SHORTS

QUOTE, UNQUOTE

"Carpe per diem – seize the cheque."

Robin Williams seizes the pay day

BOOK

RE-IMAGINE!

Tom Peters Out 1 September, £10.99 (approx. €13)

Tom Peters is, in his own words, “mad as hell”. In fact he’s “madder than hell”, or just plain “pissed off”. The man The Economist called the “über-guru of management” is already the author of several international bestselling business titles, and this time he’s turning his attention to the organisational barriers that stand in the way of innovation.

Except at first glance he seems less mad than insane. There are rants, subheads, chunks of huge bold text in the middle of sentences, and points of information scattered among the footnotes. It’s a disconcerting way to present the text, but stick with it through the first couple of chapters and the presentation marries with the message, as Re-Imagine emerges as more than a business book. It’s a call to arms, a demand that we respond to our disruptive age by throwing out what we thought we knew and taking a more creative approach to life and work. Like listening to an informed elder hold forth on the ills of the age, it makes for a compelling read.

WORK

WINDOWS ON THE FUTURE

We’ve been told for a long time that technology will make our working lives more flexible, and now Microsoft is leading by example with its new Dutch headquarters. Designed by Sevil Peach and architects Cepezed, the six-storey building doesn’t have any desks in the conventional sense, preferring instead a variety of work benches, relaxation zones, sleeping pods, meeting rooms, boardrooms and ‘work carousels’.

The thinking goes that Microsoft’s products allow people to work from home, on the road or wherever they are. So, as well as moving around the building, employees are free from set working hours and are encouraged to work from home and elsewhere as living examples of what their products can do.

But is the new headquarters simply a piece of public relations hype? Isn’t it another example of the hot desking fad that has reared its head every couple of years over the past decade? “The big difference is that you’re allowed to come in but you’re not obliged to,” says Theo Rinsema, general manager of Microsoft Netherlands. “For example, I’m speaking to you through my computer so I don’t need to use my phone, and I’m doing it from an office in the Hague, but I could be anywhere. The office for us has become a meeting place – you can work there too, but you can also work anywhere else.”

TECHNOLOGY

TWEET LITTLE MYSTERY

As Twitter continues to grab the headlines, ever more companies are jumping on the micro-blogging bandwagon. But many of them don’t know what to make of the ride. Digital PR firm Immediate Future has released a white paper analysing the use of Twitter by major brands, including the BBC and LinkedIn. It found that while some companies were engaging in genuine Twitter “conversations”, the majority were using the service to “broadcast news and content… displaying introverted behaviour and only discussing their own brand and activities”, and so losing out on that all-important element of community involvement.

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