In an interview with Tony Bacigalupo, Frank Cottle of Alliance Business Centers talked about coworking and how it should be challenging the office rental industry to be more.  These are what I thought were the main points.

Shared Work Space

The combination of people, place, and technology into a single highly flexible service agreement is what makes coworking more efficient for clients than if they were to using each component individually.  Coworking is part of the serviced office industry. According to Frank, it is those three simple ingredients that create the industry. They may be in different ratios but the final product is similar.

Today every company has international relationship, our communication systems are global.  This is the perfect climate for collaboration. Everyone is highly mobile. The transience in the business model that we are starting to see requires even more flexibility than the traditional business center industry.

Changing Job Structure

The typical job structure is changing.  In fact, the largest group of work enterprise is in the form of contractors.  Employers need to recognize the available technology allows people to work where and how they want, as long as they are being productive.

The changes to the job market are causing commercial real estate to be repurposed into serving the new growth market.  Coworking is the mechanism for this repurposing. There has never been more access to capital for coworking than there is now.  However, people tend to recognize the strong brands like WeWork and Regus but not the industry itself.

Traditional business centers are network oriented.  The difference is in the language use to communicate it. Today, coworking refers to it as community.  Frank says both business centers and coworking spaces are listening carefully to their customers.  So, there is starting to be a blend between the two industries. Both groups keep adapting their design according to the success of operations and customer demands they face.  However, Frank does also note that the way coworking spaces and business centers work and the environment they create depend largely on the operators themselves. The way operators choose to run their business or space is reflected greatly in the kind of community that members see.