One of the most fascinating phenomena of recent years is the coworking movement. But coworking spaces are no longer just a place where small business owners and freelancers can work together - even for Companys they are becoming increasingly attractive. Here are the reasons.

Coworking space New Zealand
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The idea behind coworking

I looked at numerous coworking spaces around the world: in Latvia, France, Canada and New Zealand. What they all had in common was that they were cool rooms, where mostly Boy People practice a new form of collaborative work.

Because coworking is no longer just about inexpensive offices and workplaces: The Idea behind it is that people from different Industries and work together in one place with very different ideas and ways of thinking - and that this results in unexpected synergy effects.

Creative concepts - also interesting for companies

In Auckland, New ZealandFor example, the coworking space had just one workshop attached to it: designers were thus able to produce their products at the same low-cost, live and in color. In Riga, LatviaHowever, coworking consists of an additional service in a mixture of bookstore and cafe.

It is no wonder that such creative work concepts are also increasingly exciting for established companies. They admire the agile mentality of start-ups and would like to cut a slice of it.

Feelgood culture in established companies

Pitches, lunch, beer and lots of meet-ups - the betahaus offers many formats matching both sides. In Talinn, Estonia, the start-up culture has been firmly anchored in Skype:

There is, among other games, a sauna and numerous Feelgood activities. What is really surprising is that the General Manager works with everyone else in the open-plan office - for creative exchange, such as he told in an interview.

StartUp safaris and working world 4.0

In Berlin, on the other hand, large corporations like Deutsche Bahn organize start-up safaris to take a closer look at the working methods of the “young wild ones”. Deutsche Bahn also has a Network launched with internal and external experts for the digitization initiative “Working Worlds 4.0”.

Internal met well-known representatives Economy, politics and science with the Objectiveto shape future working environments together. Divided into five working groups, the experts used the scenarioTechnologyto identify potential development paths and generate prototypes for tomorrow's work.

Branch for innovation

And in Duesseldorf you can watch the garage Bilk, which will soon be called Factory Campus and move to a factory ground, to see how startups and established business companies work together and organize events together.

In the meantime, many companies used coworking spaces as a sort of branch of their business and hired individual rooms or a desk.

Innovation departments and investment programs

“Some appreciate the non-classical corporate environment and, for example, send their innovation departments here, which are supposed to work differently than they did in the past. Others go specifically to the Berlin location because they might reach people there who don't want to work in other cities," says von der Maximilian von der Ahé, Founders and CEO of betahaus.

It's always about your own Employees integrate into an innovative community. In addition, there are a number of specific accelerator programs that help companies enter the StartIps invest can.

Synergy effects in human resources

Such synergy effects are particularly exciting in the human resources sector: in many companies, there are so-called top talent programs and entrepreneurial thinking to promote.

In principle, however, established companies are one step ahead of start-ups when it comes to personnel development, says von der Ahé: “In a fast-paced start-up culture that is constantly growing or changing, there is little time for this. With all agility, it is important not to lose this know-how verlieren. "

What companies need to look out for

But with that the cooperation successfully runs, employers have to consider a few things. "Every company should know that it takes staying power to achieve a transfer of innovation," says von der Ahé. Every Organization work differently and have to find out what suits my own corporate culture.

"It is important to have fixed capacities that do not have to be too results-oriented." A start-up catalog of rules is also needed to clarify from the start which purchasing conditions, rights or data protection regulations apply. long, frequent Meetings, where the decision-makers are not at the table, are poison for the cooperation.