The paradigm for future places of work: multi-local business ecosystems

From the perspective of this ecosystem, various elements are emerging that are increasingly decentralizing companies: Openings across existing industrial and corporate borders to the outside world, transparency of professional competencies, and a willingness to change and accept new roles. Cooperation with other players is designed to combine different offers, capabilities and services.

The driving force behind this is the change in communication structures associated with digitization. A transformation that offers a wide range of opportunities and innovations, but ignores one key factor: the places where we still connect physically. In order to incorporate these into the paradigm shift that is now necessary, it would be good to recall the generally valid definition of an ecosystem. A fertile, collaborative unit which, as is well known, is not formed solely from the interaction of individual living organisms, but also cooperates closely with the available habitat. In short: Even in business ecosystems, successful placemaking must be regarded as an essential participant, as spaces and places still stand as the best possible and tangible identity carriers for companies — as strong locations for social interaction, identity formation and connection to the physical needs of work.

In thinking about network effects and overarching structures, on which the ecosystem perspective is based, we regard the idea of multi-local business ecosystems as elementary.

The limits of the traditional office have already disappeared; we are observing changes in team and management structures as well as decentralization and flexibility within organizations. We recognize that new, location-independent technologies that are no longer tied to desks also require new forms of dialogue in order to avoid alienation in human-machine interaction. Managers and employees are looking for new, meaningful activities, processes, structures and special places where they want to work. Based on this position, business ecosystems stand as a sustainable model for collaboration and new market roles for several companies. In view of the increasing fusion of the digital and physical world, sole proprietorships can already be regarded as their own, multi-local ecosystems that operate across multiple locations. There is nothing wrong with it, because it is not just since the pandemic that we have been working from home, in the office, in the premises of cooperation companies, with clients, on the train or even in a café.

The main driver of all changes in our working environments: Communication. It is the most influential and leading provider of structures for the diversity of uses of spaces and places.

What is therefore needed all the more is a collective mindset and work environments adapted to the new situation. As a result of the fundamental change brought about by digitization, they require appropriate communication and spaces. Our offices are now much more than just static workplaces; they are dynamic, connected, also have an influence on climate change and should offer positive experiences. They break away from classic ideas about our working environments and must be understood as a collective of diverse spaces that are integrated into a communicative network.

It is therefore advisable for companies to determine specifically which selection of locations they provide for their employees and for which specific activities they are best suited. These needs and principles must be understood in order to create a good network of attractive locations as part of successful business ecosystems. This starts with trust in the abilities and personal responsibility of employees and, through the organization of the virtual desk, leads to the question of how to create the identity of a location. Here, carefully curated work environments and locations primarily take on the function of social interaction, a sense of belonging and, last but not least, the provision of necessary, non-mobile hardware.

If you think ahead, this also means that company locations can derive added value from this by sharing and using facilities and thus achieving more work opportunities overall with less effort. Here, you would start with standards such as meeting rooms and move on to attractive offers such as co-working situations, employee-friendly hospitality facilities, childcare in the immediate vicinity of the workplace, etc. We now know that alternative forms of work are possible and feasible and that they increase both our quality of life and our productivity by focusing more on individual environments and our own biorhythms. It is therefore an advantage to integrate working environments into districts and neighborhoods, both at work and at home. In addition, other qualities such as short distances and easy accessibility are significant factors in the war for talent and managing the productivity of your own company — it is now a megatrend to work from where you feel comfortable.

In such places, we demonstrably do our best work and an attractive environment can become a competitive advantage.

If we regard districts and ground floor areas as part of the multi-local business ecosystem, we need an understanding of them and responsible real estate development for what corresponding office landscapes are or should be. Here, landlords could actively see themselves as coaches, offer structured consulting processes and help companies find the best working environment for them. Many tenants and particularly large corporations only move every few decades, meaning that they lose touch with the trends of future-oriented work environments. In addition, it is important to make joint offers to tenants, because as a result of the change in the operation of space, it will no longer be possible to rent only entire space packages, but satellites in various office complexes in order to form a network of good places.

In this context, an unavoidable and immanent aspect is the dimension of sustainability. In future, the idea of multi-location can only be thought of in terms of networks and cycles. The ecological footprint is becoming more important for just about every corporate identity. Multi-local business eco-systems provide the answer to questions about how we can optimize our use of space or how the mobility and energy expenditure of a particular company will fail.

With a change in office planning based on this, rental business models would have to develop further in a timely manner, because it makes increasing sense for tenants to own less and book much more. Why don't we enable our own cooperation partners in shared spaces The rediscovery of the lighting factory continues the positive change in south-east Berlin. The establishment of six institutes at Humboldt University and not least the University of Applied Sciences have already done a lot to make this piece of Berlin so attractive again. Working temporarily as soon as they are in the city for business? We can and should create such special spaces that are shared by several tenants — this might entail higher rents, but would be less shared.

But let's get back to the main driver of all change in our working environments: communication. It is the most influential and leading provider of structures for the diversity of uses of spaces and places; it determines whether, for example, a room is used loudly, i.e. for exchange or collaboration, or quietly for silent work. Landlords should understand which network of locations and communication structures their tenants are in and what innovative technological support they need for communication and space management.

Rethinking our working environments therefore means recognizing individual ecosystems and the living environments and places in which it is expressed. In the future, we would expect new, exciting, optimized and productivity-increasing work environments that also open up ecological and social improvements through holistic placemaking. Derived as a summary maxim: The more clearly and holistically you grasp and penetrate this approach of business ecosystems, the better the necessary change in our working environments and sustainable management is achieved.