The ability of a business to own its own building or build a headquarters is universally seen as indication of the business or organisation's achievement, success and, of course, a symbol of prestige. Being the CEO or MD at the helm of a company or organisation when it achieves the financial heft to own its own building or build its own building (or move into a bigger building) is not just a great achievement.
It's an opportunity for a CEO or MD to stamp their mark on the organisation for posterity. And this is when you get iconic architectural structures, outstanding and bold designs and buildings that could double up as works of art as the CEOs go all out to ensure the building stands out and is unforgettable.
With the exception of countries like Hong Kong, Taiwan and maybe China, there is often little thought as to whether or not such a building has been designed to also enable the business to go the distance. Yes, it may be an iconic building, but what's the point if you end up selling it off in a firesale after the business has collapsed? (Lehman Brothers, anyone?).
Don't believe me? Well, let's take the example of a little company called Enron. Originally, Enron was headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. It achieved good growth there, and then relocated to Houston, Texas. Now, the Feng Shui of Houston isn't unfavourable, but we look at the photographs of the company's headquarters in Houston, we can see that the design of the building created an organisation of unscrupulous individuals.
The headquarters of Enron has a curving pedestrian bridge at the area of the building. This means that the back of the building is cut by an inverted Blade Sha - it is like a cudgel buried in the back of the building. The building itself is round and cylindrical in shape, which makes it a Metal Shape Building. Blade Sha is a form of Metal Sha, so here we have a formation known as Sword Fighting Sha, or two pieces of metal crossing each other. Sword Fighting Sha produces legal disputes that are the result of armed robbery, theft or unlawful activities, which are exactly the sort of things that Enron was embroiled in at the time the business unravelled.
When the corporate headquarters has unfavourable or negative Feng Shui, the entire group is affected, including the regional offices and local offices, down to the smallest store. As the Chinese say, the fish rots from the head. Yes, the individual offices or stores or regional offices can fix their own Feng Shui, but there is a limit to what they can do because the glass is half empty to begin with.
Building a business to last the ages
The first step in locating the headquarters of a company is to study the organisation's primary business or core activity. Once the core business or activity has been identified, the appropriate area, with the right landforms that support that business can be determined. For example, financial businesses need to be supported by powerful water formations in order to achieve success. This is one of the reasons why New York is the financial centre of the US and the world, and why a major stock exchange is located there.
New York is known as a Flatland Dragon area, with small and very low hills. The key to the Feng Shui of New York lies in the unique water formations arising from the confluence and convergence of rivers such as the Hudson River. As such, it is an ideal location, Feng Shui-wise, for companies engaged in financial-centric businesses.
But when it comes to the actual building structure, there is one more question that must be considered. What goal or objective should the Feng Shui of the building be orientated towards? The common mistake is profit. The primary objective of the Feng Shui of the building should be to ensure stability and long-term growth. It's all about making sure that the business is truly, in the words of James Collins and Jerry Porras, "built to last".
Profitability, of course, is essential, but a business doesn't just generate profit from its HQ. It generates profit from regional offices, sales offices, overseas operations and retail stores. But the headquarters is where the buck stops, and it needs to be able to stand the test of time. Hence, Feng Shui consultants place a premium on stability and long-term growth when it comes to the Feng Shui of a headquarters.
This is done through ensuring that the External Mountains and Hill Formations are lush, sentimental and are substantially sized mountains. Mountains, in the study of Feng Shui, are what govern people, and a business is only ever as good as its people. Mountains also relate to long-term and more lasting Qi. The design of the building itself should, first and foremost, facilitate the collection and drawing in of the Qi from the mountains and hills, as well as the roads and real water in the area.
Perhaps the moral of the story is this: build your building so your business will be truly built to last, and the best way to do this is to stay out the pages of Architecture Digest.
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