Remote Work didn’t start in 2020. It started the moment companies realised the best talent rarely lives within driving distance of the office.
Most people still credit the pandemic with “inventing” remote work. The early software world would find that amusing. Basecamp, GitHub and Automattic were already proving the model while everyone else was debating dress codes and mandatory fun days. Automattic grew into a multibillion-dollar company without a headquarters, and somehow civilisation survived.
When remote work finally hit the mainstream, most companies responded by dragging every bad office habit online. Microsoft’s data showed meeting volumes jumping more than 150%—a reliable signal that no one had actually redesigned anything. They simply replicated the old operating system on a laptop.
The companies that turned remote work into a competitive advantage treated it as a rebuild, not a relocation:
1. Async-first communication
Clear documentation replaces constant interruption. Work moves without waiting for ten calendars to align.
2. Outcome-led performance
People are assessed on what they deliver, not how “available” they appear. A concept that shouldn’t feel revolutionary, yet somehow does.
3. Trust over supervision
No surveillance dashboards, no calendar policing. Teams are trusted to do the job they were hired to do.
4. Talent without borders
The talent strategy stops being restricted by geography. Hiring improves. Cost structures become more rational. The maths speaks for itself, which is why distributed models show up in PE diligence long before culture committees catch on.
The current debate about office mandates is mostly noise. The real shift is about how organisations operate when geography no longer dictates the design of the business. Some will use that freedom to build better companies. Others will try to reassemble 2019 and act surprised when their best people leave for firms that read the room fifteen years earlier.
If the remote strategy is still built around back-to-back video calls, the company hasn’t gone remote—it’s just made the office portable.