I’ve written another piece for silicon.com:

At the recent Workplace Trends conference, one speaker dared to ask: “Do we even need an office these days?” I thought I’d pick up this contentious ball and run with it.

What would happen if a large multi-national company, which I’ll call Company X, sold its real estate, dished out laptops and went completely mobile? Their new offices would be at homes and in connected ‘third places’, all around the city or town.

I’m only talking about knowledge workers here: those whose work could be done with a laptop and phone. If a worker actually makes something, it’s a fair bet Starbucks isn’t the ideal place to do it.

Let’s look at the issues…

You can read the article over here.