Delving a bit into history again, on the trail of the "virtual organization",  here's a great case study on the business case for virtual companies, from Secrets of a virtual company CEO and More Secrets of a virtual company CEO by Jeff Zbar (NetworkWorld, April 3, 2001 and May 9, 2001) The series of two articles looks at Turner Consulting Group, a Web applications development company that employs 34 workers - 2 in Washington, D.C., 2 in home offices nearby, and the rest work from homes scattered across the U.S.

'With 32 virtual offices in operation, that potentially amounts to $1,600 per month each for broadband access, and more than $28,000 every 18 months on new computer technology. Tack on full health insurance, workman's compensation, life insurance for his six managers and property coverage, and supporting remote office workers gets pricey. Still, Turner reasons, it's much cheaper than paying $40 to $50 a square foot for commercial office space in D.C. '

Turner Consulting Group was recognized at #25 in the ranking Fast 50: 2000 Hot Companies Reflect Sizzling Region (Washington Technology, Jan 24, 2000). For a great peek at how telework is used to their advantage for recruiting, take a look at their careers page.

12:15:15 PM    
comment []  trackback []

In Virtual Company Advice Will Pape, co-founder of VeriFone offers advice for making remote management work. VeriFone grew up as a global virtual corporation before being acquired by HP in 1997. (from inc.com's 101 Great Ideas for Managing People FROM AMERICA'S MOST INNOVATIVE SMALL COMPANIES, October 1999)

Here's the one that struck a chord with me today, during a Telework Consortium strategy meeting where we were discussing specific suggestions on how to break down the barriers to increased telework within the federal government:

 'At least some of the time, have managers operate in cyberspace , rather than out of the main office. "Sitting in a central office without plugging into the virtual culture is almost a guarantee of failure," Pape says. "You don't know what's going on, and you signal your employees that operating virtually isn't really important." '

And despite the fact that this piece was written in 1999, before many of the advanced tools for virtual presence were much more than a glint in their developers' eyes, Pape offered these very relevant observations:

'"When you become a virtual organization, your staff suddenly loses all those interactions in the hallway, in the elevator, and by the water cooler that help move projects forward and smooth out conflicts," Pape says. To compensate, he suggests making regular use of videoconferencing and telephone conversations. Relying on e-mail too much, he finds, can allow conflicts to escalate. "When workers do most of their communicating by e-mail, small irritations easily grow into major conflicts," Pape says. "Learning how to disagree remotely is an important component of being able to operate virtually."'

11:46:32 AM    
comment []  trackback []