Large Corporations See Immense Value in Coworking Spaces
The other day I had read an awesome article on exactly this topic. Co-working office spaces have typically been utilized by startup companies and freelancers. This is beginning to change as more large corporations are moving many of their departments into co-working spaces across the country. The companies that have been making this shift over the past year have been large tech companies, such as Verizon, IBM, and Microsoft. There are two main reasons as to why these corporations are making the shift: the startup atmosphere and the practicality.
The Atmosphere
The co-working atmosphere is geared toward startups, entrepreneurs, and freelancers. So what value is there for massive corporations? Well, these large tech conglomerates see the immense value in surrounding themselves with small startup companies in their respected fields. This allows for new ideas to be shared throughout all of the parties at the office space. Not only do these large tech companies see the value in the new innovative ideas, but also in the people and startups generating the ideas. This gives corporations an outlook for brilliant employees and or the capability to purchase whole startup companies before they become a competitor.
Practicality
The major difference between a co-working space and a regular office space is the amount of time that companies actually stays. Regular office spaces have much longer contracts that completely veer away startup companies. Coworking spaces have monthly rates instead of annual or multi-year contracts. This gives startups or corporations the ability flexibility to switch to new locations easily. So, if a large corporation was to move into a co-working space, but did not believe it had the right entrepreneurial atmosphere, they can easily move to a new location that better suits their desired atmosphere. On top of that, it allows for large corporations to test new locations across the country and around the world before making step towards building a new and large office building.
Large and Small Companies Sharing
As more co-working spaces begin to sprout up more of them will begin to find ways to bring in both large corporations alongside small startups. Both the entrepreneurs and the large companies gain immense value when working together and sharing innovative ideas amongst each other. Microsoft has already begun to move 30% of their employees into co-working spaces. It is only a matter of time until more companies make the switch. This means that as more companies see the value of co-working spaces the demand for them will only go up. More co-working companies are sprouting up across the country. The future of business is here and it’s in co-working spaces.