The Suitcase Office: What Digital Nomads Can Teach Us About Location-Independent Work

by Koen Blanquart

Overview

Once upon a time, working from home was rewarding, the way to maintain our work-life balance. But then came Covid; working from home became the norm and, for many, the very thing that gets in the way of a balanced life. All back to the office then?

Specialists agree that tomorrow's workplace will be location-independent and even transnational. Location-independent work offers numerous advantages. It answers employees' demand for more autonomy and creates unseen opportunities in the war on talent. And what's more, it makes companies more agile and competitive because the limitations of office space, national borders, and the traditional (and local) 38-hour week disappear.

In The Suitcase Office, digital nomad Koen Blanquart shows that rather than location-independent work, people and processes get in the way of a healthy work-life balance and smooth cooperation. He shows managers how to set up their operations so that agendas and projects are managed efficiently and effectively, even in a transnational context. He sets companies on the path to generating more flexibility, time, and satisfaction among their teams without skimping on results.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780997759679
Publisher:	BookBaby
Publication date:	10/24/2022
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Koen Blanquart is an international Belgian, a digital nomad.
As a technology entrepreneur and intrapreneur, he launched several companies and spin-offs in Europe and the USA.
Koen serves as a board member, advisor, and wingman to executives and senior leadership teams. To increase competitive advantage, he works on the crosspoint between strategy, disruptive innovation, technology, and modern work organizations.
As a transnational strategic consultant and critical thinker on the evolution of work, Koen is a keynote speaker and panelist.
While Koen lives most of the year location-independent as a digital nomad and operates from anywhere, his home base has been in New York for over a decade. When not consulting or writing, he grabs his camera to explore all corners of the planet to feed his desire for new experiences.

Table of Contents

I Introduction

1 Please, don't ask me where I live 9

2 Why this book (and why now) 11

3 How did we get here? 15

4 Why are so many returning to commute? 23

II The Absentee Manager

1 Butts-in-Seats management is dead 29

2 The Transnational Organization 33

3 Sync vs. Async 43

4 The transnational organization 55

5 The next normal 59

III Transnational at Work

1 Culture 63

2 Thinking about results 75

3 Skills 83

4 The next workspace 93

5 Meetings 113

6 Mental health 139

7 Logistics 161

IV Epilogue

1 Should we all become nomads? 179

2 Where do we go from here? 181

Last word 189

Sources & References 191