Designing a More Work-Friendly Workspace A company ditches its traditional office for a cost-effective space that better reflects the way it does business.

Traditional offices are no place for modern work. Pharmaceutical giant Lilly knows that well: It enlisted New York-based strategic business consultancy DEGW to advise on a radical redesign of its administrative offices. The changes have involved installing a greater variety of workspaces and upgrading technologies, including implementing wireless ubiquity and VoIP systems.

Indianapolis-based Lilly says the redesign has resulted in significant cost savings while increasing productivity and employee satisfaction. Georgia Collins, managing director at DEGW North America, spoke to us about how Lilly's changes can be applied to small businesses.

Arrange. Rearrange. Repeat. As a company's needs change, so should its workspace. "It need not be a huge, crazy remodel or construction job; it's more about configuring the space so that it suits you, and then using it in a way that suits you," Collins says. "It's important to think about [space] in a much more fluid and flexible way. Once you configure something, there's no reason you can't reconfigure it."