"I don't know how you build great management virtually." Unless your company is in the business of selling great management, how is it pertinent to working in or out of an office? Yeah, if it's so important for top-level managers to clump together, let them do it as they wish. They certainly have the $$ and resources for it.

Great Management don't feed the bulldog when it comes to a project. Luck, skill, teamwork, methodology, ... These things make a project go. And the type of people, the grunts at the keyboard, aren't usually the types who want to tool around having impromptu discussions - they want to be left alone to get and stay into the zone and code. So, if the Great Management is really great, they understand that they have to hide these people as much as possible, maintain a healthy environment and let them do their work. Don't Bother Them. They have first-line managers run interference for that.

Given current-day network and tools, impromptu conversations or consultations are virtually instantaneous worldwide. Rather than the 1-100 people within reach via a 5-minute walk you have the world at your fingertips. So if you're the typical HN reader you can reach out to whomever you need rather trivially.

So we're rephrase this article to "in-office work is better for CEO's of successful companies who know how they'll be successful in 12 months". I'm not sure where middle management fits in other than as an organizational conduit linking the Management and the first-line managers. They can self-organize as desired as they're disconnected from the project teams.

With luck, there are some (really) good people on hand to carry a project. Leave them the hell alone to let them do their work and give them what they need. Read Joel.