“The World is Your Office: How Work from Anywhere Boosts Talent, Productivity, and Innovation”

Harvard Business School’s Prithwiraj Choudhury outlines the benefits of the Work from Anywhere model.

By Prithwiraj Choudhury
c.2025, Harvard Business Review
$32, 208 pages

Twenty-seven steps.

That’s how long your commute is now: You roll out of bed and stroll down the hall whatever you like, wearing whatever you want. Next month might be different, you haven’t decided yet, because it won’t matter. As in “The World Is Your Office” by Prithwiraj Choudhury, you left the 9-to-5 grind somewhere in a concrete building years ago.

You don’t have to think hard to remember the start of the pandemic, or what it was like to suddenly commandeer a corner of your bedroom as your new workspace. That was then. This is now, and you’re not eager to see the whole return-to-office thing become the norm again.

So what if it didn’t?

Choudhury proposes another way to work that’s a “win-win-win” for everyone: Work from Anywhere (WFA), which frees up employees to do their jobs from literally any location with an internet connection.

Companies of any size can implement WFA practices, he says, and the benefits are many.

For workers, WFA allows flexibility, better quality of life and monetary savings. Commutes would be reduced or eliminated, work attire restrictions would be nonexistent, and flexibility for family or personal pursuits would be built in. Communities would benefit by retaining talented citizens. Employers would no longer have any need for a formal workplace, which would eliminate mortgage or rent and the cost of office supplies. WFA also offers the opportunity to hire the best candidates, no matter where they live.

Of course, there are disadvantages to WFA, but Choudhury assures readers that the benefits far outweigh the risks. Communication is key to making this work, and he suggests several ideas to keep it efficient.

Set up a virtual storehouse for employees to find instructions, meeting transcripts, handbooks, memos and other information they may need. Hold virtual water-cooler sessions at random. Give established employees a chance to e-mentor new hires. Utilize digital twin technology and asynchronous communication. Offer your employees annual offsite retreats. Do it now, he says, and you may gain an advantage over the competition.

Does this all sound like a work-from-home model? Choudhury assures his readers that it’s not. For employers who are willing to adjust — changes he says may have been needed for years anyway — WFA may be better.

That’s intriguing, and so are the potential benefits and solutions that Choudhury lays out in “The World Is Your Office.” Readers will be especially interested in the idea that, with the seemingly daily advances in technology, this new method of working may be possible in almost any industry. Using medicine and assembly lines as examples, Choudhury points out how robotics and talented, properly trained workers already accomplish many micro-tasks remotely. The technology will only get better.

This is a great book for CEOs, business owners and employees who can bend the ear of an influential C-suiter. If saving money, job satisfaction and exciting new technology are things you need now, “The World Is Your Office” is a valid and welcome next step.

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