Feng Shui Is Here to Stay - Company Business and Marketing

Home Office Computing, Jan, 2001 by Marilyn Zelinsky Syarto

SO YOU LOST YOUR BIGGEST CLIENT, YOU can't get comfortable in your pricey new ergonomic chair, and simply trying to find anything on your cluttered desk stresses you out. Would you believe Microsoft feels your pain?

Surprisingly, the software industry's most famous hardball player has endorsed the softer, New Age phenomenon of feng shui--the centuries-old Chinese art of arranging your home and workspace to create positive energy flow. Recent Microsoft marketing materials cite "high-tech feng shui" for home offices, as offered by Kristen Lagatree, author of Feng Shui: Arranging Your Home to Change Your Life and Feng Shui at Work: Arranging Your Workspace for Peak Performance and Maximum Profit ($14 each; Villard).

When both Microsoft and Martha Stewart mention a concept, you know it's become a household word. "It's not a surprise to me that feng shui is going mainstream," says Lagatree. "Everyone is open to new ways to improve their lives, and here's a system that gives them a chance to stop feeling like they're swimming upstream."

Lagatree adds that one way she monitors the popularity of feng shui is by keeping track of how library books on the subject circulate. "Today, they are constantly out because readers are hungry for information," she says.

Mainstream publishers agree. While Lagatree calls herself America's only feng shui columnist--her work appears in the Los Angeles Times and other major papers--Macmillan published The Complete Idiot's Guide to Feng Shui in 1999 ($19) and IDG recently countered with Feng Shui for Dummies ($20). "Our research shows that `Dummies' readers are late adopters of the hottest trends or fads," explains Stacy Collins, senior acquisition editor at Chicago-based IDG Books Worldwide. "When they see a `Dummies' book on a hot topic, I believe they feel the trend has been validated and can be integrated into their daily lives."

Retailers, too, are feeling lucky. Felissimo, a small but tony department store in New York City designed with feng shui principles and specializing in all things with good chi (meaning energy in feng shui terms), has been going strong since opening in the mid-'90s. National retailers Nordstrom's and Ikea have run quirky TV commercials with nods to feng shui as well. It may have taken centuries to arrive, but feng shui is here to stay in the Western world.

As for Microsoft, according to Lagatree, the company is hoping that users will equate its products with some aspects of feng shui--specifically, she says she believes Microsoft's Natural Keyboard Pro and IntelliMouse Explorer provide comfort and fluid style for positive flow. "Microsoft didn't design these products with feng shui in mind," Lagatree admits. "But they are smart enough to see the natural marriage."