collectiveSome

collectiveSome
Corporate Heresies, Technology Rants, Personal Observations

Friday, May 07, 2004

HELPING PEOPLE FIND A BETTER WORK/LIFE BALANCE -- by way of a place and by way of enabling software

Consider the possibility of creating a new kind of work environment. A place, that would be neither a 'standard office' nor home. A place where people with flexible work obligations would go to work. A work environment that recognizes the conflicting time demands of people who try to juggle entrepreneurial activities and taking care of their families.

For the sake of making a hypothetical example more real, let's define our imaginary 'work-club' member (the analogy between this type of work environment and a health-club is explored - below): a 30-something woman who's stepped out of her profession of law in exchange for the ability to watch her two children grow. Not entirely 'stepped out' though. Let's say this woman still works as a freelancer for a couple of local law offices -- she does the rather unglamorous (but entirely necessary) task of taking witness depositions for a handful of local law firms. It's a feast or famine kind of part time job.

Here is a person whose life defines over-extension. The kids are in private school - there are class functions, orchestra practice, sports practice, weekend and after-school 'play dates.' There's a home to manage; there are personal and professional obligations for both her career and that of her husband.

This person needs a compartment for her work-life.

Within a dozen miles of her home are 4 'office suite' rental companies. Professionally somber caves -- leased in blocks of several months -- of dark wood, neutral carpet, frosted glass partitions and a pearl-necklaced receptionist who answers 'your' phone with a corporate sounding manner. These are the kinds of places where two or three person "virtual companies" acquire a patina of larger-company respectability.

The proposed kind of offering -- that of a 'work club' -- would be qualitatively different. It would be -- emphatically -- a real-world environment. It would offer no pretense of being a virtual office -- it would simply be a place where 'members' goes for, say, a dozen hours a week, to get stuff done. It would be a workplace that acknowledges it is simply one of many hats this member wears. And it would try to help her manage those hats a bit more efficiently.

Consider some of the parallels between this kind of a work club and health-clubs. What happens in health clubs, as we all know, is that you tend to form kinds of, oh, 'weak communities' by way of the people who have similar workout patterns. After a while what happens is that you tend to figure out the people you might trust for an opinion. AND - after a while longer - you find yourself exchanging tips -- which rug-cleaning company is good, which company gives good rates on car insurance, where to take your car for a muffler, where's the best Deli to get Portuguese sausage, what're 'kid-friendly' restaurants... the list goes on and on.

I'm convinced there's a real opportunity for some company (or confederation of companies) to become a pioneer in creating this new kind of workplace. A new kind of workplace with definable value propositions.

The story -- and the opportunity -- gets bigger. Combine a bit of relatively simple technology and a bit of real-human-being intervention and these places could offer specific work/life communities a kind of 'net accessible concierge-and-advice service.

(There could be multiple communities within each 'WorkClub' - each with its own focus, each with its own focused concierge service. Examples? : A community of sales people who use the WorkClub as their commute-free suburban office, communities underwritten by local companies who offer their workers a few-days-per-month option of working in a satellite office, a community of moonlighters ... etc)

The software component

The short of it: WorkClubs would offer an online analogue to the kind of expertise-and-advice sharing that takes place in the real world. And, as with any software offering, success or failure is usually the result of the details. These are non-trivial issues.

Who would pay for this infrastructure software?

Again, whoever leads the way in creating these WorkClubs could become a pioneer in thinking here.

1. On-screen sales ads are a possibility. In exchange for devoting x% of one's screens to paid advertisements, enough money is generated to pay for software maintenance. (These WorkClubs could make the pitch that its members are valuable ad-targets)

2. More focused advertising. Every time any club member does a search that includes specific topic subjects *or* that goes out and browses an external web-site -- that information (entirely anonymous) is captured. Brand-X WorkClub sells non-identifiable information (30% women under 45 years, from the following zip codes) ALONG with the community's search information. This becomes enormously more valuable a target audience for g3w to sell to advertisers.

3. Specific, personalized marketing. Every time each work-club member does a search - those search conditions are captured in a text file the member (and ONLY the member) has access to. Once a month the club member is sent an e-mail asking if they want to exchange a record of their last months' queries FOR specific product and service coupons. Those members are told they have access to their query files - and they can *delete* any specific queries they want (they cannot *add* or modify searches). IF the club member sends back his/her approval, the WorkClub creates an anonymous file (stripping out all identifying information) with both specific demographic- and search- information. The WorkClub sells these anonymous 'dossiers' to the highest bidder - those bidders, in turn, get to send precisely 'tuned' electronic coupons (for products and services) to those club members. (those coupons are sent to the member@Workclub.com mailboxes) (members have 'spam' controls/filters in their club e-mail that can filter excessive mail)

posted by Tom | 7:49 PM