“In a business world linked by electronic networks and cheap, nearly instantaneous communications, physical location shouldn’t matter. But it does.”
What a relief to find that in the fast paced world we now experience every day businesses still have a need for personal contact. Even the managers at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a huge worldwide venture capital firm, acknowledge the need for the personal touch. I envision that the major backers of Hotmail would have high tech offices, similar to the ones you see in the movies. They only need someone to bring them some coffee, or maybe they have a ‘smart desk’ that can brew it for them.
In the article by Leslie Berlin, “Location, Location: It Still Pays to be Near,” Randall Glein states that “in spite of everything that technology can do, there is no replacement for personal contact and face to face relationships when it comes to building companies.” Glein is the managing director of the DFJ Growth fund at the Draper Fisher Jurvetson venture capital company. DFJ has offices located in China, India, and the United States to name a few of the countries where they have physical offices. DFJ likes to be where the action is, they are present for evaluating the start up company, and to support it while it grows.
I found this statement to be a surprise coming from a manager of a venture capital firm that is responsible for bringing to life cutting edge technology. In visiting their website, www.dfj.com, I was treated to a very upscale and interactive experience. The network that they have engineered is impressive and each division has every new technology at their beck and call. I imagined that their offices would be walls of screens and virtual meeting rooms. It is nice to know that technology hasn’t completely replaced all aspects of business.
Lorraine Waters
Berlin, L.(2009, June 13) Location, Location: It Still Pays to be Near. New York Times. Retrieved October 9, 2009, from
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/business/14proto.html?_r=3&emc=eta1
1 comment:
When reading this article it made me feel so much better to know that a company, like this, can still see the human touch as a necessity. As technology advances there have been many jobs that have been replaced with computers. The way I see it is that we humans still have to maintain the computer so they make our jobs easier.
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