At EMI: New Space Reflects New Era

The publishing arm of EMI Group wanted to bring its employees under one roof—and take a fresh look at its role in the music business

by Helen Walters

SPECIAL REPORT

Office Design

• Enabling Innovation Through Office Design
• At EMI: New Space Reflects New Era
• Intel's New Office
• Poll: Would you prefer to work in an open plan office?
• High-Tech Interiors
• Cubicle 2.0
• Rethinking the Office Environment
• Do You Work in a Zoo?

The space, a former textiles warehouse, is filled with light and glass, to promote a sense of transparency throughout every part of the business.

Low partitions between cubicles are intended to foster open communication.

The "Music Spa" is a research space where clients looking for music for advertising or film projects can comb through EMI Music Publishing's extensive back catalog.

Story Tools

• post a comment
• e-mail this story
• print this story
• order a reprint
• digg this
• save to del.icio.us

The first thing that visitors to EMI Music Publishing see when they exit the elevators (left) is a huge Steinway grand piano. There's also an area for visitors and employees to congregate.

Roger Faxon had a dilemma. As chief executive officer and chairman of EMI Music Publishing, he saw his workforce suffering something of a collective identity crisis. It's no secret that the music industry is in a state of turmoil (BusinessWeek.com, 10/10/07), but the uncertainties and lack of a clear path ahead were starting to hurt the morale and efficiency of his team.

Worse, his staff was dispersed around New York City, with the executives and creative team in one office and support staff in a different building two blocks away. With a staff of hundreds of employees, this had created an environment that was less than cohesive, with miscommunications and confusion becoming a serious problem.

For Faxon, at least one part of the solution seemed clear: He had to unite his workforce—and he had to convey to them the importance of the music publishing business, which he felt had become too subservient to its record label partners. "Our industry had become very passive, I think largely because of the great success of the record industry. That made it comfortable," he says. "But the world has changed. We have to reassert ourselves into that world, and become a more vital, vibrant business."

Symbol of a Fresh Start

So Faxon turned to TPG Architecture and worked up a plan to renovate a 65,000-square-foot former textiles warehouse on the fourth floor of the Chelsea Market on Manhattan's West Side. Faxon himself helped develop the design and the floor plan, down to the selection of light sconces in the bathrooms. The new building would physically unite employees and remind them all that they played a critical role in the music business. During the week of Sept. 10, EMI Music Publishing employees moved into their brand-new digs.

The timing could be fortuitous. Private equity firm Terra Firma recently sealed its $4.8 billion deal to buy parent company the EMI Group. Faxon hopes that the office move can be symbolic of a fresh start for all as they attempt to chart the choppy waters that surely will be ahead.

"A lot of businesses don't really think about how they work," says Faxon, as he shows off the new space. "But environmental issues are really important." For Faxon, this was no mere vanity exercise. To him, an office environment is no less than a physical manifestation of the central business plan.

Communication and Conferencing

Take EMI Music Publishing's former setup: Having two separate offices in the same city just wasn't acceptable. "If the idea that a separation between the front office and the underlying service provision was ever a reasonable concept, it definitely isn't reasonable today," Faxon says. "The music market demands a speed of process and a speed of information flow. But people felt as though they were out of the loop and they didn't know what was going on. That's a bad situation."

To communicate with the company's international offices, TVs are set up for videoconference calls, including a huge screen in Faxon's own office. Other TVs in public spaces will project music-related programming (though these weren't working on this visit). "The hardest part of moving is getting the AV to work," Faxon comments drily.

The first thing you see on exiting the elevator is a vast open space with a Steinway grand piano front and center. Chairs and tables are dotted around to suggest a community area or café. Faxon says the area will also be used to host regular performer showcases. A large glass-enclosed conference room sits at the other end of the floor. Throughout are prominent references to awards won by EMI Publishing artists.