Why Companies Are Exploring Alternatives to the HQ Model | WIRED Brand Lab

[calm music]

[Relater] Company headquarters are the mission control

of business operations.

These physical spaces have long shaped intangibles

like company culture and kept records in a centralized hub,

but today, as companies decentralize

and operations migrate to the Cloud,

a new type of HQ is emerging.

While the traditional office

isn't going anywhere any time soon,

headquarters are evolving with the future of work.

In 1729, the East India Company

built one of the first global headquarters,

it needed a place to house paperwork

from long distance trade deals with Asia,

and established the East India house as its London HQ.

Fast forward to modern times,

that physical storage for record keeping is obsolete.

Now, high-speed, secure connectivity

provides workers with flexibility

and allows them to work from anywhere.

Decentralization also brings businesses

closer to customers, literally.

For example, a Nebraska based retailer

can employ remote workers in Miami

to better understand product market fit,

enhancing the customer experience far outside of Omaha.

So what's in store for the HQ of the future?

Today's hiring managers think offices will become quote

temporary anchor points,

rather than daily travel destinations.

There's a rise in corporate centers

that house only key employees,

with others free to work remotely from a branch office

or from home.

Some companies are even forgoing

physical offices altogether,

with virtual software-defined networks,

remote locations have seem-less access

to information that was once limited to HQ.

These changes have huge benefits to corporations,

like cost-savings and access to a larger talent pool.

One tech reportedly saves 12 million dollars per year

in real estate costs by encouraging remote work,

and beyond the corporate impact,

there are long-term sustainability

and social benefits to this evolution.

In 2017, a study found that telecommuting helped avoid

530 million vehicle trips,

averting three million tons of greenhouse gasses.

This move to decentralize could also mitigate

affordable housing crisis in over-crowded cities,

which have become so congested, in part at least,

due to jobs being concentrated in urban areas.

The HQ of the future may not be a physical place,

but a unifying thread that connects companies to customers

while giving workers more freedom,

and could improve society as a whole.