Page 92 - FDI Alliance International Magazine. Spring 2021 Digital Interactive Issue

There has been a lot of speculation on the two years, I would conduct a video conference to convince their clients that their physical
future of the office workplace environment. meeting with my team in one room facing two products are better than the competition. If
Is it on a permanent decline; will it go back monitors and the other team thousands of the product needs to be demonstrated, it is
to normal or somewhere in between? There miles away in Houston, Texas with a similar fairly difficult to accomplish remotely. For the
are many office complexes that are vacant equipment setup. It worked, the drawbacks most part, this segment in society is serving
than there was prior to COVID. However, were many, and we could only do this at the existing clients, but much of this industry
is this due to the inability of people being office, not at home. needs to touch and feel and see the product
able to work instead of working from home? in action in a group setting to determine if it
Today’s conferencing platforms has is the right item for their company.
The COVID Pandemic has shown us that transformed how businesses interact allowing
effective office work can be accomplished thousands to participate in a video conference Retail sales are just starting to come back
at home, but at what price. Many of us were anywhere at home, office or on a smartphone now that people are getting the COVID shot
able to accomplish most of our tasks at our in your car. But is this enough? For the software and finally stores/restaurant are reopening.
home or apartment instead of at the corporate engineer, draftsman’s, production engineer, Online shopping did very well the past year
office as long as we had a good internet and those that run a plant remotely or work and have expanded but at a huge expense
connection and access to various meeting fairly independently – the answer is yes. One to brick and mortar experiences that as a
platforms. I anticipate that there will be a could conduct business wherever there is a society we count on. That expansion of online
niche of businesses that will be able to take good internet connection. But these are not stores is now the norm of shopping and
advantage of leasing smaller office spaces and the majority of jobs. here to stay. But most people need physical
having their office workforce work remotely, at interactions with others. They need that social
least for now. But majority of businesses are Due to COVID, for the time being we all are outlet to be able to go to multiple venues to
working remotely. Obviously, there are many doing our best to get by and make the effort find that perfect outfit or dining experience.
jobs that are easily accomplished at home. to work remotely. Salespeople do their best For many, our favorite haunts that we like

About 20 years ago, businesses and employees
were exploring the ability to work from home
with only mediocre results. At that time,
there was distrust from Corporate that the
employee was actually working. There were
no real mechanisms in place to determine
if work got done. Even upon completion of
work, the perception was that Corporate
did not truly believe that a day’s work was
accomplished as they could not physically
see the employee thus did not trust their staff.
Twenty-five years ago, if we wanted to have
a video conference call with a manufacturer
and their team across the county, it was a
costly ordeal of specialized equipment and a
few T-1 telephone lines. Every Wednesday, for

92. FDI ALLIANCE INTERNATIONAL