The new Office and the Digital Revolution

In 2012, the social network Instagram was sold to Facebook for 1 billion dollars, employing 13 people and had 30 million users. In the meantime, few months earlier, Kodak, which had up to 145.000 workers declared bankruptcy. This was one of the several examples the magazine Economist presented in its edition from this past January, whose cover theme is the digital revolution and its impact on the work market.

Such as it happened in the Industrial Revolution 200 years ago, we are watching today to great changes in the work models and to some consequences, regarding the use of work spaces, which are already visible.

The so called digital revolution affects not only the  functioning of technology producing companies but also companies and professionals that are connected to the network 24 hours a day. Or, to say, almost everybody.

The BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies are already an usual practice in small and big companies, which envisage the work space as the place where professionals are in each moment, counterpointing with the traditional  office. International studies point out to high levels of inefficiency in the use of work spaces, currently estimating that offices are vacant 40% of the time, at a time where mobility and flexibility are keywords and concepts such as coworking, virtual office and telework gain increasingly more followers.

Companies are adapting ever more the work models to the new generation of professionals, named millennials, who look at the office as an extension of their home or terrace.

The so called third spaces, located between the vertexes of the triangle - company, clients and residence - seem to be the big trend of the new economy  supported increasingly more by this Digital Revolution, which is making the traditional office obsolete  and, at the same time, is creating excellent opportunities.

Carlos Gonçalves
Avila Business Centers CEO  and co-author of the book Out of the Office