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The Office Group co-founders Olly Olsen and Charlie Green are presenting at GCUC UK<\/a> September 25 and 26 in London.\u00a0Tickets are available now<\/a>.<\/p>\n by Cat Johnson<\/em><\/p>\n In 2003, The Office Group<\/a> reimagined what shared workspace could be like in London. Recognising that serviced offices were overpriced and under delivering, founders Olly Olsen and Charlie Green set out to provide a high-quality workspace experience.<\/p>\n Now The Office Group has over 15,000 members working in 33 buildings. I spoke with Olly about how the market has changed since those early days, giving members a sense of ownership of their workspace, the upcoming GCUC UK<\/a> conference, and the future of coworking in London and beyond. Here are the highlights of our conversation.<\/p>\n Olly Olsen: Flexible workspace was in its infancy. The options here were either a conventional lease, a sublet, a friend\u2019s space, or what is the old school serviced office product. There was certainly no one giving members or their clients ownership or a sense of their own brand identity. It was very expensive, you were ripped off on phone calls and internet and it was never, ever perceived as a long-term option. It was a short-term, expensive product. No one was proud to be working in a serviced office or executive suite, or coworking space at that time. That\u2019s why we started The Office Group.<\/p>\n In the first seven years we bought our buildings and owned the freeholds, so we had a lower cost of occupation. We were able to pass on those savings to our members so they had a viable, flexible product. It wasn\u2019t overpriced so people didn\u2019t feel when they were signing up, that they were already planning to leave and go to somewhere cheaper. People used to say they wanted to go to their own office. We thought, why can\u2019t this be your own office?<\/p>\n Because of the economies of scale, and the buying power in the sharing economy, everyone paid less for their phones, they paid less for their internet, and they paid a sensible price for their workspace. We took a landlord\u2019s approach to our members and worked to keep them here for years, not for months.<\/p>\n The first building we had was tiny, with only 69 people in it. We gave a disproportionate amount of space to communal areas, such as the lounge area. We had one phone booth, but it was more than anyone else had at that time. We made sure that we had more meeting rooms and large communal spaces that were all free to use. Why should you have to pay just to sit down and have a meeting?<\/p>\n We wanted to give a greater sense of ownership and not have to charge everyone for all these additional extras which people used to get very upset with. With this approach, people feel like it\u2019s their own true office.<\/p>\n The other thing we had was signage in reception for our members, we always gave their brands pride of place in the buildings so they felt like that was their home.<\/p>\n When we opened new buildings we ensured that we didn\u2019t have a cookie-cutter, boilerplate approach to design. You can never do that because every building is different and every area of London attracts a different audience \u2014 a different type of client. You have to adapt to that audience, honouring the architecture of the building and the area of London it sits within.<\/p>\n We ended up creating a number of design-led, boutique, flexible workspaces where the members felt like they had ownership. It was as flexible as anyone else, it was arguably more cost-effective and financially viable than anyone else, and they had a great relationship with the landlord. Members came, they came from our competitors, and they stayed.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve kept the same model and the same approach and ethos all the way through to new buildings we\u2019re looking at today. I\u2019m currently at my desk with the floorplans. I\u2019m sitting here with a pencil designing what it should be.<\/p>\n It\u2019s time has come. Flexible workspace is now the norm and the majority of businesses globally will assume that they should review their office needs. When doing so, they\u2019re looking not only at leases, but also at licenses within the coworking sector.<\/p>\n We have a lot of people to thank, but it\u2019s an assortment of everyone in the sector, globally, who has done very well and has really innovated the product. Because of that, all eyes are on the sector. Everyone\u2019s helped with the advertising and promotion of the sector and I think we\u2019re all going to be benefiting from it. The demand is there, and the demand has increased. I\u2019m excited to see that demand grow and I\u2019m intrigued to see how far it will grow.<\/p>\n The demand will always be there. People need to eat, need to sleep, need places to live and need places to work. We\u2019re humans and it\u2019s a very natural thing for us to want to be together, making connections. That will not change, so bottom line is I don\u2019t think demand is going to reduce, but I do think the consumer\u2019s behaviour is going to change, and the product they\u2019re wanting and looking for will absolutely change.<\/p>\n We\u2019re in this business to grow. If you aren\u2019t providing the right product and attracting the right audience, and being sympathetic with the way in which you charge, then your business won\u2019t thrive.<\/p>\n There will be a number of casualties because there\u2019s been a lot of new people coming to the sector. You\u2019ve got to have local knowledge. I\u2019m seeing a lot of people coming to the different areas, and a lot of people expanding throughout the world. You have to be very careful when you enter new markets. I don\u2019t want to see casualties, but I do think there will be some. It\u2019s a difficult industry and I don\u2019t think everyone will survive\u2014even if the demand increases at the same pace as the supply.<\/p>\n I actually see it all as natural economics and the way in which the habits change, and the evolution of the industry. There\u2019s always been challenges, from the day we started, and there will always continue to be challenges. What those are, I don\u2019t think anyone will really know.<\/p>\n Right now, a lot of people want to do this and I would be very wary of starting a business in this sector right now because it\u2019s exceptionally competitive and you need to know what you\u2019re doing because it\u2019s not straightforward.<\/p>\n I want to see something new. I don\u2019t want to see the old faces, I want to see the new faces. I don\u2019t want to hear the same stuff we\u2019ve heard in the last few years because it\u2019s all repetitive. We want to know, real time, what\u2019s happening in the industry, what our members are saying and their perception of the industry, and what new technologies are coming to play.<\/p>\n I thought we\u2019d give a little bit of a story about what we\u2019ve done and where we got to, how we got to where we are, and what we\u2019re going to do moving forward.<\/p>\n Our personal plan is to be super-disciplined with our approach to growth. We are looking at every market globally and considering them. Although London is our home\u2014we know it very well and we certainly see London as a big growth area for us.<\/p>\n Whatever we talk about on the day, it will be real-time. We will be giving you our honest opinion of where we see our business growing. We won\u2019t be telling anyone what to do, we won\u2019t be giving anyone advice, we\u2019ll just be sharing our experiences.<\/p>\n
\nCat Johnson: When you started The Office Group back in 2003, what was the workspace landscape in London like?<\/h2>\n
GCUC UK producer Justin Harley talks about<\/a> how he\u2019s really impressed that the vision you had all those years ago is still at the forefront of your brand. What was, and is your vision for The Office Group?<\/h2>\n
When you look at coworking in the UK, what are you most exciting about?<\/h2>\n
That\u2019s one of the topics to be discussed at GCUC UK: How long will the demand last and what happens when it stops growing?<\/h2>\n
What do you think the biggest challenge facing the UK coworking industry is?<\/h2>\n
I\u2019d love to hear your thoughts on GCUC UK, which is the debut of GCUC in Europe. What do you hope comes out of it? What would you like to see?<\/h2>\n
At GCUC UK, you and Charlie are scheduled to talk about the future of the workspace industry. Can you give me a sneak peek into what you\u2019ll talk about?<\/h2>\n
Join us for GCUC UK<\/a>, the European debut of the world’s largest coworking conference series.<\/strong><\/h4>\n