THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 13, 1995 TAG: 9502130207
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BUSINESS WEEKLY
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
You've heared about the service economy. Lackluster when it comes to productivity. Would rather buy another computer than figure out how to streamline the job.
Well then, listen to Emily S. Washington ponder the pace of business at her Norfolk interior design firm.
While revenue is up only about 10 percent since she launched Alpha Design Corp. in 1982, she said, profits have climbed.
``As the economy got tighter we reduced our staff but we kept up our workload,'' she said. ``We're working smarter.''
What's happened at Alpha Design, a five-employee team of architects and designers, reflects the leaner trend at work in the service sector. Companies trying to do more with less have turned to interior designers.
Alpha Design plans interior office space for government and private clients. Projects are underway in Roanoke, Petersburg, Cherry Point, N.C., and St. Louis.
Although employment has fallen from a 1980s peak of 11, Alpha Design has not faded away with the '91 downturn.
It employs more computer-assisted design equipment, focuses on billable hours to increase productivity, and hires permanent designers on a temporary basis to complete specific projects.
And it added a sideline. The new foodservice director is Lee Spicer, former president of Design Specifics Inc. of Norfolk. Projects at schools, prisons and other establishments that require kitchens are now within the grasp of the firm.
Although many manufacturers downsized, embraced labor- and capital-saving devices such as just-in-time inventory, the service sector was regarded as the slouch of the American economy. A lot of people shuffled a lot of paper.
Even so, the sector mushroomed. Employment in business services alone, a category of the service sector that includes Alpha Design, swelled to almost 33,000 by June at 1,600 companies in Hampton Roads, compared to 19,000 employees at 900 companies a decade earlier.
Business services boomed especially in the '80s. When the economy soured in the '90s, though, Washington saw her work evolve. Just as her firm tried to do more with less, so did her clients in the service sector.
``Now we have offices where people actually are out a lot,'' Washington said. ``The trend now is for executives to stay in the air.''
In the old days, circa 1986, an office might have 50 cubicles for its staff of 50. Today, the staff has been downsized to 40 and the new office contains only 10 cubicles.
Everyone is in the air and on the road. For their visits to home base, they call ahead and reserve a cubicle. Space is at a premium.
``Before we didn't have to worry about the square footage'' of any particular project, Washington said. Now, it's the guiding light.
Washington & Co. have learned some tricks. They can winnow the square footage down to an affordable size for the client.
On a project, gathering information, they rarely ask right off how many employees will occupy the new office. That question deals with territorial imperatives. Almost every administrator wants and expects to have a bigger staff.
So Washington sidesteps the issue. She hands administrators a sheet of questions. One deals with the paperwork. How many file cabinents will the department need? That's a keen guage of staff size.
Gradually the blanks are filled and the location and arrangement of the desks, files, copy machines and other office paraphernalia are penciled along with the color of the walls and the fabric on the cubicle panels.
``Part of what we do is increase productivity,'' she said. by CNB