Posted by Gilbert on Jun 20, 2010 in
Office Furniture Accessibility and Openness is a culture promoted by Open Plan Office Layout.
Great leaders are working as part of the team in a open plan workstation type environment rather than the traditional glass enclosed corner offices as emphasized in this article by Steve Tobak:
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg runs the city much like the namesake company he founded, using a bullpen where everyone sits together in a large open room like a Wall Street trading floor. He presumably learned the practice as a trader at Salomon Brothers. It’s designed to promote accountability and accessibility.
Meg Whitman, who recently won the republican nomination for governor of California, grew eBay from a young startup to an Internet giant from an eight-by-eight foot cubicle. But the practice of moving top executives out of the corner office and into cubicles probably began with Intel CEO Andy Grove.
In a 2001 speech, Carlene Ellis, Intel’s former vice president of human resources, credits the company’s much copied corporate culture with Grove’s fervent belief that everyone be treated the same:
The Andy Grove I know is a leader who is open, honest, and direct. Andy has nurtured an egalitarian culture at Intel. A lot of people talk about it; he does it. There are no executive perks at Intel; no executive dining rooms, no executive washrooms, no special places to park. And we all work in a company where Andy Grove’s cubicle – which I think is about eight-by-nine – is just like everybody else’s.
That open environment that everybody jokes about – it is the essence of that open environment that allows people to communicate directly and solve problems in a collaborative fashion.
In fact, Intel’s model has been replicated at dozens of successful companies in Silicon Valley and beyond.
Source: http://blogs.bnet.com/ceo/?p=4821&tag=nl.e713
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chuvaness/4714312375/
Posted by Gilbert on Jun 2, 2010 in
Office Furniture 
Congratulations to BAFCO Team!!
We got the official certificate from Bureau Veritas today for our ISO 9001:2008 upgrade.
This ISO certification upgrade is yet another step in ensuring that our products and services consistently meet and exceed the expectations of our customers. Quality has been a cornerstone of BAFCO since its inception in 1991 and this certification reinforces our dedication and commitment to provide our customers with state-of-the-art, high-quality products and fitout services. The BAFCO team takes great pride in achieving this significant credential, as it reinforces our company’s quality system as being among the best-of-class.
To be certified to this ISO standard, companies must implement a quality management system embracing all of the activities within the company. These include staff training, meeting customer expectations, designing and developing products, purchasing materials and services, and delivering products and services. Certification to ISO 9001:2008 reinforces to our customers, through an independent third-party such as Bureau Veritas, that BAFCO operates a quality management system in accordance with the strict ISO standard. While BAFCO has always made the quality of its products and meeting customer expectations a priority, we welcomed the opportunity that ISO certification presented to benchmark our internal processes versus the industry’s best practices. This caused us to improve and upgrade many aspects of our business methodology in handling all aspects of the customer experience. Continuously improving not only the product offering but the entire customer experience is key to driving lasting sustainable growth for our company worldwide. Earning the ISO 9001:2008 certification assures our customers of the commitment we have to serving them with excellence. This major milestone is critical to BAFCO because our customers correctly view ISO 9001:2008 certification as a way of ensuring the quality and reliability of our products in the global marketplace.
About ISO 9000:
ISO 9000 is a family of standards for quality management systems. ISO 9000 is maintained by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization and is administered by accreditation and certification bodies. ISO 9001:2008 certification recognizes organizations that link business objectives with operating effectiveness. Companies that achieve certification to ISO 9001:2008 have demonstrated effective implementation of documentation and records management, senior management’s commitment to their customers, and a continued willingness to improve quality of their products. For more information, please visit http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue.htm
Posted by Gilbert on Jun 1, 2010 in
Office Furniture 
