architecture tips

Well, there are many businesses in the United States which start up in an extra room in someone's home, out of their garage, and eventually they grow and take over the whole house until which point they have to actually move into a physical business location. The reason I know this is I've been involved in such things, and to remember starting my own small businesses the same way. I can remember taking over the entire house with maps on the walls (all of the walls in the whole house) of each of our marketing regions. Basically, the house was wallpapered in maps.

When friends would come over to visit they used to ask me; you must like maps? And that's pretty funny considering that there were very few pictures, but there were maps everywhere. Today, you can do the same thing with massive flat panel displays and you'd have all the world's information as well. Today you have things like Google Earth and other tools available.

You can use ERSI software such as ArcView or ArcData with overlays of information, and embedded spreadsheets of names of companies, contacts, and just about anything that you could get from any known Internet vendor which sells data and information. If you read any of the Tom Clancy novels in the Op Center Series, you envision ready rooms and war rooms filled with CIA executives, or Pentagon top brass with large flat panel displays everywhere. Satellite views, information, international media sources, documents, data bases, and perhaps even what you might consider data overload.

Well, interestingly enough you can get all that same stuff for your own business. Today, when I walk into a room of an executive running their own company, I am not very impressed by all the books that they have, rather the number of flat panel displays with information at their fingertips, as that is what impresses me the most. That's not to say I wouldn't be impressed if they had a secondary wing off their office with a research library with actual books, or if they had fold down flat panel displays which covered the bookshelves up as needed.

If you are a power executive, and you are one of the intense folks like myself who is in it to win it, and refuses to take second place to any major competitor then you need to design a war room with massive flat panel displays, and you ought to let your architect and interior designer know up front exactly what you need to do to win, and why it's so important that you can turn your executive office into a war room in under 3 minutes.

Now then, I am not going to blow smoke up your but, I'm not going to stroke your ego, or tell you that I am not impressed with your trophies and certificates on the wall. But I know a winner when I see one, and I know what it takes to win markets. So does anyone who's ever had to fill those shoes, so if your offices aren't designed as I just described, there are folks in the world who know what they know, and they'll know that you don't. Please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Business Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/

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Not long ago, I was talking to a retired police officer and a criminologist professor. He told me that he had just completed giving a lecture on architecture and the cumulative effects of crime statistics. You see, I have previously written about lighting at QSRs or quick service restaurants (fast food locations) and the importance of lighting, trash control, and closed-circuit TV cameras. It's amazing how much a little crime prevention can do. Likewise, architecture is extremely important. Okay so let's talk shall we?

One thing that I had discussed with him was the importance of lighting at C-Stores (convenience stores) and the need to eliminate shadow areas, or places that criminals could hide behind and therefore come out of the shadows or pull someone into the shadows to commit a crime. Of course, there's also a false sense of security and a reality behind all this because even if there is good lighting and people feel safe, that doesn't mean a criminal won't mosey on up to see what's happening, and then commit a crime.

There were three main topics of our conversation that I would like to discuss with you, and they can be broken down into these categories;

Housing Projects
Low Income Housing
Crime Triangle Challenges

What many cities don't understand is that when they put in low income housing they put quite a few people in a very small area. Therefore the population density is increased, and therefore potential victims have also increased. Along with this, low income housing also attracts those who might also be criminals, or don't have a job, and get by, by taking what they need. My acquaintance also reiterated the realities of the crime triangle.

A crime triangle is like a fire triangle. In the fire triangle you need heat, fuel, and oxygen to complete the triangle. If you have all that you have a fire hazard. For the crime triangle you need a victim, a perpetrator, and a location. If you have a place with lots of victims or potential victims then you have to work on the other side of the crime triangle to prevent crime. For instance in the New York Subway you have lots of people, therefore lots of possible victims, so you have to work on mitigating the challenges with criminals which come onto the scene, and work on your location.

The same thing is true in low income housing projects were you have dark stairwells, and areas where people could be cornered and then taken advantage of; robbed, mugged, raped, or beaten. This is why architects and designers must take into consideration the need for lighting, removing shadows, and opening things up without blind corners or areas that could pose a challenge for potential victims. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Police Tech Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/

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