UP THERE, EVERYWHERE was featured this Monday 2nd March in the Entrepreneur section of Dagens Industri, the leading daily business newspaper in Sweden.
The feature's headline was 'The Agency That Grows With No Employees'. The article focused on the agency's rapid growth, and unconventional membership model and business platform. The article had interviews with Julian Stubbs, CEO of UP, and Malin Nyberg, as a member.
The article is available in Swedish at this link.
Read the English Translation below.
The agency that grows with no employees
UP THERE, EVERYWHERE is the company without any employees. Instead, they have 200 "members” spread around the world who decide where and when they want to work. "When it comes to attracting talent, our timing is right,” says CEO Julian Stubbs.
When Julian Stubbs and Eric Dowell founded UP THERE, EVERYWHERE in 2011, they did it with a focus on talent and to create the workplace of the future.
"Employment is in many ways a concept from the 19th Century. Everyone travels to the same place, works together and has a manager hanging over their shoulder. You fill in time sheets despite the fact that it actually says very little about the job you have done. It’s unproductive," says Julian Stubbs.
Instead of traditional offices, the company have so-called "creative spaces” where people can work if they like, but they don’t have to.
"In the beginning we didn’t want any offices at all but eventually we realised we needed space for meetings with clients and other UP members. So, we started renting space at coworking spaces and eventually we needed more room as our membership grew. To separate this from an ordinary office, we called it just a Creative Space and even hung up a sign on the wall that reads, "Don’t waste your time coming in to the office.”Malin Nyberg says she wants to encourage more business leaders to understand the benefits of letting their employees work remotely. "Being trapped in the same place eight hours a day, five days a week, makes me neither creative nor effective – quite the opposite.""In the winter, I often choose to work when it’s dark outside and make use the daylight by going for long walks or horse trekking. I talk to colleagues and customers daily, via email, Slack and Skype. And sometimes I meet them in our creative space."
Upcoming e-ployment seminar: March 20
