Managed business space: Da Vinci recodes virtual offices

摘要

It can be frustrating to look back on great British ideas that did not take off until they were exported across the Atlantic. Jets, radar, atomic energy and computers typify the gulf between UK invention and US innovation.Managed business space is a rare exception. The US is dotted with executive suites, but the concept is much more limited than here.'You have a more organised system,' says Bill Grodnik, chief executive of Utah-based Da Vinci. 'We have not done such a good job.'Regus exploited this to become a dominant force in the US, while other UK names have also established a foothold. So it is ironic that Grodnik has found an under-exploited niche to export back to the UK: virtual offices, which offer a phone number, an address and a menu of services rather than physical space (see table).