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Boots The Chemists
Nottingham, ENGLAND |
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The Boots in white letters on a blue oval is a household
logo to the English. The Boots is UK's leading retailer of health care and beauty
products.
With history of 150 years, the Boots group is now divided to 8 business units.
The biggest and central unit of all is Boots The Chemists (BTC).
As the industry underwent the tumultuous changes in the 90's, BTC was no exception
when they were forced to radically modify the existing organization and business
systems. In 1993 Boots announced the plan to renovate the existing headquarters
building and add a new office adjacent to it, thus integrating the head office
functions that were then decentralized. |
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The new building (D90 EAST) is linked to the old building
(D90 WEST) by a connecting building. The workspace is especially notable for its
layout. The entire office is divided into 20 neighborhoods. Each neighborhood
provides six types of work settings such as individual home bases, a quiet room,
meeting rooms and a hub with coffee bar. Locating diverse work settings in the
proximity for easy access serves to support flexible work procedures where individual
work crisscrosses teamwork.
The new office renovation breaks down the conventional hierarchy. The executives'
private offices and their privileges such as executive parking spaces and dining
hall were eliminated. The new flattened organization aims to ease the communication
beyond the ranks. The café, occupying most of the main atrium, functions not only
as place of interaction and communication, but also as a day-to-day workplace.
The existing headquarter building was originally built in 1968, by Skidmore Owings
& Merrill (SOM), and it was listed Grade II by English Heritage. It meant
to BTC that its appearance had to remain unchanged. One of big changes was to
raise all floors, which lowered the existing partitions, lending more openness
to the interior. Reflecting organizational and workstyle reforms, executive private
offices and dining hall were turned into meeting rooms. The old main entrance
space was converted into a cafe. |
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Location: Nottingham, ENGLAND |
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Move-In Date: D90 WEST 1968,
D90 EAST 1999.1 |
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Floor Area: 41,000 m2 |
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Workforce: 2,700 |
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Building Design: D90 WEST
SOM, D90 EAST DEGW |
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Interior Design: DEGW |
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Interview Date: 2000.11 |
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