It is Friday morning and the collection teams at 1-800-Got-Junk, a North American waste removal business, are out hauling garage clutter and office cast-offs on to pick-up trucks. Items that are salvageable will be recycled or reused; the rest will be chucked. Back at Got Junk’s Vancouver headquarters, a tour party is engaged in recycling of a different kind: the recycling of ideas.
1-800-Got-Junk invites other organisations in for a privileged view of its inner workings. Rhys Green, who manages Got Junk’s call-centre operations, says he and his team have grown used to the fortnightly tours that file past their desks, sometimes stopping to ask questions or eavesdrop on a call. Visitors respect that they are working, he says, and it is nice that a junk business is considered “cool enough” to visit. The only time having an audience intrudes is if the pace starts to slow. “Having people wander around, when [things are just ticking over] can be a little awkward. You kind of think: do I look busy enough? That can be a little strange.”
Mr Green’s team are not alone in this; 1-800-Got-Junk is among a growing number of entrepreneurial businesses that host visitors from other companies, often from different sectors, in search of fresh ideas.