It’s a sunny, breezy morning in Eugene, Oregon, a place best known for its access to the great outdoors, a history of environmentalism and the birthplace of Nike. Standing in front of a nondescript one-story industrial space, I speak to Mark Frohnmayer, CEO of Arcimoto, maker of a three-wheel electric vehicle that calls it a “fun commercial vehicle.”
Except I’m not in Oregon. I’m still at home, on the other coast, relying – like many of us – on an ever-expanding array of tools that allow me to do my work remotely. In this case, I get a tour of Arcimoto’s factory via FaceTime. Mr. Frohnmayer carries “me” around on an iPhone, points out things, gets me close to machines, parts, and semi-finished vehicles, and answers my questions. For me it turns out to be quite a facsimile to actually be there. Minus the eight-hour flight and stay at a Dow Jones-approved discount hotel with continental breakfast.
This is how Mr. Frohnmayer and his team have been giving factory tours to investors, customers and suppliers since the pandemic began. It works well enough that Mr. Frohnmayer wants to keep doing it after the pandemic has ended, because it will not entail any loss of productivity due to travel days.
Thanks to cloud-based collaboration tools of any description – not just Zoom – the pandemic has led to a reset in the office culture, from personal to remote or hybrid. Surprisingly, there has also been a reset for employees who hardly anyone thought they could do their jobs remotely, including field service engineers and emergency medical personnel.
While these changes explain trends in the post-pandemic workplace, they also show a new way forward for business relationships. Many examples come from the most practical industry of all: manufacturing. Employees still need to appear in a factory to assemble products, and quality control may require trips abroad from time to time, but many other activities – including investment due diligence, building supplier and customer relationships, and even research and development – have disappeared unexpectedly and perhaps permanently remotely.