Pub: Australian Financial Review
Pubdate: Friday 28th of October 2005
Edition: First 
Section: News
Subsection:
Page: 28
Wordcount: 1603
Classification:
Science/Psychology
Culture/Architecture
Business/Companies
Geographic area:
Australia
Asia
Hong Kong

Feng shui enters the business plan
Elizabeth Kazi  
 
Some of Australia's largest companies are using the Chinese concept to improve their business and employees' happiness, writes Elizabeth Kazi.


Visitors to John McFarlane's office in Melbourne are immediately struck by the sight of a vase of bamboo.  The ANZ chief executive is a believer in the oriental tradition of feng shui, under which bamboo symbolises new growth and new beginnings and is kept throughout the year.

"John worked in Hong Kong for some time as group executive director of Standard Chartered Bank in the early '90s and it [feng shui] is a prerequisite in Hong Kong," ANZ spokesman Paul Edwards says.
Feng shui has been on the rise in Australia as more companies seek to improve their business with Asian clients and employees or seek new ways to improve their work environment.

And it's no longer reserved for alternative or fringe companies. Macquarie Bank, Citibank, Mortgage Choice, JeansWest and marketing communications organisation Grey Global Group have all spent large sums on feng shui-designed workplaces. A feng shui consultant charges $150 to $250 an hour.
Millionaires' club Macquarie Bank uses the concept in its trading businesses worldwide. In Sydney, this means its equity market arms and dealing rooms are all designed in line with feng shui principles.
At ANZ's Private Banking office in Sydney's Martin Place feng shui is designed to appeal to Chinese customers.

The concept of feng shui - it literally means "wind and water" - is based on mathematical predictions of how life energy or "chi" in a building will flow, says feng shui master and consultant Gayle Atherton.
"The art of placement is everything in the corporate world," she says. She asks sceptics how they would feel if their desk were placed in a corridor.

Atherton is advising Willoughby Council on Sydney's North Shore and says that feng shui in Australia is no longer associated with "risk takers" but also accepted by mainstream organisations. She estimates that about 20 per cent of Australian offices would have feng shui influences incorporated into their design. "I'm sure 10 years ago I wouldn't have had Willoughby council asking me to help with the design of their civic centre," she says. Part of the increase she attributes to Australian companies going into Asia; in Singapore and Hong Kong it is almost mandatory to have a consultant. She says that when Australian companies want to expand into other countries, they tend to do a lot of research on the customs of that country. They have seen the benefits of the concept and imported it back home.

Asian traditions of management can also come with the decor. "Feng shui is hierarchical. You don't put the boss opposite the lift," she says. According to Atherton, in a corporate environment it is important to set people up prestigiously so that they can "keep their finger on the pulse".

Feng shui consultant Anjela Wong estimates that in the past 1 1/2 years there has been a 30 per cent increase in interest from multinationals. "Some are targeting an Asian market so they want to say they have had feng shui done," Wong says.

Last year, Citibank started using feng shui in CitiGold Centre, its international wealth management division in Sydney's Chinatown. Next month, the bank will open another wealth management centre in Melbourne's Chinatown and a feng shui master has been consulted to implement principles.
Changes that have been initiated include realigning financial consultants' desks to correct feng shui direction, fixing brass across the edge of the main entrance to protect the financials and introducing potted plants to increase positive life force energy. The principles are also used by some senior Citibank executives in their offices.

Director of CitiGold Suvrat Saigal says feng shui has helped the bank better connect with clients and shows the bank's readiness to address clients' business needs on a variety of levels.
"It is gaining in popularity here because there is probably more awareness of the offerings of other cultures in this diverse country," Saigal says.  "If your clients do value the merits of feng shui, it is important to respect and acknowledge that. Our clients are savvy investors belonging to the mass affluent market and understandably want not only the best-suited wealth-creation products, but to have all elements working in their favour - traditionally, feng shui is inexorably linked to maximising prosperity and wealth."

The president of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, Bob Nation, says he has a large property under construction in Melbourne for an Indonesian banker which must be feng shui-compliant.
"There is greater interest emerging in the broader population due to Asian connections," Nation says.
Creative types, of course, have long loved feng shui. Adman Simon Reynolds, inspired by the "billionaires in Hong Kong", also has redesigned his offices with feng shui.
"I thought there's a lot of intelligent people in Asia using this, why don't I look it up?" he says.
JeansWest started using feng shui when it was acquired by a Hong Kong-based company in the early 1990s. Now for any new stores proposed to be let by the retailer the plans are sent off to a feng shui master based in Hong Kong to determine whether the angle, direction and shape of the store is suitable. "If it is bad we won't take it, if good we will," a spokeswoman says.
Other organisations are increasingly using feng shui in a push to appeal to their employees.

The managing director of Melbourne-based public relations business Pesel & Carr, Barbara Pesel, says: "If you are spending eight hours in your working environment, why should that working environment be uncomfortable?" Pesel says feng shui has taken off particularly in the financial services industry. "I know probably now 10 different organisations that when they've refurbished have looked at certain feng shui principles."

The founding brothers of Mortgage Choice, Peter and Rod Higgins, were introduced to feng shui in Hong Kong in the late 1990s and have subsequently brought it back to their business.
Last October, Mortgage Choice was given a new fit-out with the consultation of a feng shui expert. More colour was introduced, 23 different colours in fact, as well as living plants, to provide employees with an "empowered atmosphere". National manager (corporate affairs) Warren O'Rourke says that higher levels of interaction were observed within the organisation after the introduction of feng shui, and business improved.  "The overall effect is that of 'invitation' within the office," O'Rourke says. "This is not just as a result of creating an aesthetically pleasing reception area, but also more significantly within the 'engine room'." Staff at the mortgage broker have responded well and say they are happier in their working environment, according to O'Rourke. "We would not be in the position we are in today without creating a supportive and practical environment, which the feng shui design has provided," he says.

The architect and feng shui practitioner for Mortgage Choice, James Neal, says that understanding of feng shui among Australian companies is growing exponentially.  "[People will say] 'Something is missing, I don't know what it is?' When I hear this I know it is my cue: it's their atmosphere [that needs to change]," he says.

In 2002 and 2003 Neal was consulted by Aristocrat Leisure and says that subsequently the company became highly performing. "I have noticed it takes about a year to filter through to the balance sheet," he says, but adds that the effects on people in the workplace are immediate. "People tend to interact rather than interrupt, there is a decline in the number of sick days because people like being there."
Over the past 10 years, Neal estimates, he has advised 500 companies in Australia. Through word of mouth and exposure to literature feng shui awareness has grown, he says, but there is still a fair amount of scepticism by the public. "It's generally driven by the chief executive of the corporation."

Paul Gardner, the chairman of the local arm of multinational media company Grey Global Group, was the powerhouse behind the feng shui design of the agency's Melbourne office six years ago. Gold coins and red ribbons are in some offices, and five stones and a water feature are located in the foyer.
"We had a bad run of luck [the company was losing accounts] and someone suggested feng shui," Gardner recalls.  "It didn't go all that great, in fact in the first months, I was one month away from introducing Virgin Marys and crucifixes."  Subsequently, business picked up.  Behind Gardner's sofa at the moment is a frog with a coin in its mouth and a dragon. The three-legged frog is a symbol of good fortune and wealth. The addition of the coin in the frog's mouth adds additional emphasis of prosperity.
For Gardner, feng shui is a combination of appreciating the cultural values of the Asia-Pacific and channelling good luck. "It's a recognition of where we sit as a country and a business," he says.

But for others, the use of feng shui has not been as successful. At Australian Consolidated Press feng shui was dropped in a particular magazine sales division after the departure of the group sales manager. "It was in a particular sales section a couple of years ago," says a spokeswoman. "A feng shui consultant came in a couple of times."  Feng shui was also used in the offices of One.Tel, where mirrors were used to deflect negative spirits and statutes were prominently displayed.

WELL PLACED
How feng shui, the ancient art of placement, is being used in the corporate world
The theory
Feng shui is a mathematical calculation of how energy in a building flows
If people, buildings and the objects in them are positioned in harmony with each other, things work
Who uses it:
ANZ
Macquarie Bank
Citibank
Mortgage Choice
Jeans West
Grey Global Group
Sydney's Willoughby council
Aristocrat Leisure
Tricks of the trade
* Bamboo symbolises new growth and new beginnings and is kept throughout the year to grow
* Brass is fixed across the edge of main entrances to protect the financials
* Potted plants increase life-force energy
* Moving water stimulates finances
* Mirrors deflect disruptive energy

The do's and don'ts
DO'S
* Surfaces should be earth colours
* Good natural light and air flows
* Workstations should face the direction people approach

DON'TS
* Don't put the boss opposite the lift
* Don't position employees' backs to a door
* Too many straight or angular lines in the workplace is very masculine and intimidating
* Don't have work benches, carpet or other surfaces blue or green

'The art of placement is everything in the corporate world. When people doubt this, I ask them: "Imagine how you'd feel if your desk were in a corridor."'
- Feng shui master Gayle Atherton
'[Feng shui] takes about a year to filter through to the balance sheet but the effects on people in the workplace is immediate.
People tend to interact rather than interrupt. There is a decline in the number of sick days because people like being there.'
- Architect and feng shui practitioner James Neal
Source: James Neal, Gayle Atherton