How will the Indian business landscape benefit from coworking spaces?

Coworking is an ecosystem that entails a sharing of workspaces. In a coworking space, companies involved share both the infrastructure and expenditure. Experts in this arena aver that coworking locations also promote affiliation to a community where various stakeholders collaborate without being constrained by a supervisory structure, allowing them to be independent and flexible, unlike in traditional offices.

Brad Neuberg, a programmer in the San Francisco area, is given the credit for coining the term, as well as for engendering this concept. The trend of coworking is said to be gaining traction in all the major cities of India because of the advantages it offers, including the opportunity for networking and collaborating. For instance, in a coworking environment, companies can collaboratively hold conferences, seminars and expositions to attract large crowds that small companies cannot do when they operate individually. It is also easy for the enterprises, here, to develop the trust component as all of them would conduct business from a shared address.

According to the US Chamber of Commerce, coworking spaces lead to an improvement in productivity. The industry body feels that when small businesses operate from out of their homes, they tend to be less focussed as their kids or aging parents may divert their attention. Since many companies are working together, coworking environs would be more professional and could work round-the-clock by setting up in-house canteens. They could also have indoor sports facilities.

This could help India as office spaces, here, are constricted because of the high densities of population in all its major cities, without exception. Moreover, such places will allow for large parking spaces.

Meanwhile, companies that operate from coworking spaces can catch the eye of large corporations which may acquire them.

Large companies would also look to become part of such revolutionary trends by working along with small companies to access amenities that these environments will provide.

The future will see certain coworking spaces evincing interest to collaborate with enterprises in their related communities. These spaces will then become one-stop-shops for commodities or services in a particular area, leading them to become niche spots.

We are all well aware of how cumbersome travelling has become in this country's metropolitan cities. So, a niche destination that provides several facilities under a single roof will prove more attractive to Indian customers.

Millennials, who comprise almost half of India's workforce, will play a major part in the country's work culture in the future. As many Indians belong to this age-group prefer to be their own bosses, they are said to be the reason behind the rapid growth of coworking spaces. According to CBRE, a real-estate consultancy company, with a prominent presence in India, coworking spaces accommodated 10 percent of this country's workforce in the New Economy arena in 2019.

Moreover, since they come at a cheaper price, an increasing number of Indian entrepreneurs will embrace coworking spaces in the near future.

Metros, such as Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi, will have the most numbers of coworking spaces, followed by Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune, and Tier-2 cities, thereafter.