I heard an interesting comment the other day, one I haven’t heard before. One of our current clients came to Howard Ecker + Company after a brief relationship with a young broker from a large brokerage firm. When this client informed her broker that she would be switching over to our company, his parting words [...]
In the 1980's, a major oil company hired me to seek out 30 locations for a new business they had entered: office products. The company’s head of real estate told me that he wanted me to negotiate 30 leases across the US. The catch? He wanted each one to have an annual cancellation clause. I [...]
The Chinese have a saying: an old horse knows the route. I thought about that last week when a good friend and colleague of mine (let’s call her Jane) asked if I would work with her to sublease her office so her company could relocate. While this sounds like it could be the story of [...]
A recent piece in The New York Times discussed the future of branch banking and what firms like J.P. Morgan Chase are doing to provide their customers with the service they require in a cost-efficient and future-proof model. What I gleaned from the article is actually applicable to virtually any type of service business. Customer [...]
I recently attended a meeting of international companies and space planners, where we discussed the use of open space versus private offices in the workplace. What I found interesting is that many firms desire a location with an atrium, so their employees can see each other as they do their work. In fact, one investment [...]
PART THREE: WHERE While your people and your field of work certainly play a role in shaping your office landscape, another important factor actually has to do with what goes on outside the four walls of your space. According to a study by Gensler, cities and their respective cultures and trends are playing a big [...]
PART TWO: WHAT Last week’s discussion was about considering your people when making decisions about your office space. Another equally important influence on your workplace should be the actual work that you do. It might seem like a given, but it can be quite surprising how often I see offices that do not correspond in [...]
PART ONE: WHO In this mini-series, I discuss the various aspects of a workplace and how it affects and is affected by the culture of the company that occupies it. Ask any company in any industry in America, and in general, the overwhelming consensus is that the workforce is trending towards the younger side. Baby [...]
Last month, I had the opportunity to participate in the Kellogg Innovation Network, or “KIN” Global summit, where I met some really brilliant people doing innovative work in all types of industries. KIN was a chance for us all to put our heads together and see if we couldn’t come up with some big answers [...]
I have a friend, let’s call him Charlie, who runs a successful hedge fund. Charlie’s a smart guy. In addition to being a quant — a class of professional that’s intelligent by definition — he started a business a few years back that he eventually sold to a major Wall Street bank for about half [...]
