haveworkers collaborative and productive of unique ideas,TBWA/Chiat/Day has been radically innnovating its own workplace and workstyle. Its virtual office, a totally new kind of office concept nobody else had ever implemented, was one of such attempts. After a few years working in the virtual environment, however, several factors had come to the fore that did not quite cater to actual work demands. The "warehouse" office completed in Playa del Ray last years is an evolution from TBWA/Chiat/Day's previous office. At the same time, this new office is a reflection of the agency's new attitude to create new rules by being free from the bondage of old rules. TBWA/Chiat/Day is moving ahead with a new slogan,"CHANGE THE RULES."
 
TBWA/CHIAT/DAY/ California, USA
An Advertising city in a Big Box
Do The Right Thing
The American "Big Bang", which began in the 1980s, touched off the age of financial wars in the States. Against the backdrop of deregulation, waves of merger and acquisition have been besetting banks, vigorously accelerating the restructuring of financial institutions. Now banks cannot survive unless they grow big. Nations Bank, which used to be a local bank in Charlotte, North Carolina, rapidly grew into a super-regional bank by aggressively acquiring other banks. Its growth was further accelerated when the bank merged with Bank of America in October, 1998 and leaped to the top position among U.S. banks. The new Bank of America is now ambitiously trying to convert charlotte , a local town with a long history but a low-profile image, into a bustling financial city by building facilities accommodating efficient cross-functional offices and the state-of-the-art technology, so that the bank will leap further up with Charlotte as its operational base.
 
BANK of AMERICA/ North Carolina, USA
Commingling Together

Better, Faster and Less Expensive
A French plateau stretches to the horizon under an endless expanse of the blue sky. A massive complex of buildimgs bursted upon this scene to house reserch and development facilities for Renault. The complex is called the Technocentre. The parking area snd the entrance are connected by a straight footbridge spanning the waterway. The inside of the building is bustling with people busily coming and going through spaces brightly illuminated and punctuated with water and greenry. Renault, aleading company in the European auto industry, has emerged out of a long tunnel of low performance in recent years and returned to the fore of the industry. The Technocentre, ebullient with openness and brightness, is the end product of the company's strategy which brought about this miraculous revival and also the ace card for the Renault's survival in the 21st century.
 
RENAULT/ Guyancourt, FRANCE
Innovation for Survival
WORK PLACE SUPPORTING CHANGE
Akihiro Kishimoto
Institute of Office Systems KOKUYO Co., Ltd.

Various kinds of alternative workplace have been created to support organizational changes and make organizations more adaptive to technological advances. Now that all possible options have been tried out in the last few years, we are able to see that the alternative workplace is not a minor solution applicable only to exceptional cases but an important option to help organizations change. It is now time to learn from the past experiences and formulate a prescription to help the alternative workplace function more effectively. Let us first make an overview of the background and role of organizational change and take a new look at what the workplace is capable of doing.