In China, there is one company that is unique and has insisted on telecommuting for eight consecutive years. Its product is well-known in the Internet industry, and it is the project management tool Tower. Recently, I had the opportunity to listen to Tower’s founder’s podcast and have an in-depth exchange with co-founder Xu Zheng. I am deeply in awe of their stories and ideas.
Tower's remote working journey began at the end of 2012. Only one month after the product was released, CEO Shen announced that he would not renew the office lease the following year. The decision caused an uproar within the company. After all, conventional wisdom holds that companies after financing should rent more luxurious offices to demonstrate their strength. However, Tower's choice is completely different.
There are three main reasons why they choose to work remotely. First of all, Tower is a purely online project management tool. If it can support efficient collaboration among all remote teams, it will be more than enough for offline teams. Secondly, commuting problems have always troubled them. Regardless of office location, more than half of employees commute more than two hours. These two hours are undoubtedly a huge waste for employees. In the end, they found that even if they sit in the same office, employees often do their own things, and an online office environment is completely feasible.
Therefore, after the Spring Festival of 2013, Tower began an attempt to work remotely for all employees. According to Lao Shen's recollection, in the first month, many employees expressed discomfort and missed the office atmosphere. But just a month later, no one asked to return to the office. Even when Lao Shen proposed an offline gathering, employees would ask: "We have already sent messages online, is there anything else that must be discussed face to face?"
Long-term remote working has brought significant changes to them. First of all, the quality of life of employees has been greatly improved. Former CPU Xu Zheng shared that he was walking home after working out in the morning, looking at the rushing crowds, and felt extremely happy. Secondly, remote working makes it easier for employees to get time to focus and think. In an office, the flow of people often interrupts train of thought. Telecommuting allows employees to immerse themselves in work and improve efficiency. Ultimately, they found that telecommuting made meetings more efficient. Meetings with more than four people shorten significantly because everyone prepares materials in advance and focuses on resolving differences and issues during the meeting.
In addition, remote working has brought another unexpected benefit to Tower: it is easier to recruit good talents. They are no longer limited to recruiting in the Chengdu area, but can attract top talents from across the country to join the company. This makes Tower's team more diverse and stronger.
Of course, telecommuting isn’t for everyone. It requires employees to have a good sense of control over their lives, not only to maintain self-discipline at work, but also to reasonably arrange their life time. At the same time, companies also need to continuously optimize business processes and improve team collaboration efficiency. A team that doesn't understand remote collaboration may face disastrous consequences if they rush to disperse the work.
Tower’s remote working exploration has many concepts that we can learn from. They have proven the feasibility and advantages of remote working with practical actions. Today, Tower has been acquired by Once, and its founding team has also joined Feishu. I believe that with the support of Feishu, they will help more teams realize their dream of remote working.
As a Solar, I am also deeply inspired by the story of Tower. Let us be the CEOs of life together and explore more possibilities and freedom!
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