<b>Text: Aditi Shrivastava, Shonali Advani, ET Bureau</b><br><br>Later this month, mobile advertising network InMobi will throw open its office in Bengaluru to anyone who cares to visit.<br><br>Residents of the city, tourists, customers, family and friends of employees can all block a slot in advance and take a guided tour of the year-old campus that has piqued the curiosity of many.
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Kaleidoscope of Colors
InMobi - the seven-year-old company - is one of several new economy ventures that are using their offices to build the company’s brand.
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Sunny side up
Design a workspace that brings into light our culture of collaboration, communication, entrepreneurship and teamwork, was the brief from InMobi co-founder Naveen Tewari for his team, when the technology startup decided to move to new premises in Bengaluru last year.
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Monday blues no more
With that in mind, Rebecca Dleema - head of global cultural initiatives at the company - led the design for a quirky office that is drawing a great deal of attention.
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Where's the party?
An open office plan allows employees to have quick, spontaneous chats and maintain constant communication.<br><br>Conference rooms, named after mobile gaming applications like Temple Run, Ninja Village, are sprayed with colour and wallart.
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Comfy-Cozy
Two tunnel-shaped conference rooms called ‘The Room’, bring in whimsicality.<br><br>This apart, there is a gaming room, in-house gymnasium and parlour which are some of the facilities InMobi offers its staff.
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Mixing work and play
The founders wanted the office to be unique and fun-loving. The idea was that everyone should be motivated to come to work as employees spend 12-14 hours here happily.
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Motley of InMobians
That’s exactly what it represents today.<br><br>A walk down the floor will make you feel like you’re attending a carnival in fantasy land. Each floor has a common meeting point at the center, one designed as a park and the other a beach as casual sit out for coffee breaks.<br><br>Along with that the employees are also allowed to embellish and accessorise their desks with own artefacts and trinkets, all of which zing up the floor.
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Home away from home
All meals from breakfast to dinner are served in the office and to pep up the mood, an in-house band performs in the evenings.<br><br>No surprise then that the company has let out the office for filming of a few south Indian movies, entirely free-of-charge.
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Work from home?
This focus on physical work space as a means to connect with employees, customers, investors and the larger community is gaining ground as emerging companies realise the benefits that accrue from it.
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Writing on the wall
According to a report by US-based real estate company CBRE Group, when a company provides a variety of work spaces that employees can select from, it leads to an increase in satisfaction levels by up to 15%.
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Picnic in the park
Nirmala Menon, founder of Interweave Consultancy, a firm that works on work-life issues in the corporate world, reiterates the need for startups to create a sense of belonging with its staff. Startups can be creative. For example, they can ask employees to paint a part of the office. This gets people together and showcases their personal interests.<br><br>At the same time, a startup shouldn’t go overboard. Beyond a point, results can get diminishing.
