By Abdi Ali
Published September 13, 2019
Social scientists say that in less than six years from today, the office will look more like a home than like the white-collar factory of today.
Researchers MoreySmith and The Future Laboratory, in a document titled Workplace Futures Report, say the office of 2025 will be a multi-generational live-work-eat-sleep hub for men and women of all ages.
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While offices were once passive, hostile places that forced workers to adapt to fit into them, the workplace of tomorrow will adapt itself to its occupants’ needs and will be designed and built to incorporate thousands of sensors that interact with workers’ wearable devices and smartphones.
Is this fantasy? Fiction, perhaps?
Real estate companies like International Workplace Group (IWG plc), are getting ready for this future office by creating the new style of work space: sleek, clean, colourful and packed with stimulation.
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“Workplace design ultimately comes down to tribes,” says Joanne Bushell, Managing Director and VP in charge of Sales in Africa for Regus, an IWG Plc subsidiary. “We’re all in tribes of various kinds, and we all want to feel surrounded by the rest of our tribe – be it our colleagues, our industry or our wider network.”
Saying ‘community is the key to the office’, Bushell stresses, “You need to focus on the people inside the workspace, and the people outside the workspace, and how they relate to each other through the amenities and design.”
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Consequently IWG plc, that says it operates in 21 African countries, says it is expanding its office of the future business across sub-Saharan Africa through a franchise model that, it says, ‘offers landlords, private equity firms, multi-brand franchise operators and high-net-worth individuals the opportunity to buy into this lucrative market at attractive returns’.
With the first franchise centre already open in Angola and new centres opening in Guinea and Djibouti in September 2019, the company says it is determinedly targeting the African continent for development and investment opportunities for early adopters of the franchising model.
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“The potential for innovation and growth makes the serviced office market one of the most exciting growth markets in Africa – and partnering with IWG plc gives business owners the ability to participate in this growth story, with the backing of an established global brand who is currently ahead of trends in future workspace,” IWG plc says in a statement.
IWG says it offers professional, inspiring and collaborative workspaces, communities and services as “People want the personal productivity benefits of living and working how and where they want.”
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