Unusually for the chief executive of a workspace provider, IWG boss Mark Dixon doesn’t believe peoples’ work location really matters. “What your people are doing and how you’re managing them is the most important. Where they’re doing it is the last thing you should look at,” he says.
His comments come amid a renewed effort from companies, including Amazon, JP Morgan and WPP, to force employees back to the office. For Dixon, these businesses are “totally missing the point”.
One commonly cited reason for introducing a return-to-office mandate has been the need to improve collaboration and innovation. On the introduction of Amazon’s five-day in-office policy, CEO Andy Jassy argued that being in the office makes it easier for people to learn, strengthens culture and improves connection between colleagues.
If work isn’t being carried out effectively, it’s not the fault of the location
However, Dixon says, ordering people into the office does little more than inconvenience them. “If work isn’t being carried out effectively, it’s not the fault of the location. It’s generally the fault of management not making the job clear or setting good KPIs. Those problems will be the same whether your staff are sitting 10 metres away from you in an office or 1,000 kilometres away and working from home.”
The ‘watercooler moments’ that many company leaders claim have been missing since the shift to hybrid working are also a myth, Dixon says. “The idea that people are having discussions around the coffee machine is not the reality. People are all on their phones, they don’t even look up while they’re making their coffee,” he adds.
Other business leaders have commented on the impact working from home has had on young people entering the workforce. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mark Edward Rose, chair and CEO of Avison Young, a commercial real estate company, suggested gen-z workers are missing out on training and opportunities for promotion because they are spending less time in the office.
Dixon refutes this idea. “A lot of people still think that training a young person needs to happen in an office and if they sit in the corner at the worst desk they’ll start learning by osmosis,” he says. “That doesn’t happen. But, if you have a good virtual programme that provides training and gives them exposure to the business in a more orderly way, they will learn.”
‘People are a company’s most important investment’
IWG, formerly Regus, was founded in Brussels in 1989, after Dixon noticed local entrepreneurs gathering in cafes to conduct meetings. This inspired him to provide more flexible office spaces to cater to their needs.
Dixon himself had never worked in an office before founding the business. His first entrepreneurial venture was delivering sandwiches to workers by bicycle and, as a younger man, he also worked as a barman in Saint-Tropez, sold encyclopedias in Australia and set up a bakery. But IWG has been his most successful venture by far and the FTSE 250-listed firm is currently valued at £1.85bn.
Despite being a 36-year-old business, Dixon’s offering of flexible and fully serviced office spaces was particularly well suited to the post-pandemic model of working. In 2024, the company reported record revenues of £3.3bn, which it attributed to the growth in hybrid working and the demand for flexible work.
This flexible approach is one that IWG’s own employees are encouraged to follow too. “We work on the basis of what they do, not where they are,” Dixon says “Everyone’s very clear on their targets and they have to deliver on them… it’s that simple.”
However, there are some challenges that come with running a hybrid business. Dixon notes that the company has had to put more effort into induction and training. IWG takes on between 3,000 and 5,000 new starters each year and has a mix of staff working from home, on-site, in offices and in hybrid roles. “It’s a totally flexible programme,” Dixon adds.
This is not to say that there is no longer a role for the office. “Offices still have a real purpose,” he says. “They allow people to concentrate and focus or promote collaboration in a meeting, but absolutely its role has changed.”
We work on the basis of what workers do, not where they are
And IWG is continuing to track changes to where and how people prefer to work. “We’re seeing more companies buying seats for staff who don’t want to commute and instead work closer to home,” he says.
This has led IWG to increasingly locate its workspaces in suburbs and towns, shifting its focus away from cities. “The commute feels like an unnecessary disruption,” Dixon says. “But you may still have disruption working from home so, if there’s an office space you can walk or cycle to, people are very happy to do that.”
This preference for working closer to home and the reluctance to commute into busy city centres could see more companies abandon their central headquarters, Dixon says. HSBC and Clifford Chance both made the decision to move out of their Canary Wharf offices in 2023, while Meta also broke the lease on its central London office building the same year.
“For most companies, having a big shiny headquarters doesn’t represent good value. It’s about supporting the workforce,” Dixon says.
This is something that he feels particularly passionate about. “People are the most important investment companies make,” he says. “Good people are expensive – difficult to get and to keep. Therefore you really need to value them and maintain them, as you would an expensive machine.”
He advises other companies to cultivate their relationships with their employees. “It’s about communication and supporting that person to be more successful in doing their job. If people are more fulfilled, more successful, more loved and they feel supported, they will be happier,” Dixon adds. “It’s basic stuff.”
Leaving its London listing
Despite being listed in London, IWG is headquartered in Switzerland and Dixon is keen to emphasise the global nature of the business, with office spaces in 120 countries.
Last year saw an exodus of companies from the London Stock Exchange, with Just Eat, Ashtead and Flutter among those to move. IWG could follow suit and has already begun reporting its financials in US dollars.
While a US listing has been mooted for a while and is preferred by some of IWG’s biggest investors, Dixon continues to keep his cards close to his chest. “It’s something under consideration,” he says. “Our business is 99.9% of our focus, the listing venue is not the main event.”
Offices still have a real purpose
However, switching to a US listing does hold some clear advantages for IWG, with more than half of the company’s profits being generated in the US. “There’s nothing offputting about the UK, but the US market is attractive because of the depth of the market. It has a lot more investment,” Dixon adds.
Although the policies of the Trump administration have already created some volatility in the US market, Dixon believes the new presidency has boosted business confidence. “There’s tremendous momentum caused by the current government and, so far, it seems to be positive for the economy,” he says. “Our business is doing very well there.”
Whether IWG chooses to change its listing location or not, Dixon remains confident the company is well positioned to capitalise on any changes in the workspace market. And, in his view, these changes to the way we work will provide unprecedented opportunities for those companies that are willing to adapt.
Unusually for the chief executive of a workspace provider, IWG boss Mark Dixon doesn’t believe peoples’ work location really matters. “What your people are doing and how you're managing them is the most important. Where they’re doing it is the last thing you should look at,” he says.
His comments come amid a renewed effort from companies, including Amazon, JP Morgan and WPP, to force employees back to the office. For Dixon, these businesses are “totally missing the point”.
One commonly cited reason for introducing a return-to-office mandate has been the need to improve collaboration and innovation. On the introduction of Amazon’s five-day in-office policy, CEO Andy Jassy argued that being in the office makes it easier for people to learn, strengthens culture and improves connection between colleagues.
