Trends in the Modern Office w/John Cook JLL

Posted By on Sep 17, 2019 in Events |


PLEASE NOTE THE LATER START TIME! 

DN Salon (location details below intro) 

Trends in the Modern Office: insights from John Cook, JLL. September 19, 7pm. 

DN events are open to CEOs and by invitation only.


Please note places are limited. DN members get guaranteed access, so unfortunately it may not always be possible to seat Non-DN members. 

Title: Trends in the Modern Office
Speaker: John Cook Jones Lang Lasall 
Profilehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/john-cook-08947710/

I suspect we are all fascinated by co-working spaces a la Google and WeWork. Indeed, a recent visit to Google in Roppongi Hills revealed a restaurant with tastyhealthy and free food and drinks, a napping space in a curtained off tatami room, and an in-house coffee supplier of top notch beans. 

Staff mingled and jostled in friendly, interactive confusion in the corridors, cunningly laid out to provoke just such a “bazaar” experience. Perhaps the Japanese sento installed on the top floor is taking employee comfort a bit too far…but you can sense and appreciate the ambition

Unfortunately, some of these favourable aspects have been hijacked by poorer, less extravagant companies to cover up what is actually a cost cutting exercise

Indeed, our speaker John Cook will point out that many of these fancy concepts are less to do with driving innovation and increasing employee well-being but with “rationalization”, in particular as companies like a global US PC company move into central Tokyo’s Otemachi from suburban Kawasaki – with just ⅓ of the space

The lesson for CEOs is not to conflate the two concepts of cost cutting and introducing a Silicon valley vibe. Running an office like Google’s costs millions of dollars in overheads. Just the cost of the coffee shop made some members wince, when I discussed it.  

CEO should note that employee satisfaction might actually go down if the table tennis table and aquarium fail to compensate for the inconvenience of hot desking. After all, not everyone is out to make new friends at work…

John is a multi-decade resident of Japan who knows the real estate and current trends inside out. Given that many members are curious about using office layouts to raise productivity and innovation, this is a timely Salon. 

Location (TBC) 
Boardroom of Vega Global Japan (With thank to the CEO Richard Johns) 
5F Nihonbashi-honcho Square,
1 Chome-2-6 Nihonbashi-honcho, Chuo-ku,
Tokyo-to, 103-0023 Japan
Map link: https://goo.gl/maps/ycBdJ8Uz8682
Tel: 03-4578-3400
For http://www.vega-global.co.jp/en/about-us/contact-us/ (scroll down for different kinds of access details, including Metro)

Cost: 2,000 members; 5,000 non-members. 

Light food and the renowned DN selection of substantial wines will served! 

DN Salons and Summits follow “Chatham House rules”. This means they are off-the-record. Attendees may repeat what they have heard but they should not attribute the comments to any person or company, to avoid embarrassment. 

Agenda
7.30 Doors open, networking and light food
8 speech
8.30 Q&A
9.15 (at the latest) END