I was thinking about coworking today -- locations, designs, amenities and so on -- and I got to thinking about the future of the business.
It strikes me that someone will eventually come along and franchise or corporatize the concept, assuming there's a profit to be made that's worth pursuing for a big company. Worst case scenario, I can imagine Starbucks making a slight strategic change and pursuing the coworking business as an add-on to the coffee shop business. They could, with a little effort, buy up space next to many of their existing locations and setup the spaces in a coworking fashion rather than a cafe fashion. Charge for day-to-day access, weekly, monthly, etc. I'm sure to corporate thinkers, a coworking space looks just like any old office, only cheaper. I don't know if it would be profitable for a company like Starbucks to do this, but they do seem to be well-positioned to make a move like this, given their sizable retail presence. And coworking sites might look like a not-insignificant threat to their existing business. What they couldn't replicate, of course, are the communities that accrete around a coworking space and group of regulars. That's organic and needs a "real" leader to facilitate it and grow it; it requires people to be in the space and participating in the community regularly, and Starbucks couldn't get that kind of loyalty, I'm sure. For those that have started a coworking biz or researched it more than I have... [1] Are you concerned about copycat corporate businesses popping up? [2] Has this already started happening in some areas? [3] Could a "corporate" version of coworking even survive? --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
