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| Behavior and Spaces for Innovation |
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Everything in the business environment is going thr-ough dramatic
change, from the technologies businesses use to the social structures people work
in.
In this context, it is the role of individual members of an organization to drive
its creative endeavors forward and produce innovative results.
The workplace and its workspaces also have a crucial part to play in supporting
their efforts in a more dynamic way.
What are the components of a workplace that encourages innovation? |
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TELENOR/ Fornebu, NOLWAY
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| Renewal of a Once Lethargic Giant |
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| Ever since its founding in 1855, Telenor, Norway’s
leading telecommunications company, has been organized into discrete business
units. With a new world headquarters completed in 2002, however, the company is
restructuring itself into a “collaborative workplace” informed by a
cross-divisional melding: Its novel mega-office provides an organic environment
that encourages the company’s 6,000 employees to work together in more-intimate
teams. |
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| TELENOR/
Fornebu, NOLWAY |
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| Refreshment Areas Serve as Office
Hubs |
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| As a company expands in scale, it becomes difficult
to maintain the intimate environment conducive to communication of a smaller outfit.
To help maintain such an environment, Bloomberg L.P.—which grew rapidly as
a distributor of business and financial information and services—established
a unique style of office design. The Bloomberg office is open plan, with a pantry
as its central hub to encourage people to congregate,and this design has been
adopted its offices worldwide. |
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| The Bloomberg Style of Office |
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| BLOOMBERG/
New York, USA |
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| Art Inspires Innovative Thinking |
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| BLOOMBERG/
London, ENGLAND |
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| Relaxed Environment Enlivens Occupants |
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| BLOOMBERG/
Tokyo, JAPAN |
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The Workplace in the Age of Knowledge-based
Management |
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The 21st century has been called “the age
of knowledge.” Instead of producing goods in factories to increase economic
value, it is now knowledge and ideas that create value, through solutions, services,
and other information-based enterprises. The ability of corporations and individuals
within them to continually create and share knowledge will be an increasingly
large factor in all kinds of corporate activities.
How can workplaces contribute to such knowledge creation and sharing? We interviewed
knowledge-management specialist Noboru Konno, who has abundant experience in knowledge
based activities. |
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| IT Leads City Revitalization |
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| Once bustling with shipyard activity, the Göteborg
waterfront was hit hard by the oil crisis of the 1970s. Now, however, an alliance
among industry, government, and academia is infusing the area with new life in
the form of an IT oasis. As more and more high-tech enterprises move into the
science park, the area seems destined to become a key player in the IT industry. |
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| LINDHOLMEN
SCIENCE PARK/ Göteborg, SWEDEN |
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| Symbolizing a Leap into the Future |
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Hasselblad has captured the hearts of photographers
the world over with its simple, rugged, yet superlatively performing cameras.
Not satisfied with resting on its laurels, the company launched a revolutionary
new product in 2002 just before moving its headquarters into Lindholmen Science
Park.
Both steps were coordinated, as if unequivocally announcing to the world a dramatic
transformation unfolding. |
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| HASSELBLAD/
LINDHOLMEN SCIENCE PARK,
Göteborg, SWEDEN |
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A “Main Street” Where People and Information
Cross Paths
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| Ericsson, along with Volvo, is one of Lindholmen
Science Park’s anchor tenants. Ericsson’s atrium, which cuts through
the center of the company’s office, provides a “main street” where
people meet and ideas are exchanged. |
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| ERICSSON/
LINDHOLMEN SCIENCE PARK,
Göteborg, SWEDEN |
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| A Communication Hub Like a Ship’s
Prow |
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Teleca is an IT company whose main clients include
Ericsson.
A café space reminiscent of a ship’s prow enables the communication
that forms the basis of change. |
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| TELECA/
LINDHOLMEN SCIENCE PARK,
Göteborg, SWEDEN |
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| Old and New Mix to Give Inspiration |
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| For Caran, which performs industrial design for
customers like Volvo and Saab, the commingling of old and new elements is key
to inspiration. |
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| CARAN/
LINDHOLMEN SCIENCE PARK,
Göteborg, SWEDEN |
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| Open Plan for Innovative Design |
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| Dyson vacuum cleaners created a revolution in consumer
appliances with their vivid colors and see-through bodies. Dyson products have
gained widespread appreciation for their design, but James Dyson insists that
“their form is simply the result of a search for perfect function.”
Similarly, Dyson’s new headquarters, with its stunning glass enclosures and
sinusoidal roof, arose from pursuit of function rather than form. |
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| DYSON/
Malmesbury, ENGLAND |
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| A Place for Individuals and Space
for the Whole Team |
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| Happy is a Swedish design agency that takes a distinctive
approach to the creative process, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the
design of its own offices. Completed in July 2001, the design objective was to
create a common environment emphasizing a spontaneous group dynamics in which
people share their thoughts and ideas. Starting with an at-home atmosphere that
comes from everyone enjoying breakfast together, the Happy philosophy is intended
to foster the playfulness and curiosity necessary to overcome the traps of more
conventional approaches to work. |
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| HAPPY/ Göteborg, SWEDEN |
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