“Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. relocated to a new headquarters in Stamford, Conn., a few years ago. That gave Chief Executive Frits van Paasschen a chance to get rid of some clutter,” Steven Norton reports for The Wall Street Journal. “The first thing to go? His desktop computer. ‘I thought, you know what, I actually don’t use it,’ he said. Instead, he chose to go all mobile. ‘I do all of my work via mobile so essentially my office is wherever I go, and I can be much more productive.'”
“Mr. van Paasschen, 53 years old, is among a growing number of professionals to enter the post-PC world, ditching the desktop and turning to smartphones and tablets as primary work tools. The former Coors Brewing Co. chief relies on his Apple Inc. iPhone and iPad for work at home and the office,” Norton reports. “Eli Lilly & Co., for example, transitioned its entire sales team away from laptops over the past few years, deploying 18,000 iPads to help improve the way salespeople interact with busy doctors. Mike Meadows, Lilly’s vice president and chief technology officer, said the switch boosted productivity since the salespeople no longer had to fumble with bulky computers and poor battery life.”
“Chris Holdren, global SVP of Starwood Preferred Guest and Digital, has taken a note from his boss,” Norton reports. “His laptop permanently resides in his New York office. His iPad and iPhone keep him connected during the two-and-a-half-hour commute to work each day, and he no longer needs a PC to work on presentations. ‘Now I just use my iPad.'”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz,” “Arline M.,” and “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
2-1/2 hour commute?…I’ll take my 15 minute commute thank you!
Same reaction here. The guy is a fool to waste a full day a week of his life being transported to a workplace. That is 1/7 of his life, gone! He has a couple of choices. Find work closer to home or get a home closer to work.
One question that pops out, if HQ moved to Stamford, why is IT still in Manhattan? And why is Starwood making executives out of people who are so dim as to be willing to spend their precious life commuting?
His commute likely starts with a shower, breakfast, gets dressed, and stops along the way to shop….. After which he likely arrives 2.5 hours late for work. Then reverse the process, but leaves 2.5 hours early – Zero impact on life.
Many people I know who work in Central London but live way outside of it because on the weekends, they get to enjoy a massive 6 bedroom mansion, multiple garages and cars, maybe even an acre or two of personal fields where they could even raise a pony for the kids. Life isn’t all about the buzz and excitement of inner city urban lifestyle. The kids enjoy a nicer school environment and while the 2hr commute is fatiguing for the breadwinner, they all say it’s worth it when the weekend comes 🙂
It is an individual decision and will be different depending on where one lives. I’m sure I came from an American perspective in my comment, with the attendant assumption that the commute was by car, which is our norm. Spending an hour or two riding a train out of London is going to be a different experience from that. (Hope I’m not overly romanticizing life in England)
But you can have a life with less acreage or less money. Who wants to inflict less time on themselves, since you never know just how much you have? I’m just promoting mindful decisions, rather than trying to out-tech a basically bad work situation.
Still, using an iPad for work would be a tempting way to compensate.
He works on the train for a total of 2.5 hours a day.
Make sence yet?
No, but it does make “sense”. . . sorry, I couldn’t resist the straight line. LOL!
I can sort of understand that commute — Stamford is a bit of a reach to enjoy the peaceful suburbs, but I remember when I lived in the South Bronx near Yankee Stadium it would take me 45 minutes on a good day to take the subway to Grand Central in Midtown. Commuting into Manhattan from anywhere stinks on ice. Thank goodness I married into a nice location on the Upper East Side!
He might be using that relative quiet travel time to be more productive which distractions at work can work against. (Or he might just be playing Pac-Man.)
Uh, 1.20 mins with that minding numbing 101 and Sepulveda Pass traffic.
It takes me 1.20 minutes to get from my house into the car 🙂
Takes me 1.20 minutes to heat my tea on the way downstairs to my home office, not much traffic usually !-)
I don’t think Microsoft would be happy to hear that first story. Nadella would urge him to get a Surface Pro 3 so that Starwood CEO would only require one device to suit all of his computing needs.
I didn’t know the Surface could make phone calls. They really packed everything in to it. I suppose it has a kitchen sink as well??
Apple & mobile iOS enterprise is now the ticket for more productive business. Clunktastic Windows, more and more not so much.
It’s funny how just looking at the Windows UI just “makes me wanna barf!” I think at this point the over-familiarity of dreck Windows staring them in the face also comes into play for executives as “been there, done that, tired of it.” These new tools I think give them a true feeling of progressing.
Think I’ll go stay in a Starwood hotel.
They are quite nice. I stay in one when I travel to China for business.
Intel i7 is slower than A7 right ? Hope Apple has a Mac Mini comng with i7 AND EXPANABLE MEMORY. Or maybe just buy a PC.