FIKA Friday At the Office

Hello friends,

When I listened to Anshul Agarwal talk about his morning routine, I expected discipline. What I didn’t expect was how seamlessly he’d connect tennis footwork, coffee conversations, and CFO strategy into a single coherent philosophy.

Anshul is Chief Financial Officer and Board member of Akkodis in India, a global digital engineering company and part of Adecco Group, Switzerland. He’s a chartered accountant by training, but his versatility runs deeper than credentials. Over thirteen years in Bangalore, he’s evolved from tracking balance sheets to architecting business strategy, proving that modern finance is much more about foresight, not hindsight.

“The CFO’s role has moved from running the scoreboard to running the playbook. We are no longer sitting on the sidelines. We are in the huddle deciding plays.”

We recorded this episode in Bangalore, where Anshul has traded his hometown lemon tea for a strong South Indian filter coffee. What emerged was a masterclass in how curiosity, consistency, and strategic thinking compound over time.

Do take a listen 🎧 & show your love by clicking subscribe button, like, comment & ask your friends also to listen to this freshly brewed season of FIKA Friday At the Office.

You can also connect with us on LinkedIn:

* Anshul Agarwal : https://www.linkedin.com/in/anshulagarwal26/

* Ram Puranam : https://www.linkedin.com/in/puranamram/

Cheers, Ram

Thanks for reading FIKA Friday At the Office! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Hello friends,

Sometimes the most powerful workplace insights come from someone who’s seen the industry from every angle.

Bex Moorhouse has managed serviced offices before WeWork made coworking cool, shaped the culture at Nike where “progress over perfection” was more than just a slogan, and now leads global workplace strategy at WPP, one of the world’s largest advertising & creative agencies.

In this episode of Fika Friday at the Office, Bex and I talked over coffee about what actually makes workplaces work. Not the surface-level stuff, the gym that nobody uses or the wellness room that’s just an empty box, but the experiences, behaviors, and leadership approaches that create environments where people want to be.

“A lot of those boring or repetitive tasks drain energy. If we had AI agents doing those bits, it would free us up to really listen to people.”

We covered:

→ Why Mark Dixon, legendary Founder of Regus deserves more credit than WeWork

→ How taking care of yourself makes you better at your job

→ What Nike taught her about speed, trust, and valuing every voice

→ Why activation matters more than amenities

→ AI as a workplace ally, not a threat

→ The security guard who gave her a dopamine kick when she needed it most

𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻 🎧𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁𝘀 and show your love by clicking the subscribe button, like, comment & ask your friends also to listen to this freshly brewed season of ‘’FIKA Friday At the Office’’.

You can connect with us on LinkedIn:

* Bex Moorhouse : https://www.linkedin.com/in/bexmoorhouse/

* Ram Puranam : https://www.linkedin.com/in/puranamram/

Cheers, Ram

Thanks for reading FIKA Friday At the Office! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Hola amigos,

Que tal !..Como estas!!

When Ricardo Chacon talks about office space, he doesn’t mention square footage first. He talks about the Energy. About the low vibe of an empty floor. About what happens when companies overspend on real estate and still fail their people.

Ricardo’s path from Costa Rica to Singapore reads like a case study in cross-cultural workplace evolution. Trained as a civil engineer, he’s worked through the full stack of corporate real estate: from construction materials supplier to global portfolio strategist at Standard Chartered and HP. Today, he runs Common Blue, a consultancy focused on making workplaces work better with less.

“Even if you spend all that money, you have more space than you need. That also harms the employee experience. Not because the office is too crowded, not because it’s too noisy, but because the office is too empty.”

We recorded this conversation over morning coffee, Ricardo’s daily ritual, a non-negotiable inherited from Costa Rica’s coffee culture. What emerged was a clear-eyed view of what companies get wrong about workplace strategy, and what they’ll need to fix.

The Goldilocks Problem

Ricardo recently published an article on what he calls “the Goldilocks office.” The premise challenges the dominant narrative around return-to-office mandates. Everyone worries about overcrowding. Almost no one considers the opposite risk.

When HSBC announced a £200 million spend to accommodate everyone back in the office, Ricardo saw it differently. If utilization remains low, that investment creates ghost towns: floors with energy so depleted that collaboration becomes forced, serendipity vanishes, and the cross-pollination of ideas stalls out.

The measurements we use don’t capture this. You can’t quantify the absence of energy. But people feel it immediately.

𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻 🎧𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁𝘀 and show your love by clicking the subscribe button, like, comment & ask your friends also to listen to this freshly brewed season of ‘’FIKA Friday At the Office’’.

You can connect with us on LinkedIn:

* Ricardo Chacon : https://www.linkedin.com/in/richveg/

* Ram Puranam : https://www.linkedin.com/in/puranamram/

Muchas Gracias, Ram

Thanks for reading FIKA Friday At the Office! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Thanks for reading FIKA Friday At the Office! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Hola amigos,

Corina Ocanto didn’t grow up dreaming about workplace strategy. She trained as an architect and designer, went on to work with some of the world’s most coveted companies, and built a career grounded in creativity, purpose, and people.

But somewhere along the way, drawing buildings became less important than understanding the people inside them. In this episode of Fika Friday at the Office, I sat down with Corina to talk about how she moved from the drafting table to the heart of employee experience, and why she believes the future of the workplace is less about assets and more about intention.

“Design the employee experience like a product. What are the pain points? What brings joy? Build from that.”

Each of Corina’s insights comes from real-world experiments. From her time at tech unicorns to her current work designing agile workplace playbooks, she’s been at the center of what’s changing and what still needs to change.

𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻 🎧𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁𝘀 and show your love by clicking the subscribe button, like, comment & ask your friends also to listen to this freshly brewed season of ‘’FIKA Friday At the Office’’.

You can connect with us on LinkedIn:

* Corina Ocanto : https://www.linkedin.com/in/corinaocanto/

* Ram Puranam : https://www.linkedin.com/in/puranamram/

Muchas Gracias, Ram

Thanks for reading FIKA Friday At the Office! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Viva, amigos!

In this freshly brewed episode of Fika Friday at the Office, I’m joined by Rodrigo Rolim, a Workplace Strategist with an Architect’s eye and a People-first mindset.

Rodrigo trained as an architect in São Paulo, Brazil. However, it didn’t take long for him to realize that what he cared about most wasn’t the space itself; it was the people moving through it. That shift in focus, from structure to experience, would shape the next two decades of his career.

From consulting at CBRE to leading workplace transformation projects at WPP, Rodrigo has worked across Latin America and Europe, helping global organizations move from asset-focused thinking to people-centered design. Today, he’s based in the Netherlands, continuing that mission with a calm, grounded clarity.

“You can’t take attendance for granted. You need to earn it.”

During my fika chat, he shares what it takes to create spaces that earn your attendance, and why coffee, culture, and clarity matter more than ever.

In this episode, we explore:

✅ Why workplace strategy needs to move beyond square meters ✅ How hybrid work only succeeds with structure ✅ What real estate teams must unlearn to stay relevant ✅ Why earning attendance is the new north star ✅ And yes, why coffee culture still matters

𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻 🎧𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁𝘀 and show your love by clicking the subscribe button, like, comment & ask your friends also to listen to this freshly brewed season of ‘'FIKA Friday At the Office’'.

You can connect with us on LinkedIn:

* Rodrigo Rolim : https://www.linkedin.com/in/rrolim/

* Ram Puranam : https://www.linkedin.com/in/puranamram/

Obrigado,

Ram

Thanks for reading FIKA Friday At the Office! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Thanks for reading FIKA Friday At the Office! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Hello friends,

This week, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Elizabeth Nelson, researcher, engineer, and author of ‘‘The Healthy Office Revolution’’.

"Your office design might be affecting your biology more than you realize." 🧠

I invited Dr. Elizabeth for a coffee chat to explore the science behind how workplace environments impact our bodies at a cellular level⁠. Have a listen and discover:

☕ Much like that afternoon fika break, rituals in the workplace can transform our stress levels and even alter our brain chemistry⁠.

🧘‍♂️ The surprising finding that just three interruptions per hour can prevent you from reaching a state of flow.⁠

✏️ Why inclusive design means considering the needs of everyone, especially those traditionally overlooked in workplace planning⁠.

🏢 The importance of having younger generations co-design the spaces they'll inherit⁠.

⁠

Too often, the future of work is being decided by people in power positions who won’t even be in the office a few years from now. That’s a real risk, Elizabeth warned. Gen Z and Gen Alpha are walking into spaces built for Baby Boomers. The design language, and the power dynamic, just about everything needs to shift.

“If you want to keep women and underrepresented talent, design for their autonomy, their energy, and their flow, you’ll end up designing something better for everyone.”

"Spaces are never neutral," as Dr. Nelson reminds us. Neither are the people within them⁠⁠.

𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻 🎧𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁𝘀 and show your love by clicking the subscribe button, like, comment & ask your friends also to listen to this freshly brewed season of ‘'FIKA Friday At the Office’'.

You can connect with us on LinkedIn:

* Dr.Elizabeth Nelson : https://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonelizabeth/

* Ram Puranam : https://www.linkedin.com/in/puranamram/

Cheers, Ram

Hello friends,

In this episode , I sit down with Denise Brouder, founder of The Future of Work Alliance, to talk about how AI, autonomy, and trust are reshaping the work world.

There’s magic that happens when people are together. Creative sparks fly. That’s still essential.

Tune in to this to hear how Denise went from Wall Street to the frontlines of workplace transformation, and why she believes leadership needs to rethink how performance, trust, and flexibility really work.

Take a listen 🎧 & show your love by clicking subscribe button, like, comment & ask your friends also tolisten to this freshly brewed season of FIKA Friday At the Office.

You can also connect with us on LinkedIn:

* Denise Brouder : https://www.linkedin.com/in/denisebrouder/

* Ram Puranam : https://www.linkedin.com/in/puranamram/

Cheers, Ram

Thanks for reading FIKA Friday At the Office! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Thanks for reading FIKA Friday At the Office! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Olá amigos,

What does a company without bosses look like?

On this latest episode of Fika Friday at the Office, I head to Porto, Portugal to talk with Luis Simões, the force behind Mindera a 1200 person software company built around the core principles of Self-management, Autonomy, and Human Connection.

* No org chart x

* No approvals x

* Just teams figuring it out together to create magic

Take a listen 🎧 & show your love by clicking subscribe button, like, comment & ask your friends also tolisten to this freshly brewed season of FIKA Friday At the Office.

You can also connect with us on LinkedIn:

* Luis Simoes : https://www.linkedin.com/in/luisalbertosimoes/

* Ram Puranam : https://www.linkedin.com/in/puranamram/

Cheerio, Ram

#FutureOfWork #Leadership #Culture #WorkplaceDesign #SelfManagement

Hello friends,

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵, 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻-𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻? You get Emmanuel Daniel, Former Global Head of Smart Buildings at Microsoft, Current CEO and Founder of Alosanar. He’s always thinking five steps ahead.

In our latest podcast episode, Emmanuel shares how he led the transformation of Microsoft’s campus experience, and why he believes the future of work must be built around the life journey of the employee.💡 From coffee rituals to AI-driven buildings🌍 From campus planning to cultural experience design🤖 From data chaos to intelligent environmentsIt’s a conversation you don’t want to miss this Friday, July 4th which happens to be the Independence Day & holiday weekend in US.

Take a listen to this podcast episode & show your love by clicking subscribe button, like, comment & ask your friends also to take a listen to this freshly brewed season of FIKA Friday At the Office.

Thanks for reading FIKA Friday At the Office! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

You can also connect with us on LinkedIn:

* Emmanuel Daniel : https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmanueldaniel/

* Ram Puranam : https://www.linkedin.com/in/puranamram/

Cheers, Ram

Thanks for reading FIKA Friday At the Office! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Hello friends,

By the time you hear Jason Shearer describe his work, you get the sense he is designing something much bigger than the Workplaces. As the Workplace Field CTO at Cisco Systems, Jason bridges technology and real estate, helping global companies rethink how environments support people and purpose.

Jason doesn’t believe technology should be layered on at the last minute. He argues that the best workplaces start by thinking about technology early... Very early. In a world where hybrid is the new normal and AI keeps evolving, he builds spaces that are ready to adapt.

“Be curious. Try to understand what the real problem is, not just the symptoms you see at first.”

In this episode of Fika Friday at the Office, Jason spoke with me about what future-proof workplaces really require—and why curiosity might be the most important tool we have.

Top10 Takeaways from our conversation:

* Technology needs to be part of the blueprint

* Workplaces should adjust to the work being done

* No one has hybrid work completely figured out

* AI will be a strong force behind better workplace decisions

* Meeting equity needs more than just good Wi-Fi

* The next wave of workplace tech is already happening

* Future-proofing requires a flexible foundation

* Generational diversity will shape what workplaces need

* AI should augment people, not replace them

* Curiosity beats certainty

This mindset runs through Jason’s work. Curiosity leads to better questions, which lead to better spaces.

Thanks for reading FIKA Friday At the Office! This post is public so feel free to share it

Jason Shearer blends his passion for technology with a deep understanding of human behavior. He has spent more than two decades building, testing, and improving the places where work happens. In this conversation, it becomes clear he isn’t chasing trends. He is trying to design workplaces that will hold up five years from now—and that starts by asking better questions today.

“Curiosity makes you a better technologist. It also makes you a better designer’’

Take a listen to this podcast episode & show your love by clicking subscribe button, like, comment & ask your friends also to take a listen to this freshly brewed season of FIKA Friday At the Office.

You can also connect with us on LinkedIn:

* Jason Shearer : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonshearer/

* Ram Puranam : https://www.linkedin.com/in/puranamram/

Cheers, Ram

Thanks for reading FIKA Friday At the Office! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.