‘Promote good conversations’
What was the problem you were grappling with?
In 2020, owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, we were required to vacate our iconic office in the Big Apple Building, Parel (Mumbai). It was one of the few standalone offices with a private garden and a lot of history, and now we had to move to a glass and concrete corporate tower in Urmi Estate in Lower Parel.
Who did you approach for advice?
As is our way of working in Leo Burnett, we called a meeting with our leaders to discuss this issue.
What was the advice you received?
To my surprise, the team said it doesn’t matter where our physical office is. We will find a way to make it ours as far as we are together. That inspired me to write the brief for the new office. We designed it to be the largest coffee shop in the country, measuring 18,000 sq. ft. A coffee shop doesn’t recognise anybody’s designation; it has no colour of its own; it only promotes good conversations and ideas.
Our new office now has four pods—the library, the media centre, the conservatory and the cafeteria. There are no fixed seats, no cabins and no storage. The new office is built around people’s energies, and of course, it serves the best coffee in town.
How effective was it in resolving the problem?
The new office is the best thing that has happened to us. There’s great energy all around as people are colliding with each other over conversations and ideas. There are groups of people sitting around in collab spaces and building new thoughts. No one—not even the seniormost folks—complained about not having cabins or fixed seats. And in a world of WFH, we have more colleagues wanting to come to the office than we can accommodate.