Don't Write off Offices Just yet - the World Isn’t Going to Change as Quickly as You Think.

Photo by kate.sade on Unsplash

There seem to be two camps in Quarantino (that’s what I’m calling the world we’re in right now); Those who think everything will change once lockdowns and quarantines are over and those who don’t know what’s going to happen.

I find it odd that no one believes things are going to go back to the way they were.

I don’t think thing are going to change as much as we might think once we’re allowed back into the world.

Before the whole world moves to remote work and burns their offices down, we need to get rid of the boss who likes to see human (not pixel) bums in seats before giving out bonuses.

Before we see citizen journalism overrun traditional media we will need to meet humans who care enough about the truth to fact check their bias.

Before we see real-world sporting events replaced by esports we will need to see the hundreds of millions of fans who attended physical games buy into the concept of pixels kicking balls and racing fake cars becoming more enticing than blood, sweat and actual tears.

Before we see colleges disintegrate in the face of MOOCs we’ll have to break down the highly regarded (yet mostly irrelevant) institutions that so many young people are conditioned to believe will give them a leg up and a better future.

Before handshakes and hugs are replaced with head nods and winks we will need to break down centuries-old habits of human connection and interaction.

The past is not left behind in an instant. The future is not created in a single epidemic.

We all wish it were that simple but it isn’t. Humans like what they like and those things don’t change overnight. We like going to bars. We like casual sex after meeting at a dirty nightclub. We like handshakes and hugs. We like meeting in person (and there’s value in it too). We like offices and we like getting away from our homes. This lockdown life isn’t for everyone. Let’s not mistake what’s big right now in our lives for what we think the entire working world wants.

Just because you want things to be different tomorrow doesn’t make it so.

We are going to go back to the normal we know before we redefine normal of our future.

How To Work From Anywhere

Running a retail business is a lot trickier than I was led to believe early on. Who'd have thought?! Well, to be fair, initially I thought that I was running an ecommerce business and now Nic Harry is a full-on multichannel affair. That makes it complicated and intricate for me as the founder. I have multiple stores to visit, a warehouse, meetings to have and my team of specialists to engage with. That's all without even touching customer service online, ecommerce management and the general daily operations of running a business.The most complicated part for me is that my team is never in one place at the same time, ever. That means that I'm on the go and engaging with them all at various points and places throughout the day.This makes mobile and remote work essential to my job.Let's take a short diversion here: In the past I have been very vocally anti-phablets. If you're wondering what a "phablet" is, it's a phone that's big enough to be mistaken for a tablet. I've mocked friends for using the iPhone 6+ (although I was probably more mocking them for using an iPhone in general, to be fair). Recently I was asked to use the Huawei Mate 8 device. It is massive. It's as big as the iPhone 6+ physical and they managed to fit a bigger screen into the device. I was very nervous using this device to begin with. But I have to say that it has turned out to be the best device I've used in the past few years.Now, back to business.

The Right Tools

There are some key things you must have to run a business on the move. From the start you need to set things up using tools that operate effectively on mobile devices. Google Apps for Business is the perfect tool across the board for this.Nic Harry uses for everything: email, documents, word processing and project management as well as a central resource for our team to find things they're looking for. Best of all, it's fully mobile optimised. Well worth the money.We also use Slack for all communication and short messages that don't require paragraph form emails (I hate emails longer than 5 sentences).Very practically it's important to all have data on your device and ensure that you have a phone that can access the 4G networks. Slow or no Internet is the end of your work day.

Practical Examples

I took the decision to spend money on data so that I wasn't tied to wifi networks when I absolutely have to do something on my mobile phone.Recently I was caught between stores and meetings and had forgotten about a Skype call with my investors that I had to be on. There's no real need to find a wifi network or an office when you can open up Skype on your device and make the call. I use my headset effectively too so that I can view the documents we're discussing while still on the call. With the Mate 8's huge screen I didn't struggle with this at all.For all of our stores we use Vend point of sale. They have fantastic reports that I use frequently throughout the day to keep my team of retail specialists engaged with our figures and performance. Opening up the reports, screengrabbing and sharing on slack is simple and there isn't really a need for a laptop or computer that's larger than the one in my pocket.The major key to working from anywhere is to be prepared. Have a mobile device that has tethering if you need to connect your computer, have data on your device and make sure that you are using the right tools for your needs.