Real Time Real Place

Posted by on June 03, 2006

HP has announced the cancellation of telecommuting for a key division of the company.

Why? Because HP believes "bringing its information-technology employees together in the office will make them swifter and smarter," according to story in today's San Jose Mercury News.

HP CIO Randy Mott, who ordered the change, is regarded "as a mastermind of operational efficiency based on his days as chief information officer at Wal-Mart Stores and Dell," the Mercury News reported. "Mott said by bringing IT employees together to work as teams in offices, the less-experienced employees who aren't performing well -- which there are 'a lot of' -- can learn how to work more effectively."

Just like Xerox former chief scientist John Seely Brown has always asserted, when it comes to sharing ideas, physical promixity matters.

It's another powerful argument for the value of cities in an economy that depends on ideas and knowledge.

In an office, ``you're able to put teams together that can learn very aggressively and rapidly from each other,'' he said.