Is office space part of your strategy?

Could it be that organizations do not need office space anymore?

Would it be fair to say that we can reduce a substantial part of our leased space costs?

Imagine this: our employees are working remotely. Part of them are working from home, others sit in coffee houses or leased spaces next to their home. Teams are working using different Microsoft 365 collaboration tools such as teams, having zoom conference calls, tasking themselves on Monday.com and you as an executive have full faith and transparency over your team’s operations.

Sounds nice, does it not? Now take out the coffee shops and there is our current reality. Is it not?

It seems like the COVID-19 accelerated our business continuity plans and made them work effectively. It is not like we had much of a choice. It was either act now or die. So, most organizations acted. Some were more prepared and others less, but we all acted. Those who did not are probably out of business or unfortunately, about to go out of business.

What did you do? How did your organization act? Here is what most did:

In the first phase, many organizations opened their security policy (assuming they had one) and connected anything that could assist them to continue delivering their business. Anything that made certain sense was approved immediately. They had to survive.

In the second phase, many of them realized that clients are not consuming their products and services as previously, so they tried to switch operations tactics. Adjusting and trying small changes with the products or services, some changed their delivery channels. Many are still looking for the answer.

Few reached the third phase in which they understand that their previous strategy is no longer valid. They need to reinvent themselves. A new strategy is on the move and short-term assumptions are being taken under consideration. Long-term evaluations are also being considered; however, those third phase organizations recognize the need to act quickly and decisively.

The short-term assumptions include:

• Remote work will stay for the next couple of months. Remote access will stay forever. We need to leverage it into our business processes (where possible).
• Productivity can be set, reported and measured remotely. There are so many tools to support it.
• A trusted mindset is welcomed by all parties and levels. From the Employees’ level, through Managers, Directors and Executives and up to Clients, Consumers, Business Partners and any relevant stakeholder. Eventually, without trust it will be very hard to progress towards achieving your business goals and objectives.

So, what do you say, do you think you need office space as part of your new strategy?

CST-360 is a cyber security consultancy firm that emphasizes security strategy driven from your overall business strategy. We strongly believe that security must not work as a silo and should be part of business processes. We consult organizations in developing business objectives-based security strategies. That is why security (especially cyber security) enables your business processes and goals achievement.

Please feel free to reach out and we will be honored to assist you in establishing security operations and measurement that enables your business objectives. If you are in the second phase, we will try to assist with innovating more opportunities out of your existing technologies in a secure manner.

Let’s work together to reduce your operational costs, starting with office space leasing.