Businesses Turn To Feng Shui; It's More Than Mirrors something was seriously disturbing the
"energy" of the 21-story office building Manuel Medina's company
had just constructed.
The main tenant went belly-up after only two months of occupancy.
Other tenants also were suffering financial difficulties. Medina
had never experienced anything like it.
"At the time, it was the biggest project we had undertaken
and I felt like it was going to be a disaster," says Medina, chief
executive of Terremark, a Miami real estate and development company.
Was it the economy? The building's location? Or could it have
been the marble sculpture in front of the building? It looked
like the Washington Monument tilting forward. Medina had always
doubted its appeal.
Enter feng shui, a 4,000 year-old Chinese philosophy that says
the relationship between people, the Earth and objects affects
the flow of energy - or chi - influencing, among other things,
work performance. Messy spaces block chi, the philosophy states;
clear spaces cultivate it.
Thousands of miles from its birthplace, feng shui is being
embraced by corporate America and snazzy start-ups alike as the
hip new competitive edge for the business world.
For instance, the central atrium in Hasbro Inc.'s (HAS) Pawtucket,
R.I., corporate headquarters was recently built according to feng
shui. The chief executive of NetOptics Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif.,
fiber optics company, ordered mirrors for his 25 employees to
double their work results. And Beth Israel Hospital in New York
City is building a 12,000-square-foot Center for Health and Healing
that's a feng shui design-in-the-making.
Medina had traveled and worked extensively in the Far East,
so he knew of feng shui success stories. When his Chinese partner
on the struggling Miami office building suggested consulting feng
shui masters, Medina gave it a go.
Renovations on the light beige concrete building took about
five months and cost half a million dollars. He removed the 40-foot
marble sculpture. And where once a fountain flowed from the lobby
to that sculpture, there's now a front door. People had been entering
through side doors. The front door also let in more light, lending
an "appealing ambience of the street coming into the building,"
says Medina.
The result?
"Basically the whole situation turned around," Medina says.
"Anybody who saw (the building) before and after could see that
it was a dramatic change just by the feeling you got from standing
in the building."
The space left by the bankrupt company was divided up. Since
then, tenants have left "only because they've grown too much.
We have about 100% occupancy," Medina says.
That was in 1990, and Terremark has rocketed to "20 times the
size we were then" and is about to merge with AmTec Inc. (ATC),
a N.Y.-based telecommunications company.
Feng shui is now a staple in many buildings Medina constructs.
But, he's quick to add: "This doesn't rule my life. I don't build
buildings because feng shui is telling me how to build it. Feng
shui is like chicken soup: It may not cure you, but it won't hurt
you."
A Trend In Business
All of this, obviously, costs money. But companies are willing
to spend on consultants and design changes to "be prosperous,
to have peace of mind," says Sophia Tang Shaul, co-founder of
168 Feng Shui Advisors in Burbank, Calif. "Being prosperous is
the main thing for businesses."
Net Optics' chief financial officer, Charlotte Matityahu, spent
less than $1,000 on the mirrors, decluttering, adding plants to
the office, and repainting: green, to help improve family relationships;
purple, to help build wealth.
Matityahu justifies the expense because "people spend such
a significant amount of time here. If they're not happy, then
productivity suffers. We want our employees to be happy and want
to come to work."
And she's seen results. "People are happier," Matityahu says.
"There's not as much bickering. It's easier to find things."
"If an environment has good feng shui, the people who work
there will perform better and their health will be better," says
Hank Reisen of Boston-based Reisen Design Associates, who consulted
on the Hasbro atrium.
Feng shui experts agree a typical source of negative energy
is a sharp corner, sometimes called a "secret arrow." It's usually
the point where two walls meet, and though it's subtle energy,
Reisen says, it builds up in a person over days and weeks and
years and "really negatively affects performance." If an employee
is sitting across from a sharp corner "and he's the person in
charge of negotiating a deal, because of the stress of sitting
in front of the sharp corner, he just can't perform at his peak
abilities and will lose that deal."
Lest you start haphazardly tossing around office furniture
to boost stock prices, feng shui is more than corners and mirrors.
Shaul of 168 Feng Shui Advisors says the first feng shui masters
in China were scholars with close ties to the emperor. The masters
observed the environment and figured out how it could help the
emperor maintain his power. For centuries, feng shui remained
locked away from public consumption. The Chinese would see masters
doing certain things, but didn't know why. Feng shui folklore
is widespread to this day. "People misinterpret it because of
a lack of understanding," Shaul says.
"One of the things I don't like about feng shui is everybody
wants those easy answers and those rules of thumb," says consultant
Reisen. "It comes down to the chi of the particular situation.
Instead of saying everyone should line their desks this way, they
might be missing a major point. Calling in a consultant is the
best choice."
Feng shui's far from a hard science, though, and quantifying
its results aren't easy. The only measurements seem to be a "feeling"
that the office is more productive and long-term signs such as
business growth.
"You've got nothing to lose even if you have nothing to gain,"
says Matityahu of NetOptics. "It seemed an interesting way of
interpreting a work space. If not feng shui, what else?"
Wendy Lea, vice president of tech consulting firm OnTarget
in Dallas, sees feng shui as "a platform to optimize success."
She mapped out a seating arrangement attuned to her 20 employees'
birthdays and energy principles, such as wind, earth and water.
She added greenery to the office and cleaned up clutter.
In November 1999, OnTarget, a business with 1998 revenue of
$18 million, was sold to Siebel Systems Inc. (SEBL) for about
$259 million in Siebel shares. Lea attributes her success to believing
in feng shui.
"The investment is so minimal," Lea says. "It costs much less
than an interior decorator. The truth is, there will always be
naysayers. 'You're successful because you're smart and in the
right market at the right time.' That's probably not a false statement.
To me, it's like any other investment to optimize your health,
well being or family relationship."
Of course, feng shui shouldn't be blamed if the sun sets on
success, Reisen says. Even Asia, feng shui's ancestral home, couldn't
avoid a financial crisis.
"If you watch nature there are the four seasons - a time of
intense growth, maturity, decline and rest, and then the cycle
starts again. So I think you can apply those principles also to
business," Reisen says. "There's no such thing as continual growth." |
