This and That

Small Offices vs. Large Offices
Are "small offices" different from "big offices"? Of course they are, so at MBI we are opening MBI - MarketPlace: a way to address the needs and expectations of people who work in smaller offices.

It's easy to say "of course small offices are different than large offices" - the interesting thing is to drill down on that and uncover some of facts about small offices.

One of the most interesting things we uncovered in our investigations of this market is just how many small offices there are. When we look at the office market, we look at how many "white collar" workers there are in a given organization. In Memphis and the surrounding area, there are about 45,000 organizations! That number in itself is much larger than we expected. Beyond that, we found that over 40,000 of those organizations are fewer than 50 white collar workers. And the bulk of those organizations are under 10 white collar workers. They say nationally that small organizations are growing; we just never quantified the growth in our local area!

The needs of this market are quite different too. Smaller offices are more personal choices, have fewer cubicles, less complex communication patterns, spend less per person (on average) and do not have a facility manager, per se. We feel MarketPlace will be a great resource for these smaller offices - for both design help and product. Different services for different clients!

Exponential Change is here
I am reading a great book on the future of technology in our world. The most interesting fact is the rate of change our world is experiencing. We tend to think in linear terms, i.e. that if X amount of change has occurred in the last 5 years we can expect the same rate of change over the next 5 years. That simply is not what is happening. Over the course of the last 4,000 years or so, mankind has experienced exponential change that is X squared.

It is especially poignant when you look at the last 10 years - we have gone from the internet to where things like: phone service, yellow pages, television, newspapers are all on the extinct watch list. In addition, computing power has doubled every year - which makes the change exponential. In addition, knowledge (information and new discoveries) is doubling every year now. The world has never changed this fast. In the next 10 years we are likely to see the applications of artificial intelligence in many applications, computers doing our work for us in some cases, and a strong move toward computers almost thinking as well as humans. That is, if we stay on track with political and world stability. Technology is going to take the place of things we cannot even ponder right now, just like 12 years ago when no one could envision the internet having the impact it has had. Stay tuned in, change is happening very fast and we have more to learn every day than we have ever had about our world.

Outcomes in Life are largely based on your attitude
Another book I just read, which is inspiring, discusses the "Secret", which I'm sure many of you have read. The bottom line to this short book, (to give away the "Secret"!) is that what happens to you in your life is largely based on what you wish for and think about. Being a control freak, I tend to agree with that statement - what you wish for plus attitude. There is nothing that can replace a positive mental outlook for us. So, cheers to you if you are reading this, make today a great day and always think about the things you wish for - if you do, they will probably happen!

posted by Scott Messmore @ Monday, July 16, 2007   0 comments