Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer recently announced that Yahoo was no longer going to allow employees to work from home. Ms. Mayer’s reasoning? Here is her statement, “To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. hat is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices.”

I think she is right – communication and collaboration are critical to innovation. Too many people working alone tends to lead, well, nowhere. The worst kind of silos – solo silos.

That being said, there is a balance to be struck. Even this morning at a staff meeting the gCo staff discussed working from home more. I find that my most productive times are when I just roll out of bed and work until I am done. In four hours at home I can accomplish more than I can in 12 hours in the office.

Ah, but those 12 hours in the office are essential. It is when relationships and made and deepened. Management Guru Peter Drucker once said, “The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.” Customers don’t keep us from our work, they are the very reason we are here.