Laptops Nullify Boardrooms

The laptop computer has made oak cabinets and bookshelves in the CEO’s office redundant. The oak table with the six chairs must also go, because laptop computers sit on the lap, not on the table. The CEO can have a productive meeting with people sitting on the floor with laptops on their laps.

The traditional general manager’s office was basically, the master bedroom away from home. Such an office used to be a corner office, because it had more space to accommodate things that demonstrated the man’s importance. Bookshelves for example.

They were meant to impress, that the occupant was a man of letters, and educated man. Experiment. Go to your CEO’s office on Monday and ask him if he has read all the books on his bookshelf. Better still, pick up one book, say the title and ask him who the author is, and what the book is all about. Dead end.

How about getting rid of the CEO’s office altogether, and let him sit in the general area with his diggers and their laptops? Not possible, because offices are still important to show rank. They are a perk, where you can make private calls and have secretaries that say ‘Your 11 o’clock is here.’ I heard that in a movie. The secretary left out the word appointment. That’s Atlanta for you, another world, another language.

SOLUTION

Turn the CEO’s old office into an electronic boardroom. No sofas with elephant legs and desks with six drawers the CEO doesn’t use. Turn the office into a coffee shop with an enclave for a studio complete with reflectors and cameras on tripods. It won’t be a full studio like youtube.com/mkbhd the tech go-to, but it will be alive, not dormant like the current boardroom table.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.