Going Virtual - Book Review

Going Virtual – Part 1 & 2

In Silicon Valley, innovation is gauged by its capacity to "disrupt". What if you could knock down every office building in Silicon Valley and plant trees in their place? Now, what if you could knock down every office building while simultaneously doubling worker productivity, saving $ billions in expenses, and half a billion tons of carbon emissions? How's that for disruption?

Going Virtual makes a compelling case that offices are obsolete in the 21st century. The exhaustive research and case studies presented in the book dispel conventional wisdom that offices amplify resources. The findings in Going Virtual demonstrate that offices consume vast resources in terms of productivity and cash, as well as exacting a substantial toll on the environment. For example, each year, America’s 56 million knowledge workers collectively burn more than 10 million person years and 740 million barrels of oil in commute. Once these workers arrive at the office, their remaining quality work time is shredded to bits by endless interruptions.

Going Virtual demonstrates how businesses can survive and prosper in the “New Normal” economy of the 21st century. Part 2 offers practical advice on how to transition from a bricks and mortar office to a virtual one.

Buy Part 1 on Amazon | B&N | Escargot Books - Part 2 on Amazon | B&N | Escargot Books


Review:

I received this book for free in exchange for my honest opinion.  


I would give this book a 5 out of 5!  The case this book makes for going virtual is very interesting.  I can definitely see this point of view.

The book starts off with the prediction of the recession back in 2006.  Low and behold about a year later in late 2007 the recession started.  And personally we felt the financial crunch of that.  Not only my husband and I, but my parents and friends did too.  Our 401K really felt the pinch.

By 2009 more and more experts were joining the group lending their voices to try to raise awareness.  Trying to get the powers that be to do something to help.  Without putting appropriate policies into place we're doomed to stagnate in this recession.  We might end up with a "lost decade" of high unemployment and slow growth.

The author proposes learning from history.  (Shocking, huh?!?)  What got us out of the Great Depression?  Not much to begin with, but President Roosevelt was on the right track with spending money on the country's infrastructure.  Programs like the Civilian Conservation Corp.  They built dams, a lot of the buildings and structures in our National Parks, and such.  Then President Eisenhower continued with that theme after the war with building our interstate systems.  Those programs put a good bit of money back into our economy for many, many years.  These days the government is just throwing money at the problem with stimulus packages that have no staying power, no base to keep the money coming.  So with that going on, businesses are going to have to prepare for a "new normal."  Business as usual will not work with our economy the way it is.  Businesses will have to re-evaluate how they practice and change their goals.

And this brings us to the premise of the book, making businesses virtual.  The 19th century practice of brick and mortar offices are actually a drain on today's economy.  So much has to be put into those that it ends up costing a company more.  If they dared to go virtual, it would very quickly put them in the black.  As an example, he uses a business of 100,000 employees, a moderately sized company.  If that company was to go virtual, what do you think it would save them annually?  5 million?  75 million?  400 million?  Going virtual with that size company could save them a whopping $400 million a year!!!!  That just blew me away!  And it's not just big companies that would benefit, but small ones as well.

Part 1 gives us the basis for the author's reasoning for going virtual.  It would benefit everyone: the employer, the employee, the country, and the planet.  Just think of not having to commute every day...  Just think of not having meetings every day...  Part 2 gives us the nuts and bolts of how to make your business virtual.  The start up, finding employees, getting the company out there.  I gotta say the beginning of the book is kind of scary.  Just all that's going wrong with our economy.  The author gives us a ray of hope with how to go forward in business to help not only our economy, but the global economy.  This is for everyone!


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