Although the world of business is mired in this crisis, changing, expanding or thinning the head office or the branch cannot be postponed. For some companies, it is an urgent need to give up a high – rent location and to relocate to a new one with a lower cost.

There have been many companies doing the following calculation: if they currently rent a 500-meter-square office at $50/square meter/month and they could move to a new location for $30/square meter/month (plus the amount for renovations, while recycling some old decorations), the amount for relocating is $75,000. After a year of working in the new office they can save $45,000.
The purpose of this article is to determine the company’s needs, as well as the design in order to help the enterprise find the best solution during the current crisis.
1. Which pennies for fish sauce, which pennies for soy sauce – analyzing cost structure in building and interior decoration for a new office.
2. Beauty is only skin deep – solutions for choosing materials and equipment to reduce the investment cost, while still meeting aesthetic qualities and function.
3. A gorgeous scarf - solution for upgrading after the crisis, based on cost-saving decisions in current time.

WHICH PENNIES FOR FISH SAUCE, WHICH PENNEIS FOR SOY SAUCE
The entire article is dedicated to the sole purpose of developing a professional office with tasteful interior décor in a leased space. Investment into a new office is influenced by the degree of decoration, technical system demands, the kind of material to be used, and the density of the area.
When the products are displayed, how do we choose between fish sauce and soy sauce? Here are three alternatives:
The first alternative: tighten the belt. Focus on the size of the office space. In order to have a nice and luxurious office, you could choose space with a density of 10 square meters per person. However, in this age of reduced spending, selecting a density of 6-square meters per person is acceptable for decoration and use. For example, if the office has 100 staff, would need to lease a 600-square-meter space. An experience design company could estimate the need of reception areas, working area, meeting rooms, and lobby and stay well within these parameters.
The second alternative: rice to feel full. At this time, it is necessary to invest in high-traffic areas where the staff does it its work. Public areas such as reception and meeting rooms and even the General Director’s office can be easily and quickly upgraded when needed (refer to the next part of this article). But the working area is difficult to upgrade, because each time this is done, the business has to stop operation and close for a few weeks. This way, the expense for renovation is limited while public areas can be upgraded independently without spending much more time.
The third alternative: be careful not to be “out of pocket”. Many business have had negative experiences when not investing the right technical systems in the beginning and have found themselves “out of pocket” when they have to make upgrades. Technical systems include electricity telephone lines computer for each work place in the office, cabinets and the line system of the central computer department. These are called M&E (Mechanical and Engineering) systems. Normally the expense for M&E systems is about 25-30% of the value of the office interior. If you try to cut corners here by choosing inferior solutions the consequences could be severe in terms of ongoing operations. There have been many companies that tried to save money in this area only to lose many years of accounting data and statistic.

 
English version by Hong Trang