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/ BUILDING DIALOGUE / SEPTEMBER 2015
W
ith the speed to market demanded on
these organizations (and their respec-
tively expeditious business practices),
the work environment must keep pace with an
aligned solution.
Let’s get in a startup state of mind, where “All
you need is an idea and an Internet connection.”
Billion-dollar brands are being built in vastly differ-
ent ways from the offices and factories of years past.
This is the domain of the 21st century
startup,
a label
liberally applied to the ventures created by tech-sav-
vy, industry-disrupting, rule-breaking visionaries and
employees.
What was once a noun to describe a purely tech-
nology business,
startup
has taken on a broader defini-
tion for a breed of lean, collaborative and agile companies.
“Startup” is not a measure of a business – it’s a busi-
ness state of mind.
Courtesy of technology, today’s startups achieve great
feats with speed unlike any time before. Yet for all
their intensity, velocity and digitally unshackled free-
dom, these companies still face the challenge of cre-
ating high-performing, adaptable work environments
that enable productivity critical to navigating unpre-
dictable growth on their road to commercial viability.
Often pieced together under hectic circumstances
and short time frames,
startup workplaces frequently lack
the flexible, modular and organizational solutions that allow the
uninterrupted productivity they require to flourish.
Perennially faced with limited resources, a startup’s
quest for workplace greatness is equivalent to any other enter-
prise;
however, they are uniquely met by a variety of
challenges according to the startup’s rapidly shifting
stage and size. (See Fig. 1).
Jenny West
Architecture
and Design
Manager,
Knoll
Moving Forward
