Working space and offices are outdated and need to adapt to the digital age, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said.
“I think an office as we know it is kind of an outdated notion,” Chesky said at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit. “It’s primarily, as it’s currently designed, an anachronistic form factor from a pre-digital age.”
According to Chesky new offices need to change. “The open floor plan with these meeting rooms that everyone’s waiting in line to get in and no one can find a meeting room, all of that is I think a thing of the past,” he said.
He noted how important is to be really innovative in the office and workplace design of the future. “The office of the future should not resemble at all the office of the past because the world is changing.”
This week Airbnb announced a new work- anywhere policy that will let its employees work remotely from 170 countries.
Chesky explained that companies are saving money on offices and will have a smaller footprint, since only a small fraction of its employees will be at the office at the same time.
“There will probably be fewer business travel meetings because a lot of things can be done over Zoom,” he said.
