Evolution Of Shared Workspace: How The Concept Began And Its Future In India

It was only 50 years ago, when we were sitting at our desks equipped with just a pen, paper and a typewriter. The workplace is constantly evolving and adapting. As new technologies and work practices come to the fore, the office environment is changing.

Today desks are limited to just mini laptops and handheld devices. Companies now are looking at efficiency as a core to increase the effective use of space.

The Design Element

In the 1980s, the cubicle – a way to stay open but also to have some personal space. It became widespread, particularly in the US, although now is increasingly looked on as an anachronism which provides neither open space nor privacy. Closed and Private cabins have given way to more open, collaborative and entrepreneurial way of work spaces.

Coworking, adaptability, flexibility will be the catalyst to drive the design elements in workspaces to generate spontaneous interaction , innovation and energy.

The next big thing is the evolution of open celling and open desking, encouraging community building, collective problem solving and well-being. Tech is wide open to change and thus it supports a wide range of work styles that includes making and thinking. One stop solution for all your office needs is going to drive the workspace future.

Employee-centric services is the key to this evolution.

Startups and SME’s now look at a workspace which helps provides them scale, growth, flexibility and services. The focus is now shifted to things that will help them evolve, network and grow.

Coworking: Trending In India

The concept of shared working space is now starting to find several takers in India. According to LiveMint, a handful of companies are now providing shared workspaces to capture the trend and monetise underutilised commercial assets.

IndiQube – founded by Rishi Das and Meghna Agarwal – is one such coworking space.

The idea came after Rishi found a gap in the market during initial years of his entrepreneurship. Companies that were doing well could rent spaces in tech parks, but the smaller ones continued to work in apartments, dealing with landlords, power cuts or fear of deposit not being refunded.

On the other hand, a shared workspace such as IndiQube acts as a growth catalyst for startups and SMEs, creating a right business environment for emerging companies to thrive by providing a space to grow with, key growth drivers like scalability and flexibility.

Driven by a technology platform, it offers a complete smart space solution, by providing professionally managed space-infrastructure, employee facilities and partnered spaces. The platform enables the Indiqubens to order/track food online, book partner’s spaces (meeting, conference & training room) and transport etc.

Coworking spaces let the startup and emerging companies concentrate on things that matter to their business. An ‘Employee-Centric’ approach and technology-driven ecosystem enables the partners to suffice their needs in recruitment, finance – accounting, Legal, Digital media & PR at a shared cost.

This is especially advantageous for those startups and SMEs with less funds, but are great on ideas who just needing an environment to thrive.

[The author of this post is Meghna Agrawal, co-founder of Indiqube.]

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