Going Bedouin

By Greg Olsen

Anyone who works in the Silicon Valley knows the fable of the company that achieves spectacular success, then moves into new luxurious headquarters, and then immediately starts its decline.  In this fable, the "new headquarters" event equates to "jumping the shark ".  Certainly, there is no scientific basis for "demise by new headquarters," but every time I drive by the still empty excite@home monument or the former SGI headquarters (the new Google headquarters, btw) with its contemplation fountain set amid lush manicured gardens, I wonder. 

For many rapidly growing technology companies, "new opulent headquarters" seem to mark the point where a once innovative and agile company has become big, slow, and distracted.  The relevant question for me is whether or not a company's attitude toward operational infrastructure such as facilities, HR, and internal information systems is an indicator of its ability to resist decay into a bloated, slothful, has been. 

A technology startup begins in a state of simplicity and focus - some ideas, a few people and little else to get in the way.  As the business grows, however, sources of complexity and distraction seem to appear from every direction. 

The source I found most surprising, (when I last helped start a software business back in '96), was the operational overhead that came with setting up an office, which continued to grow as we got larger. Before we knew it we were dealing with real estate leases, leased-lines, routers, VPNs, servers, workstations, firewalls, DMZs, UPSs, telephone systems, voicemail systems, email systems, web servers & website management software, accounting software, sales & marketing software, software development software, groupware, IT support staff, attorneys, and many other things - none of which were directly related to our core business. The VP of Marketing "had to" spend numerous hours looking at color swatches to select the "right" furniture.  While still a small company, an office move (within the same building) required weeks of planning, dedicated staff, and days to complete. 

I remember longing wistfully for the days when the company's infrastructure fit into my backpack.

As I again venture down the startup path, it is clear that much has changed - including new tools, technologies and approaches to support operational needs.  Almost everything costs less than it did in '96 (except possibly the attorneys), and there is an ever expanding set of service-based alternatives to building operational infrastructure.  Most companies seem to be employing these new capabilities incrementally.

I'm interested in something more radical. By focusing almost exclusively on service-based infrastructure options, a business could operate as a sort of neo-Bedouin clan - with workers as a roaming nomadic tribe carrying laptops & cell phones and able to set up shop wherever there is an Internet connection, chairs, tables, and sources of caffeine.  "Going Bedouin" is an interesting concept, but key questions naturally arise:

• "How do you do it?"
• "Why do it?  What are the benefits?"
• "What are the challenges?"

Given peoples' experience with telecommuting and distributed team projects from the open source community, a neo-Bedouin approach is not as hard to envision as it once may have been.  The requirements for a neo-Bedouin business, however, go further and must include support for all business functions (such as sales, marketing, finance, engineering and customer support).   A neo-Bedouin approach can be executed through a wide variety of specific choices. Here is a sample recipe:

For me, "because you can" is almost enough reason to "go Bedouin", but there are much better reasons.  Any reduction of distraction or complexity that is due to operational infrastructure is a good thing. The goal of "going Bedouin" is to create a low inertia business that takes less capital to get started and that can react with greater agility to changing conditions.  Key areas of agility include:

• Team agility: Reducing the time/effort it takes to make new team members productive. Providing greater levels of flexibility in addressing team needs through short-term contracting or outsourcing.
• Information systems agility: Reducing the effort spent on systems selection, setup, and switching. Providing greater flexibility to change or extend information systems as business conditions change.
• Physical environment agility: Reducing the adverse impact of office moves, power outages, break-ins, fires, floods, earthquakes, hardware failures, stolen laptops, etc.

Reducing operational overhead through a neo-Bedouin approach can definitely produce a "less is more" result.  There are, however, challenges and concerns that come with this type of approach. 

One of the first concerns is security, particularly security surrounding the hosting of the company's source control repository.  The security of this service as well as any of the others used by the company is a valid concern, but it must be examined from a relative risk perspective.  Internet security technologies combined with service provider features can produce a risk level that is comparable to risks present in in-house approaches.  Care must be taken in choosing service providers as all do not offer the same levels of security.  Because credential sharing across multiple service providers is not well supported today, team members must be cautious in terms of password management and must deal with the nuisance of multiple logins. 

Another challenge with implementing a neo-Bedouin approach is in getting people to overcome behavioral inertia.  Many people get very used to and comfortable with traditional approaches -to large support staffs, to phones on their desks, to control over all infrastructure details, to large central facilities, etc.  Things often get done a certain way because "this is how we always did it" or "this is how everybody else does it". Some people simply can't make the transition to a more minimalist approach, and for those who can change, leadership is required.

Not every type of software business can easily "go Bedouin" and neo-Bedouinism need not be absolute.  Companies that sell "enterprise application software", for example, seem to require significant infrastructure solely for the purpose of suitably impressing customer representatives - e.g. giant campuses with requisite sculptures, water features, demo centers, grand entrances, executive assistants to arrange gourmet dinners and golf outings.  The specifics of some businesses make outsourcing of infrastructure intensive functions difficult or impossible. 

In any business, infrastructure needs will arise that are best served by "in-house" approaches. What makes a neo-Bedouin approach different than traditional approaches is the commitment to seeking service-based alternatives to building or acquiring infrastructure that must be managed, moved or otherwise dealt with.  Companies that make such a commitment can focus more of their energy and their resources on building products, supporting customers, or other core business needs.

The primary reason software businesses don't "go Bedouin" is because they think they don't have to.  Fatness is easy.  Executives like to construct monuments. Managers like to build empires.  Engineers and IT professionals like to buy and play with technology.  People like to settle in and nest.  As swifter, more nimble competitors enter the software technology marketplace in greater numbers; however, companies will pay an increased penalty for their fatness.  Like many resource rich kingdoms that faced the Mongols, recognition of the threat may come too late. 

Comments

[Jason Levin]

anybody know where to find lists of companies that have indeed gone Bedouin? i'm not one to start a co... but I'd love to work for one where location = anywhere with an internet connection.

[Cem Basman]

Your posting gets to the point. Funny, in January I wrote in my wiki-profile: "In the Blogosphere I'm pretty much a nomad. Something inbetween a blogging bedouin or a wandering bushman" ( Ref: http://wiki.vowe.org/CemBasman ).

[jp]

Ah.. yes. The Chiat story was from Wired...

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.02/chiat_pr.html

[jp]

Oy. Chiat /Day tried this famously about ten years ago. It was a disaster. I'd heard some pretty graphic descriptions of it back then, here's more recent and delicately phrased analysis.

http://www.chiefhomeofficer.com/index.php?src=news&submenu=SuccessStories&prid=58&category=Telework#

[Alton Naur]

And the inevitable backlash. I know of one major Silicon Valley company, which was one of the early adopters of the bedouin workstyle, where even executives didn't have permanent cubicles, that is now reversing course, and consolidating 112 sites into 20.

The party line is now that many critical decisions get made during hallway and water cooler conversations, and that wikis and blogs can never substitute for physical proximity.

Work-at-home simply slows decision-making and reduces its quality, since key people are always incredibly busy and often will simply not answer the phone or respond to email or IM message when you really need them. If they're physically nearby and you absolutely positively have to have their input, you can go stand in their doorway until they make time for you.

[Chris]

Canonical (the Mark Shuttleworth-funded company behind Ubuntu) work somewhat like this -- everyone works from home, and once at least every six months there's a company-wide meetup in one of the cities where they have a developer presence.

- Chris.

[Christopher Carfi]

heh. the boston globe has added actual camels.

http://www.boston.com/business/blog/filter/2006/03/going_bedouin.html

[bert]

I have a small company in which I originally started out to bring a product to market. However, I've turned to offering services now as a main activity, and I feel like I'm getting into a big tarpit somehow. on the other hand, I need cash in to keep myself and my company sane... any comments?

[David Collin]

Great idea. I work in nonprofits, but the concepts of shedding structure apply.

[Ton Zijlstra]

The company I work for (12 ppl) worked without offices right from the start 6 years ago. We meet at the client's, along the road or at home. Laptop, phone, PDA, and continuous connectivity are key infrastructure, and also we have different kinds of working routines designed to keep the group together as group.

[Ric]

"Going Bedouin" is now a plank in my strategy platform! All of these ideas have been around for a while, but now you've find a phrase that very neatly ties them all together.

There are still issues - you mentioned security, and one of the other comments hinted at the need for colleagues to spend face-time. My take on that is that for firms with their own infrastructure, the major security threat is from employees, not external. Kim Cameron's identity metasystem ideas will hopefully do away with not only the jassle of multiple logins, but reduce the risk of web-based data storage as well.

And as far as face-time (and caffeine intake) is concerned - most cafes wouldn't mind a small bunch of people (and we are taliking 'small', aren't we?) spending a couple of hours over coffee during quiet times.

[Robert David]

HP, Apple, Google, eBay, and Microsoft all started in humble offices/garages/spare rooms. No "color swatch" mavens need apply.

I prefer to invest in startup companies that spend money like it's their own vs. somebody else's (the VC's or Angel's). They tend to have longevity vs. flameout potential.

[Robert David]

HP, Apple, Google, eBay, and Microsoft all started in humble offices/garages/spare rooms. No "color swatch" mavens need apply.

I prefer to invest in startup companies that spend money like it's their own vs. somebody else's (the VC's or Angel's). They tend to have longevity vs. flameout potential.

[Wayne Vieira]

I recently moved out of my regular office into a traditional home office. While it has presented several benefits from having to make the long commute into Silicon Valley, I've been feeling quite disconnected from many of my team members, as have they. Several of us have been slowly migrating to the bedouin work philosophy, although until reading this article, I had not identified it as such. Great work! It helps me fill in a few of the missing pieces, and also help me articulate it to others.

[Dave Roberts]

I have blogged the past couple of days about the setting up of our new office. I have stumbled across some other people struggling with the same sort of issues. Let's just face it, offices have their drawbacks, in addition to many good points. One option is to try to jettison the whole idea...

[Jack Yan]

In 19 years I have kept my ops virtual—it promotes independence, the whiners are out of the rm earlier, and we keep things personal and comfortable in our homes. It can work.

[Don Brown]

Great. I told the technical staff we're going bedouin. There wondering where are the friggin' belly dancers?!?!

[Abraham]

Great article. I work at a company that takes a (mostly) minimal approach to things. Our cubes are not big or luxurious but simple and open, for better interaction among team members. Teams are very dynamic, and whenever someone joins a new team, they often pick up and move their stuff to a cube nearby the other team members, which usually only takes them an hour or two. Even the team leaders use the same cubes as everyone else-- they just get the ones close to the window. ;-) We use Linux and pay for almost no software, though when needed it is approved. Our server room was simply a bunch of Dell desktop computers, until recently when we started needing some serious computing power and broke down and bought a server rack.

However, I have several comments about your recipe for "going Bedouin." First, PLEASE don't make people use a laptop computer as is for every day tasks! The screens and keyboards are too cramped. If the laptop is big enough to "replace" a desktop, it is too heavy to carry around. At least provide a docking station with an ergonomic keyboard and a flat-panel display at the office. I cannot stress this enough.

Second, give freedom to work from home, but don't expect it as a regular thing. As a father of two, I would greatly appreciate the freedom and flexibility to be with them during special times like games, school presentations, etc. and then make up the work time later at home or wherever. But I don't want work intruding into my family time on a regular basis. *Sustainability* is key to the health of anything: if overwork causes employees' families to suffer, it will also impact the long-term health and satisfaction of the employees themselves, and ultimately of the company. And although companies have a first obligation to compete and to survive, in the big picture I believe they should also be good corporate citizens by supporting family life which is the basis of a healthy society.

[Dan Rezac]

This is a great article! Looking forward to the next one!
-Dan