Business Capital Asia 2016

Transcription

1 By Mizna Doray

2 70 Aurum Land

3 Aurum Land 71 How AurUM LAND Plans to Change Singapore s Co-Working Scene It s not surprising that since the first co-working space opened in 2009, there are now almost 40 co-working spaces in Singapore a city ranked as the 6th most expensive in the world to rent office space, according to Knight Frank s newly released Skyscrapers Index, part of the Global Cities 2016 report. The index takes into account how much a square foot of office space costs in a high-rise building in cities throughout the world.

4 72 Aurum Land Real estate catching up Popular with start-ups, SMEs and professionals who work from home, the co-working concept removes the restrictions of a physical office for employees, allowing them flexibility, while also providing some structure. A place to focus and get away from all the distractions that can come with working from home. The benefits to employers and entrepreneurs are that they can reduce their overheads and don t have to commit to long-term leases. Yet commercial real estate often seems to be slow to respond to evolving needs of growing start-ups. But Aurum Land is eager to prove that commercial real estate s reputation for being behind the tech and start-up curve doesn t always have to be true. We came up with the idea in September of last year, said Michelle Yong, director of Aurum Land. We wanted to find a less project driven revenue source that is still related to real-estate. When our parent company, Woh Hup was awarded last year at the The Semi-Centennial Leadership Conference and Singapore Golden Jubilee Business Awards we found that there is a need for more spaces for people to come together, to innovate and co-create; this led us to

5 come up with the idea for Collision 8, an innovation community backed by space, she added. The successful boutique property developer is drawing on its years of experience in Singapore real estate to turn that discussion into reality. Construction has already started to create 8,500 sq. ft. of co-working office space in High Street Centre. According to Yong, the interior design will be more grown up and sophisticated. We had a look at the competitive landscape. Collision 8 will be more homely and draw a lot from Aurum s residential experience, where the focus on customer centric design is very strong. Even though we have interior designers, we set the design direction, she stated. She went on to mention that Collision 8 will have impressive views of the Singapore River, Clarke Quay and Marina Bay Sands. Preview events will be held in June with a launch targeted for July. A community of innovators Office space in Singapore generally falls into the categories of co-working Aurum Land 73 spaces, serviced offices or traditional offices, but the desire for something else has become harder to ignore. A key difference between Collision 8 and other co-working spaces is that the company is striving to not just provide a co-working space, but create an Innovation community a diverse community, sparking ideas, forming alliances and facilitating entrepreneurial projects. We believe that innovation is key to building the next generation of successful businesses in Asia, Yong explained. Building such a community is not going to be easy. To achieve this goal, the company is approaching corporates, investors and entrepreneurs through its network and is teaming up with John Tan, a serial entrepreneur and founder of Saturday Kids and Controlled Commodity, as well as partner at 8 Capita and BWB Ventures. They have also teamed up with community builder Ayla Kremb, formerly the coach in residence at The Hub and guest relations manager at Ritz Carlton, to create a 5-star customer experience. Yong hopes to target novice digital entrepreneurs and innovators to midlevel SMEs and start-ups, to curate a diverse community of innovators and

6 74 Aurum Land encourage collisions in a workspace located in a prime business location. Collision 8 members will be able to attend talks, workshops, hackathons, masterclasses, working groups, closed door forums and pitch events, to name a few. We also hope to host many cross-sector innovation labs, for when our members meet other, like-minded people and initiate new collaborative innovation teams. We re making innovation more accessible, continued Yong. Banking on Asian innovation With inherent characteristics of the Asian culture that make fostering an innovative spirit that much harder, such as adherence to obedience, conformity, respect for authority and hierarchical structures are Asians inclined to innovation and creativity? Yong believes that they are. There are two types of thinking on this. On one side the cynics say that innovation doesn t happen in Asia, and that Asians are only good at re-packaging and rebranding whatever is created in the

7 West. On the other side is the belief that Asians ARE well placed to innovate, especially to target China and India, as we re closer to those markets and understand them more than the West, affirmed Yong. She pointed out that Grab (formerly known as GrabTaxi), from Malaysia was developed with an understanding of Asian needs which accounts for its popularity in the region over its American competitor, Uber. Yong hopes that Collision 8 will provide Asian entrepreneurs with big ideas like Grab and Uber, the environment to Aurum Land 75 take innovation to the next level. In fact, the name Collision 8 was inspired by random collisions that lead to ideas and innovation. Infinite new ideas are created, said Yong. The number 8 is in the name because it s located on the 8th floor of the High Street Centre. Also, the number 8 on its side looks like the infinity symbol, which we like to think represents that our members will dare to dream; that their creativity is boundless.

8 76 Aurum Land Hoping for success According to Yong, one of the markers of Collision 8 s success would be an expansion from one floor to five floors of the building. Also part of the plan as Collision 8 takes off in Singapore is to hold Collision 8 conferences in other Asian cities like Jakarta, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur to build the regional innovation community. The highest goal for Collision 8 to achieve is for it to have supported the next big thing. If the next it app came out of Collision 8 - that would be a great affirmation that it works, said Yong. Whether or not innovation will flourish with this new approach to co-working spaces, the recent explosion of such spaces in Singapore gives plenty of evidence that there is figurative room for the literal space offered by Collision 8.