Aidea Reorganizes, Creates 'Studios'

3 January 2010

In January, 2010, a re-organization creating a "studio" set-up was initiated by the forward-looking President & CEO of Aidea Philippines, Inc., Abelardo Tolentino. His goal in replacing the traditional line-production set-up to a "studio" is to align its staffing resources with the company's strategic plan to become more competitive in the global market.

His vision in creating studio-type set-ups in lieu of the conventional design and technical departments is to allow everyone to "diversify" from their individual fields of expertise and become multi-faceted architects. The Aidea staff was grouped into five working "studios", each one composed of architects capable in design and production while sharing support groups such as Innovations and QA, ID, EGD and graphics. A "studio", by Aidea definition, is a mini-architectural firm, which possesses all the necessary skills and tools with which to create and run a project.

In a traditional set-up, a design group does all project designs, after which the designs are passed onto the technical group for execution in a factory-like or silo operation. Aidea's new structure, however, now allows each studio to handle any project from start to finish, from concept to execution. Studios are now responsible for designing and documenting projects and collaborating with support groups or other studios as necessary. Everyone learns from each other as they cross-collaborate and can then impart whatever knowledge has been gathered to other teams in executing projects. This way, each architect becomes versatile in carrying out all the steps required to finish a project.

To complete the structure, an Operations Manager has been designated to oversee all the projects of each studio. A Design Board has also been created to review all designs, based on each board member's expertise, be it commercial, residential, mixed-use, industrial or hospitality projects.

As a result of the new "studio" set-up, there has been a noticeable 30-40 percent increase in both efficiency and creativity within the 1st quarter of its implementation which, in turn, benefits both Aidea's design professionals and its clients.