Guests enjoy an evening of feasting at the Grande Buffet, where they can feel free to select from a festive array of salads, entrees, side dishes and mouth-watering desserts, and entertainment that varies from solo performances by the serving staff to DJs who are sure to get you up and dancing. 

Upcoming Full Moon Cruises are: Thursday, September 23, 2010, boarding at the Navy Pier, less than 2.5miles from OfficeLinks’ Chicago office space location, at 6:30 pm, cruising 7-10 pm.  Cost is $75.90 per person and Saturday, October 23, 2010, boarding at the Navy Pier, just a couple of miles from OfficeLinks’ Chicago office location, at 7:45 pm, cruising 8:30-11:30 pm.  Cost is $90.90 per person.

For more information about how you can be a part of the fun and festive Spirit Cruise Full Moon Cruise, filled with vibrant dining, dancing, entertainment, and breathtaking views, click here.

“The slowdown in productivity may be a hint that instead of increasing the work week and bringing in people for more overtime, now may be the time to increase hiring. Working people longer hours may be hindering productivity,” said Michael Strauss, chief economist with Commonfund, a money management firm based in Wilton, Conn.

Another expert suggests businesses start hiring as a way of waking up the economy – an opinion which is undoubtedly shared by the millions of unemployed across the country.  Trimming a company’s workforce was an immediate and easy way of stabilizing a business during the recession.   If/when businesses do expand, they cannot afford to repeat the real estate errors of the past by signing long-term lease office space agreements that may or may not meet their changing business needs.

Companies are going to succeed by creating a workplace plan that aligns with their agile business needs.  

So before bringing on new talent, businesses should consider:  what they will be doing, where they will be working and what is the best ideal environment for them to reach their objectives.   It is only after this process that a company will have a clear vision of what their workplace should encompass.

Willis Tower

The curtailment period will begin at 12:15 pm and continue through 2 pm. During this time, Willis Tower hopes to reduce power usage by shutting off or lowering non-essential common area and lobby lighting, reducing the temperature of hot water throughout the building and raising the temperature of outside air distributed through the building’s HVAC system. Clients at OfficeLinks Willis Tower location may feel the effects of our reduced electrical usage in the form of a slight degree increase in the temperature in your space, cooler water available from kitchen and restroom faucets and reduced lighting throughout the common areas of the building.

The team at OfficeLinks is delighted to support and applaud Willis Tower in their efforts to curtail energy usage in our building.

If you have any questions, please contact the Office of the Building at 312.875.0066.

OfficeLinks’ Conference Room provided the perfect space to display the artwork that was the topic of the evening.

On July 8, 2010, Grace Carreon, MD, Bhavesh Patel, MD, and Deborah and Glenn Doering hosted “Be Part of the Art,” a fundraising event in OfficeLinks’ office space at Willis Tower in Chicago.  The hosts held their fundraising event in the OfficeLinks’ meeting rooms and Cyber Café that provided a comfortable and impressive backbone for their fundraising efforts. The team at OfficeLinks was absolutely delighted to support their clients’ efforts.

The event was held to raise funds for an art project, initially titled “Facebook Too” between Mrs. Doering and a group of artists, mainly women in South Africa, many whose families have been affected by AIDS.

Fundraising event attendees enjoy a presentation in the comfort of the OfficeLinks Common Space.

You are invited to be a part of the art, too.  Tax-deductible donations may be made by writing a check to “Fractured Atlas” with “Deborah Adams Doering: Contemporary Art” printed in the memo line of the check. Send to: D.A. Doering, 410 S. Michigan Ave., Studio 517, Chicago, IL 60605. Please allow 2-4 weeks for thank you acknowledgement and your official receipt for tax purposes. Or call 847-977-0526 if you have any questions.

Every day, new companies enter an incredibly competitive market while others have to make their exit.  What gives businesses the edge to not only stay afloat in a turbulent economy, but also thrive?  What are these successful companies doing right?

Diversity.

No, it’s not the end-all, be-all, silver bullet answer; however, it is a piece of the equation to which Luigi Guadagno, founder of Kenetica Consulting, credits the success of his company.

Kenetica Consulting is an OfficeLinks client based in Chicago that provides innovative and objective consulting solutions and services worldwide – from growth and technology strategic management to business development and market/product launching.  Their clients are new European companies looking to enter the North American market, and it is Kenetica Consulting’s job to steer them right by giving them the skills and know-how to be able to successfully run their companies.  Luigi says that this is all possible because of his dynamic, cross-functional team.  Kenetica Consulting brings various experiences and backgrounds (including technologists, marketers, users, sellers, packagers, etc.) to the table, providing its clients with the multifarious knowledge required for critically thinking about problems and exploring all possible solutions.

And the diversity doesn’t stop there: though Kenetica specializes in technology companies and
businesses highly dependent on technology, it has clients in other industries as well, such as fashion.  Through their diverse customer base they are able to reach, learn, and understand their “customer’s customer” in verticals like fashion, luxury, logistics, financials.  They leverage this knowledge to create more opportunity for their customers, as well as their customers’ customers. This endows Kenetica with versatility and broadens its market to include a wide variety of clients rather than being locked in to a small client base.

Companies with diversity – internally and externally – who wisely use their range to their advantage have an edge in today’s market.  Does your company have the diversity it needs to thrive?

To learn more about Kenetica Consulting, click here.

What I get from this quote is simple enough: improving efficiency and ability allows companies to achieve their goals.   Mathias Mond, president of TESIS PLMware USA LLC, an OfficeLinks client located in the Chicago OfficeLinks location, agrees with my interpretation of the quote found on his website.  It’s no wonder that their company is doing well through these economic times: businesses everywhere need to be more efficient and connected.  And that’s just what TESIS PLMware helps their clients do. 

For those not in the manufacturing industry, PLM means Product Lifecycle Management.  It is an industry term for everything that has to do with product development – from concept to customer.  TESIS PLMware’s mission is to help clients in the manufacturing industry to make products more efficiently.  Clients have large IT systems in place and TESIS PLMware helps them connect systems to each other and find business practices spanning all systems.  Looking at the company’s history and the people who make up their team, TESIS PLMware makes sure that their product is a fit and then, if it is, they work closely with their client to make sure there is a smooth transition.  They offer their clients the complete package: with deep knowledge about business processes, tight integration between software systems, and consulting to make sure the clients transition into the new system smoothly.  Simply put, TESIS PLMware is a company that other businesses need – especially now: they help them save money because they become more efficient and connected.  In this economic environment, who doesn’t need that?

Mond is happy with his decision to bring this company to Chicago by way of OfficeLinks’ Chicago location: he feels Chicago is an easy transit hub for all of his clients that span across the US and he has also found that Chicago is a great place to recruit talented people for his company.  Mond feels that OfficeLinks was the perfect fit for TESIS PLMware because it is a wonderful, professional environment to establish a growing business.  And OfficeLinks is delighted to provide a company like TESIS PLMware with the space to grow.  For more information about Tesis, click here.

The news is great for both the City of Chicago and for Willis Tower, which will welcome the first United Airlines employees to the tower this fall.  It is anticipated that by April 2011, Wills Tower will have nearly 3,000 United employees in the building.

Willis Tower is proud to have another global company choose Willis Tower as a center of operations and OfficeLinks is delighted to welcome them, too!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Office of the Building at 312.875.0066.

Ellie, Sydney & Nathan join their Dad Brett of Exemplar Partners for a day at the office

Brett Richwine of Exemplar Partners, an OfficeLinks client that handles executive recruiting in the financial industry, brought in his three children: 6 year old Ellie, 3 year old Sydney, and 8 month old Nathan.  Sure looks like they like where Daddy works!

OfficeLinks is delighted to see parents participating in Take Your Child to Work Day.  Every day gives you an opportunity to talk to your children about uncovering the possibilities for their future.  Share with your children what you do at work and encourage them to tell you about their hopes and dreams for their future!   After all, they are the next generation at work!

It’s all part of a trend that has seen smaller companies and entrepreneurs successfully slugging it out with bigger, less nimble competitors. With the right kind of infrastructure, a start-up company can compete with a large multinational in terms of speed and availability. A distributed workforce can collaborate across continents and oceans by sharing a virtual network and even holding instant global meetings through Videoconferencing.

In short, being wired-in is a great equalizer: it can put even a one-person operation in the same technology league with any larger competitor.

Once place to find that kind of technology is at OfficeLinks’ 21^st Century shared offices facility, in the Willis Tower. Few workers at huge corporations or even at vaunted high-tech firms enjoy access to this level of technology and business support.

How do you leverage high-tech solutions to get to that level of competitiveness?  In upcoming blogs we’ll explore how some of today’s smartest business people are making it happen.

If you’d like to read more about our take on the 21^st Century office – continue to check out our blog, stop by a location or visit www.OfficeLinks.com.

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We have some exceptional leaders running their businesses from OfficeLinks’ New York and Chicago offices, as well as some fantastic partners, who are successfully forging their way through this demanding marketplace.  OfficeLinks is joining forces with some of these very leaders to provide members of our business community with additional tools to enhance their business performance.  Over the next six months, we will be offering a complimentary Webinar series, intending to provide our clients with insights and tools to pave the road to continued success and sustained competitive advantage. 

Be sure to join us:  April 8th  at 3:00 for REQUIRED SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS:  Build Brand, Foster Relations and Grow Revenue.  Also, on May 5th for SALES OPIMIZATION: Processes that Fuel Business Performance.

In the following months, presentations will cover everything from entrepreneurship in our new economy to green building and everything in between.  We hope you’ll join us.  Click here to register today!