Page 18 - #64 eng 电子版

c Cover Story

WeWork
WeWork, the fast-growing New York
start-up valued at a whopping $20 billion. In
just eight years, WeWork has built a network
of 253 shared working spaces around the globe.
But WeWork’s chief executive and co-founder,
Adam Neumann, isn’t content to just lease out
communal offices. Mr. Neumann wants noth-
ing less than to radically transform the way we
work, live and play.
It may sound simplistic, but around the
globe, companies are buying whatever it is that
Adam Neumann and his co-founder, Miguel
McKelvey, are selling. WeWork has rapidly
expanded to 20 countries, assembled a formi-
dable executive team and attracted over
248,000 members. Big companies like JPMor-
gan Chase and Siemens are signing on as tenants,
and revenues are growing fast, expected to top
$2.3 billion this year. WeWork last year bought
the iconic Lord & Taylor building on Fifth Ave-
nue in Manhattan, which is being transformed
into the company’s new headquarters. “How do
you change the world?” Mr. Neumann asked in
a recent interview. “Bring people together.
Where is the easiest big place to bring people
together? In the work environment.” The notion
that white-collar workers might actually like
their offices is a relatively new one. From the
countinghouses of industrial England to the
skyscrapers of 1980s Manhattan, offices were
mostly uninspiring places designed to maximize
space, often with row upon row of unglamorous
desks. This dreary state of affairs began to
change in earnest, at least for some, during the
dot-com bubble. Tech companies built playful
offices with beanbags and Ping-Pong tables,
making work spaces less formal. Free food be-
came commonplace. Raised expectations for
amenities and interior design gradually seeped
into the mainstream, and today, more and more
employees — especially millennials — expect
enlightened, unconventional offices. “We’ve
seen shift in the way of work towards collabo-
ration and more meaning among millenials who
have made up about 40% of whole career force.
By providing inspiring spaces, services and
dynamic community, we connect all people to
share, work with each other since we believe
staying together is better,” says WeWork rep-
resentative.
WeWork is the leader, by far, in a surging
co-working space movement. Some 5,900

18