The first thing that catches your sight when you enter LogiNext’s new office is the reception desk fashioned in the form of a parcel box! You know that you have entered the premises of a company concerned with logistics because that is the central theme of the office which founders Dhruvil Sanghvi and Manisha Raisinghani wanted to be a haven for work-life integration. The office interestingly is located in a Powai building that houses some of the heavily funded startups of the startup system such as Housing, Toppr, TinyOwl, among others!
Says Dhruvil, “When we designed this office, we wanted it to embody the philosophy of work-life integration. We don’t believe in work life balance. What we believe in is work life integration or work life harmony. For us, work and life has to go on hand and hand. And we wanted the office to be place where people could spend a lot of hours comfortably. And obviously it had to be on the theme of logistics.”
No wonder, the office which was designed in a short time strives to be a place which makes work an attractive proposition for its employees. From the bright, well lit spaces, to comfortable relaxation areas, from being pet friendly to being kid and family friendly, the office has it all.
For Manisha and Dhruvil, who in the first year of their journey used to work from anywhere and everywhere, the office is an outcome of their effort to make work life integration a real possibility for its employees, and not just a fancy phrase.
Woh Saat Din!
The 10,000 square feet office with a capacity of housing 125-150 people was designed in a mere matter of 7 days! In all those seven days, the co-founders would sit with the designer team for two hours, explaining to them the nitty gritties of the logistics analysis business so that the same theme is aptly represented in the office. What the designers started off with was a bare structure as seen in the pics below, whose metamorphosis started with understanding what the business was about. The founding team was clear that their new office should be a place which inspires people to work, even though the debate raged at the time whether startups should invest in jazzy office spaces or not.
By the end of the first week, the basic floor plan was ready. Out of the three proposals submitted, the founding team chose the one which doesn’t squeeze space, maximises efficiency, and makes people feel at home. Next came the seven day design sprint where a team of four designers moved into LogiNext’s previous office, and literally modelled the place- finalising even the smallest of design detail such as the height of the reception table to size posters on the wall in a week.
Interestingly, the startup asked its team members as to what they wanted and asked them to send pics of the best offices they had ever seen. Taking a cue from the entries submitted, the final office visualisations were ready in a fortnight. From deciding on to the backlit logo at the reception, to spotlights, to myriad wallpapers such as the brick wall texture one or the physics formula one, to choosing the street names and conference names, to wall colours, to the materials and costs of chairs and workstations, to carpet and wall colours, to the design options for pillars, every minute detail was set in stone.
Once the 3D renditions were finalised, they were converted into the real office in a matter of 45 days! In fact, the office was still in last stages of WIP when the LogiNext team decided to move in. The team had been working out of Regus co-working space during the time the new office got ready and moved in the new office just in time to see their dreams turning into reality!
Logistics, Logistics, Logistics!
A quick look around the office and you see logistics in every detail-from parcel boxes suspended from the ceilings, to the wallpaper with all logistics distribution keywords, to Dhruvil’s room itself.
Says Dhruvil, “We chose to have a world map on one of the walls in my room and statistics and physics formulas on the other. The idea was to reinforce the fact that we are intersection of location and statistics.”
Similarly, the wall which has names of all logistics hubs and port hubs over it was also an outcome of LogiNext’s own data. When the startup started working with customers, they got to know which are the top hubs in India where the logistics traffic is highest in India. So 10 such names were picked out and given to designers for designing the wallpaper on that wall.
Similarly, the three conference rooms in the office also take their name from logistics terms. The bigger brightly lit room with eye catching views of Powai is called Full Truck Load (FTL) while the smallest conference room is aptly called Less Than Truck Load ( LTL)!
Latitude, Longitude, and Kake Da Dhaba!
As the startup records location data in the form of longitude, latitude and timespan, with every address on the map being converted into a pair of numbers, the same is aptly represented in the names of the two small calling rooms, called Latitude and Longitude.
Adding colloquial charm to the field of logistics, the pit stop for food for logistics namely the roadside dhaba find its quirky representation in the pantry area which is named Kake Da Dhaba! Interestingly, on the same lines is the conference room named as NH7!
Similarly, all modes of multi-modal transportation also find their place in the office as LogiNext’s algorithms are designed for multiple modes of transportation are it trucks, bikes, tempos, planes, ships, cycles, or even walking! Hence the images of these modes on the walls, reinforcing the message that it is a one stop shop for end to end logistics!
Also on the walls, to keep the mood positive and uplifting are many positive quotes from famous people which include Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma who is an investor in the company to Jack Ma who is an investor in Paytm.
Family Friendly, Startup Friendly, Growth Friendly!
While the entire office is brightly coloured and has an amazing vibe, what adds to it are the many relaxation areas strewn around to make people feel at home. Lined up with cushions and mattresses, these time out zones are not only to keep the vibe relaxed but also become literal time out zones with the hosting of monthly expert sessions in office.
At these sessions, people such as CFO of Ola, CTO of TinyOwl, CTO of Shopsense, and even investors of LogiNext, have been invited where they have talked about their journey, challenges, cultures, and growth. The idea says Dhruvil is to make sure that employees come out of their zones and take a look at what is happening around them. As LogiNext’s focus is on a wholesome growth and learning for its employees, these sessions enable them to understand and explore the facets of startup work and life not directly falling in their domains. Be it learning about fundraising or discounting from Ola or tech insight from TinyOwl!
One more thing that adds to this is the fact the startup welcomes others startups to come and work out of their office for as low as INR300 per day, thus offering employees a chance to interact and learn from other startups as well.
Additionally, the building houses a basketball court, football court, and gym in the building, and LogiNext offers discounted memberships for its employees. People are encouraged to bring in their parents, families, kids, and even pets to office to make it feel like their second home. And if you are the one who feels more at home with gadgets than pets, there is PlayStation and the like for you too to help with that work life integration mantra!
