The necessary understanding of corporate workplace issues are rapidly extending beyond those of cost control and individual performance. There is a rapid absorption of existing resources in support of current business growth. To sustain this rate requires increasing the involvement of business into the areas of public policy to address public transportation, housing and economic development. It extends into issues of prejudice and natural resource depletion. While technology links us to a broader world of business, it also reinforces the needs for increased interaction. Human qualities surface as essential to attend to and respect in this next generation of corporate real estate evolution.

We have had a dramatic shift in philosophy on space use.

One of the challenges we are facing is the open versus closed office and whether this is a functional need or a hierarchical need.

I think we are going to see more non-line functions locating out of the city line.

We are looking for the synergy. In three years, we will have a much more flexible workplace that can continuously change as the character of project teams change.

The issues around the headquarters are those of integration, about who has to be in the facility and why.

As we convince people that a strategy on how to do business encompasses people as a critical resource then it is in the best interest of the company to understand how the people work

Space is our livelihood. ...We are constantly chasing the needs of our users.

[We] do not work as well as when we are able to walk down the hall and say, "This is what's going on."

We found that some of the simplest solutions have great benefits.

Within the insurance industry, which is very old and conservative, there is a direct relationship between space and retention. There are morale and identity issues because the way they do work is tied to the private office.

These people are expectant of receiving service, and we feel the need to give them choices as to how the facility could serve them.

Identifying the key strategic relationships with senior managers running the operation is critical to our success.

Entrepreneurs want to grow the business and do everything they can but don't want to think too much about issues that don't interest them, and quite often, facilities do not interest them.

In our business, we need to interact with people; it's who we are.