I remember when I worked as a CEO in the marketing industry, and we used to fly all over the world for multi-million dollar pitches. Hundreds of thousands of dollars to pitch a business you might not win, but there was no other alternative seemingly. A video conference for a major client pitch? No, never, outrageous thought.
And never, ever have all of your executive team on the same flight. Because if that flight ever went wrong your entire “brains trust” wipes out in one horrific accident. It was actually company policy at a lot of organisations. But it was perfectly ok, in fact encouraged, to gather all of your people, from interns to the CEO, and put them all in one place together. And it made complete sense.
Until it didn’t, enter 2020.
I think it is safe to assume right now that in nearly every single zoom management meeting in every single Fortune 500 company, CEOs are asking, quite literally “have we got all our eggs in one basket and how do we remove that risk?”
Yes working from home works. It’s been proven. But humans want and need interaction with others. And they’ll want to have that a lot more conveniently than they have in the past. And if a CEO can save money and reduce risk while giving their staff that, then it’s a perfect storm for a massive change in how we work and where.
