Olympic disruption 'is chance to rethink your business Fiona Fletcher Smith, director of development and environment at the Greater London Authority, said she hoped that private sector suppliers would respond to growing demand for work spaces that provided a secure and confidential alternative to working from home. Contributing to a discussion paper co-authored by Microsoft and the Unwork.com agency, proposing the "Anywhere Working City," she imagined a time when workers could "touch in and out of office space with something equivalent to an Oyster card": "The Olympics will be a test for a number of issues. It will be fascinating to see how companies cope with the changes and demands during the period," she said. Instead of creating supercharged cities, the authors champion the further emergence of work hubs in satellite towns, allowing people to work near to home in suitable spaces. These spaces could be a members" club, renovated high street shop or a community centre, they said. With fewer employees heading into one central location to work, companies could reduce the size of their headquarters, saving property and running costs. It will enable a "virtuous circle" where office blocks are redesigned to allow mixed functionality with increased residential use, the report argued. Ms Fletcher Smith said: "We can learn from places like New York. Mixed-use developments, where it's not just office blocks but there is residential use as well, means that people can live closer to work, reducing the need for transport.