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Two years ago, David Trout and his team at Corteva Agriscience set out to build the office of the future at its Indianapolis headquarters.
The world was deep into the COVID-19 pandemic, and most employees were working remotely. One of the few teams still coming into the office was research and development, which needed to be onsite. Corteva, a pure-play global agriculture company, was also three years into its spin-off from Dow DuPont.
Trout was—and is—the right leader for the in-progress project. The global director of facilities services and real estate runs maintenance, repair, operations, and corporate real estate. He’s been in the industry for 32 years, since Dow Chemical and Eli Lilly announced their joint venture, DowElanco. He’s had many roles over the years and seen the ag business evolve, including the Corteva spin-off in 2019.
Trout describes himself as a servant leader. “I like complex issues, but I also like people. The more complex a project is, the more it usually involves people. It matches up.”

When creating the office of the future, it’s important to ask, “What is the culture of your company?” Corteva’s culture is all about collaboration.
One of Corteva’s collaborators is Communication Innovators. “As a strategic partner, Communication Innovators works alongside Corteva to design and implement cutting-edge data communication infrastructures forming the backbone of their ‘office of the future’ initiative,” says Global Account Manager Chad Irlmeier. “We are grateful to Corteva for entrusting in us with this innovative project. We are proud to support Corteva to ensure their teams remain connected and collaborative worldwide.”
Corteva focuses on farmers through its distribution strategy and globally diverse product portfolio of seed, crop protection, and digital innovation. The organization has about 17,400 granted patents, 65-plus active ingredients, 100-plus crops, about 100 production and manufacturing facilities, and 120-plus R&D facilities.
“As a company, we are highly hands-on and cross-functional. So it was important for this project to exemplify those qualities for our employees, our customers, and our community.”
For Corteva, the office of the future is agile, open, cross-generational, and, most of all, collaborative. What Trout and his team have done is create a home away from home for Corteva employees.

“People got used to being at home. Things were right there at their fingertips,” he explains. “But they missed the collaboration face-to-face, and that’s where we joined it together.”
Gone are the enclosed offices and phones with cables. As an employee, you can choose from sit-to-stand workstations. Your phone’s connected to your computer so you can move around to different areas.
Hungry? You can order your next meal or snack from a mobile app and pick it up from a grab-and-go location near your working area. Or you can head down to the main cafeteria.
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Each department—finance, communications, sales—has its own neighborhood. Aside from the workstations, you’ve got phone booths for private conversations, sensory rooms for when you might need a quiet moment, small rooms for huddles, and larger conference rooms for broader cross-functional meetings. Modern kitchenettes offer food services, dishwashers, and reusable plates.
There’s even an informal “smorgasbord” of seating options—tables, high tables, chairs only—in a different area from the workstations. “We call it the front porch, just like somebody would come over to your house and sit down for a talk,” Trout says.
It’s only been two years since the five-year project to update the Indianapolis offices began, but positive results are already rolling in.
Prior to COVID-19, office utilization was around 67 percent. As of 2024, office utilization is up to 71–72 percent—higher than before.

One of Trout’s favorite employee reactions is when they say Corteva looks like a whole new company. “We have two hundred years of innovation behind us from our heritage companies, but we are also a startup in many ways. And now our office environment reflects our stature in the market but also our creativity and agility.”
There are, of course, naysayers. Some people just don’t like change, Trout says. But that is where his servant leadership steps up to the plate. Over the past 32 years, Trout has been up against change time and again. That’s why he took a thoughtful, empathetic approach when employees were being encouraged to return to the office, creating an office they were comfortable returning to.
“You can’t make 5 percent of the people happy, no matter what you do,” Trout explains. “But I have to say, when the naysayers come back and tell me they like their new space, those are actually my favorite compliments. Because they were the hardest won.”
Even though there are three years left on Corteva’s office of the future initiative, Trout has his eye on how to continually improve the office experience. “I’m always interested in how to bring the business into the everyday employee life,” he says. “How do you introduce our business into office areas? Because not everyone comes from a farming community.”
Right now, the office has living green walls and Corteva has brought in different woods to mimic exposed barn structures. Trout and his team have kicked around the idea of having a green roof with a vegetable garden to grow food for local food pantries. They’re also adding biodiversity to Corteva campuses, from flowers and insects to the fish in the ponds.
It’s an ongoing transformation, one that will go beyond the original five-year plan that began in 2022.
“We’re doing the office of the future,” Trout says. “Ours is a timeless project. We can make a little change here or there, and it fits any generational type or need that may come out in the workforce in the future.”
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