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Untold Founder Stories: Shuhei Morofuji, Reapra

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As one of the youngest and fastest entrepreneurs in Japan to reach an IPO for a startup, Shuhei Morofuji shares how a journey fuelled by curiosity led the way to success.

One’s twenties are often remembered as a time of uncertainty and struggle, but by the time Shuhei Morofuji was 25, he was laser-focused in leading his startup, SMS Co Ltd, to an IPO in just five years. Pleasantly surprised at how well SMS, a website operator focusing on elderly care, did, Morofuji realised his true passion was in trying to understand and manage complex things in an equally complex yet structured way.

After 11 years serving as SMS’ CEO, Morofuji indulged his curiosity by starting Reapra, a venture builder and investment group based in Singapore. Rather than become just another opportunistic, profit-chasing investing machine, Morofuji is in it for the long haul with the founders Reapra chooses to work with. We sit down with one of Japan’s brightest sparks — and one of The Great Room’s newest tenants — to pick his brains on the skills that got him this far.

When did your entrepreneurial flair first reveal itself?

I don’t believe that my talent emerged all of a sudden at any point in time. However, I do think that my innate sense of curiosity, present since childhood, played a crucial role. This means I have a tendency to not only view reality as complex, but to also fit it into a high complex environment, where it can only be unravelled by learning over time. Learning through experience in this environment cultivated my skills and talents as an entrepreneur.

So what was the impetus for founding SMS?

The economic bubble burst during my college days and seeing large companies go out of business shocked me. That was when I realised that landing a job at a big firm does not ensure job security, and considered starting my own. By my fourth year in university, I noticed how everyone was talking about the increasing aging population of Japan, and realised that the elder care industry was still small, but represented a high growth trajectory. After graduating, I found a job but left shortly after to start SMS in 2004.

Were there any life experiences that contributed to your success?

Somewhat paradoxically, I believe my lack of noteworthy life experiences in the past may have led to my success. I never excelled in my studies and I had a self-concept that I was nothing. Because of this foundation I wanted to see reality as complex, and I believed starting a business would achieve this.

What was the biggest mistake you learned from on your journey?

Not addressing human resource development in the early stages of SMS. As I was doing business in an industry of high growth, the size of the company was rapidly expanding. Regardless, I focused only on the product and not on the organisation that would support it. But this realisation helped the company grow even after I leave. As such, when Reapra was established, I aimed to create and environment where I could not only learn and grow by myself, but also where the people around me could grow together.

Grit and resourcefulness tend to be qualities those in business would like to nurture. What other characteristics do you find invaluable?

I refer to these necessary qualities as the “mastery of co-creating with society”. And it is present not just in entrepreneurs, but in anyone who is able to make an impact on society. It means that to be a market leader, you must first understand your own identity, and then improve on your proficiency through experiential learning.

So you believe that such qualities can be learned?

The question of what is inborn and what is acquired is contentious in academia but I personally believe that the desirable qualities of an entrepreneur can be largely acquired. I used to think of myself as a “nobody” but with the multitude of experiences that come with setting up a company, I learned to overcome my weaknesses and developed an entrepreneurial nature. Moreover, I don’t think there are many people who are born with the aforementioned “mastery” at a high level anyway. That’s why Reapra accompanies the transformation of the individual through hands-on support.

It’s important to unwind to avoid burnout. Do you have any daily rituals that help you stay sane?

I have two. Before I go to sleep and after I wake up, I reflect on the day and come up with whatever measures I need because I can organise my thoughts better during those times. My other routine is to simply walk because that too, helps my thinking process. Sometimes I walk two hours a day. I also have a personal rule not to work on holidays, as I like to spend them fishing and playing with my children.

Scribbles from Su Anne Mi, Director of Asset Management

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What is your morning hack for a productive day?

Wake up an hour earlier. Bonus if I can start with a small accomplishment like a workout. 

What’s your super-hero costume and/or accessory that you rely on for the most important business meetings?

A good blazer.  In COVID-times, I’m loving interesting skype/zoom backgrounds. My favourite is The Great Room Hong Kong background—the dappled light and warm colours totally changes the ambiance of business meetings.

What is the best $100 or less purchase you have made recently that have upped your game at work?

I used to be a big notebook advocate but could never refer back quickly to my archived notes. Now I use “Notes” on my phone and computer, sort them by categories, and I can always access it anywhere in an instant. Just $2.99/month for iCloud to sync! 

Dream job?

Surfing and skiing the world with my family

Top read and why?

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. A few quotes I loved that captured the essence of his rollercoaster ride: 

“Life is growth. You grow or you die.”

“The art of competing, I’d learned from track, was the art of forgetting, and I now reminded myself of that fact. You must forget your limits. You must forget your doubts, your pain, your past.”

Lights, Action: How Lighting Affects your Productivity

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There is more than meets the eye in the lighting design applied in The Great Room venues

Your hair is perfectly coiffured, your outfit making just the right statement, and the perfect background of your favourite The Great Room venue is set up. You are ready for that big presentation from home, yet somehow, you find yourself not looking quite as sharp on screen as you usually do. What you are missing: the finely calibrated lighting at The Great Room, purpose-designed by internationally acclaimed lighting designers DJCoalition.

Yet good lighting does a lot more than, well, make one look good. “There is a well-researched science behind light and its effect on productivity. In simple terms: light has to enable our visual tasks, encourage connectivity to the environment around us and reinforce our physiology. When it does this, we are more productive,” explains David Skelley, the Chairman of DJCoalition.

“The Great Room has the opportunity to be at the forefront of good office lighting design – which needs to be focused on people and offer personalised solutions,” opines David. “Conventional office space lighting design needs to catch up to co-working spaces where lighting solutions are more flexible and variable to suit the task and the user.”

Drawing Room – The Great Room One Taikoo Place, Hong Kong

Different lights for different tasks

“If you are relationship-building with a member of the co-working community over a drink or two, you want to get everybody relaxed – the lighting needs to be warm and inviting and at a low scale. This means using floor lamps, desk lights, wall lights, sconce lights… not just light beaming down from the seating,” details David.

The meeting rooms, on the other hand, feature three different light settings: brighter wall and ceiling up-lighting to create a more for formal atmosphere; dim ambient lighting with the light focused on the speaker for presentations; and even, neutral lighting throughout the room for video conferences to avoid stark contrasts between faces and the background. Colour correctness is also critical.

At The Great Room, David uses high quality LED lighting that mixes a wide spectrum of lights to recreate a “white” light: “Our physiology needs the whole spectrum of light in natural daylight to function at the right level. It is what allows us to see red as red, rather than a dirty brownish hue; and it gives everybody a healthier skintone for that video call,” shares David.

Stateroom – The Great Room Ngee Ann City, Singapore

In the work hall where members are popping in for a couple of hours to bang out something within short deadlines in between appointments, or someone who needs to turn-off all distractions down and hunker down for some deep work, white light – also known as daylight in the lighting industry – will help one to be more alert and focused. “Optimum light performance at work stations has many variables, such as surface colours, material reflections, type of task, length of time doing the task, time in the day, age and culture of the worker. Thus the best lighting solution is one that is flexible.

One general rule that does help concentration is to have the working surface brighter than the overall ambient light levels, this helps our brains to focus on the task.” He also recommends even lighting in the room so as to prevent the eyes from having to adjust to contrasting levels of brightness constantly, which can cause fatigue.

David cautions against prolonged exposure to white light, though: “Daylight helps you concentrate, but it is not good for long tasks because it creates serotonin and suppresses melatonin. If you sit under a 5000 Kelvin white downlight all day, your body will not get the chance to relax, and wind down at the end of the day, and you will end up feeling tired.”

Be well to work well

Indeed, David’s top consideration when it comes to lighting design is wellness. Wellness in lighting terms has three aspects: good colour quality – where colours are can be perceived accurately, flexibility in brightness settings, and overall room ambience. “People don’t realise how lighting affects our well-being, yet it is so obvious. We are sensitive to lighting – not just how it affects visibility, but also our mood and how we interact with people.”

The Circle – The Great Room Centennial Tower, Singapore

Natural daylight is the optimum light for working, as its natural rhythm of change in intensity and colour during the day fits to our in-built biorhythms, shares David. “Natural daylight also fills a room rendering its surfaces with light to give a comfortable ambience. This background room ambience is as critical as lighting a work surface.” While David feels that there is no such thing as too much natural daylight, he also works alongside interior designers to minimise the chance of glare caused by natural light source.

And while not everybody has the luxury of working in a room with lots of daylight, David prescribes this: get yourself a task lamp over your work desk. “Find something that is adjustable in terms of both brightness levels and angles, and preferably one with a solid metal shade that bounces the light down towards the work surface. Find a design that you love, and plug it in. It is a really simply thing to do for yourself.”

COVID-19 Covered: How to Ramp Up your Brand Positioning in a Pandemic

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There is no better time than now to build and strengthen your brand positioning and messaging through digital platforms

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the world into a new normal: a life conducted online. How can companies leverage on this to build and strengthen their brand position and messaging during this extraordinary time? Experts from The Great Room community weigh in.

Now. Now. Now.

Kevin Wang, Principal Consultant of digital growth consultancy Webprofits, which operate out of our coworking space in Singapore, points out why digital marketing is ever more important in this current climate: people are more active online now than ever, with Facebook/WhatsApp reporting 40% increase in usage due to the pandemic.

And with companies tightening budgets, resources should be strategically deployed to deliver the greatest impact. “CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) are cheaper on digital platforms. We are seeing CPMs dropping across industries, and within our network of digital partners we have seen between 15% – 70% decreases in CPMs,” shares Kevin.

And while it might seem counter-intuitive to be spending on marketing during an economic downturn, Kevin also highlights that brands that maintained ad spend during a time of crisis have, historically, came out much stronger than those who reduced their ad spend. It is just as the old marketing dictum goes: “When times are good you should advertise, when times are bad you must advertise”.

“The spread of COVID-19 and its resulting isolation measures have been an accelerator for digital-first marketing and advertising,” opines and Angie Akaraskul, the Client Services Director at social video company Brave Bison. According to App Annie, social media use has increased by 20% with consumers now spending more time online than ever before due to ‘stay at home’ and ‘work from home’.

Business as Unusual

Unusual times call for unusual strategies, for the same messaging that could be well received normally could now come across as offensive and tone-deaf. Kevin and Angie both stress that the key to getting your message heard the right way, you have to first listen: not just to anything, but your customer’s pain points.

“The best and the most long standing brands are the ones that place their consumers at the heart of everything they do, from product development to purchase,” says Angie. And consumers are now likely be feeling:

  1. Worried and fearful. Consumers are likely to feel shaken and worried about the financial security of their future, so they’re more likely to think twice before making a purchase – especially on higher-value goods.
  2. Bored and anxious. Consumers are more likely to buy into escapism and are looking to recreate their normal routine from the comfort and safety of their homes.
  3. Missing family and friends. Consumers want to feel connected more than ever before and are eager to learn more about new ways to connect with loved ones.

Angie highlights that while some Fortune 500 brands have taken high-level CSR initiatives and reacted well to the current consumer climate and sentiment, it is also possible to successfully pivot in a simpler and equally innovative way: “A number of fitness brands are now hosting virtual workouts (F45, Nike, Yoga Movement), bespoke travel experiences have transformed into bespoke stay at home services (Random Dots) and Shanghai Fashion Week has partnered with Alibaba for a see now and buy online shopping experience. The point is to create meaning to your brand by fulfilling your consumer’s needs; show them you care!”

Build your platform(s)

For brands with a different positioning, Angie identifies three emerging platforms to leverage on: video-sharing social networking service TikTok; social networking service Houseparty, which has surpassed 9m downloads in March alone; and Yubo, the leading social discovery platform for Gen Z, which has seen an increase of three million users, to 28 million users, since the lockdown. Citing the example of TikTok, she says to brands who want to reach out to Gen Z and Millenials, but are cautious about using a less established platform: “As a disrupter platform, there’s less competition for share of voice on TikTok which means there’s more opportunity for brands to reach their audience.”

And though extremely established, YouTube continues to be an important platform. “A recent study found that during the Coronavirus crisis, 64% of consumers expected their YouTube consumption to go up. This shows the massive global relevance the platform still holds in the industry and should still be considered as a pillar in any strong marketing plan,” says Angie. “Brave Bison has used YouTube to great success in the past, from telling brand stories to reach a wealth of new audiences, to gaining brands global recognition catapulting them into the next stages of growth.

The platform offers great versatility and its huge audience can be tapped with the right content.” Similarly, while new platforms present exciting opportunities and new ways of interaction, Kevin feels that Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn remain key platforms in these times. “If you are not mastering your messaging on these three platforms, there is no point expanding your presence on other platforms,” says Kevin, who feels that the biggest opportunities for the majority of brands still lies in optimising engagement on these ‘traditional platforms’. 

Moving pictures

Brave Bison – which produces, distributes and monetises videos for digital platforms – also prescribes video as the content format of the times. The World Economic Forum reports that over 50% of Gen-Z’s report an increased consumption of online videos more than any other mediums since the lockdown, presenting a huge opportunity for brands to acquire a new fan base and deepen their relationship with existing ones.

“Brave Bison can confirm these findings as we have started to see its effect on our O&O channels. As of March 22, there has been a 13.2% increase in minutes viewed on Facebook compared to the previous two weeks and our influencer partners have also seen a 30% uptake on content,” reveals Angie.

Yet this doesn’t mean pushing out any moving picture – you need to push pictures that move, says Angie: “The rapid rise of successful YouTubers and TikTokers is proof that all that’s needed to create an effective piece of content is an authentic story, a credible voice and a smartphone.”

Goals versus Storytelling | The Power of Storytelling

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Workplace goals are useful, but they’re just part of the process. Here’s why storytelling matters.

Who doesn’t love a great story? Whether you’re reading it, watching it, or listening to it, a compelling story will have you captivated; for minutes if not hours. Stories are something we hear and tell every day; to ourselves, to our friends, to our colleagues. Here’s how to wield the skill of storytelling for your own success, and for the success of your team and your organisation.

Telling your own story

Goals are a useful tool, but they’re not the end game.

“A goal has a timeline, there is a strategy put in place with an end date and a determined outcome, either yes, it has been achieved, or no. If not, then you adapt the goal yet again for another end date,” says Selin Demir, General Manager of The Great Room in Bangkok, a hospitality-led premium co-working space conveniently located in Gaysorn Tower, at the heart of Central Bangkok, with additional locations in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Bigger than goals are stories. American author, blogger and speaker Jeff Goins has plenty to say on the subject of goals versus storytelling. “All a goal can do is help you achieve something. The real trick is to get clear on the something,” says Goins, who wrote The Art of Work and Real Artists Don’t Starve, among other books, after he left his role as a marketing director to pursue a full-time career as a writer.

What, then, is that something for you? Goins puts forward five questions that may help you determine what that something is – and figure out how to pursue it.

  1. What do you want?
  2. What will stop you from getting what you want?
  3. Who must you become on this journey? (“The game is always about wanting, growing and learning,” says Goins, who points out that you may learn more from not getting what you want than from getting what you want.)
  4. Who will help you on your quest?
  5. What will you learn?

As you can see, these questions are much like the questions you would ask if you had a story you wanted to tell, or an idea you wanted to turn into a story.

To begin with, you, as the writer of your own career/life story, may not know the answer to all five questions, and that’s okay, in fact it’s part of the fun. But it will be extremely helpful if you can figure out the answers to questions 1 and 2 when you’re first kicking things off.

Knowing these two answers will help you set relevant goals that will help you achieve what you want.

Create collaborative stories

Whether or not you realise it, you’re constantly using stories in your interactions with others. In the workplace, you might use them to convince colleagues, clients or potential investors to support whatever you’re working on; you might use them to galvanise teams in challenging situations; and you might use them to help those you manage understand where there’s room for growth.

Stories also come in handy in presentations, or when you’re speaking to a crowd of people. An audience is, after all, more likely to remember you if you’ve told a story – your ideas are more likely to stick. “Stories add a human touch,” says Demir.

“I’m a fan of anything that brings people together and storytelling is one aspect of this,” adds Demir. “It’s unique to everyone, specific to one person yet widens all our perspective. It can help build trust and a long term partnership too. Good storytelling allows you to bond with people beyond working relationship or even friendship. It taps into your emotions, motivations and creativity, even if you don’t think you’re creative (like me)!”

The challenge, of course, lies in communicating these stories, especially when, as Demir says, people’s backgrounds are so diverse that stories can get lost in translation – and then there’s no buy-in.

The key, says journalist Carolyn O’Hara, lies in getting clear on the message you want to convey, and tailoring it to fit your audience. This is the baseline of any story: know your message and your audience from the get-go, and always weave your story/stories around them.

And, says O’Hara, don’t make yourself the hero of your story. Sure, use your own life experience as the starting point, but avoid turning your story into an opportunity to celebrate your own achievements: do that, and you’ll instantly lose your audience’s attention. Instead, focus on a struggle and the lessons learned or experiences had – whether yours or someone else’s.

Back to goals

While Goins is in favour of stories instead of goals, we’d argue that goals can be a valuable part of the storytelling process. With your own stories, goals can help you achieve your answer to question 1 (what you want).

Goals can also be useful milestones when you’re working with others, too. Treat them as the anchor points in the bigger picture, which can sometimes be hard to see.

“Goals clear your mind, helping you and your team focus,” says Eva Zhang, General Manager of The Great Room Hong Kong, a premium co-working space at One Taikoo Place in Quarry Bay.

Zhang’s tips for achieving workplace goals? “It’s all about setting the strategy and action plan to accomplish the goal,” she says. “Setting up SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely) goals is key. We do this quarterly with OKRs/KPI, and adjust when the situation changes. Hong Kong’s current situation is a good example.”

Once the SMART goals are set, Demir says she then asks herself, “Are we all aligned? This part is about making sure each team member’s understanding and contribution to the goal is relevant to them – like making sure the parts are assembled properly.

“Checking in with the team and reviewing the performance is crucial, as it’s like oiling the machine as it operates. It’s done in a timely matter that’s relevant to the goal. This allows us to adjust as we go along. If it doesn’t work out, we realign ourselves accordingly. Of course if it does and is achieved, we celebrate. We never forget to celebrate.”

The Power of Pause

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When life is good we enjoy it fully and when life throws us a curveball, remember that better days are on the way… 

The human race has never before united by a singular enemy, democratic and global. And we are responding, in record time and record numbers.  As scientists race towards new diagnostics, antivirals, vaccines and therapeutics at exponential speeds, we are also figuring out new things for ourselves.  We still need to believe, even when it is difficult to do.  We need to straighten our shoulders and develop a little resolve to ride out the uncertainty. 

As we approach this collective interlude, we won’t be standing still. We will use this time to continue to make room for deep work and play (digitally and within our households, of course), to organise our thoughts and recharge with loved ones, make space for new ideas, and plan our next social—whilst harnessing the power of pause.

In the meantime, the team has been busy at their respective hives putting together a list of Wonderful Things to serve our community’s new online culture. I am using the pause to create new habits and cultivate traditions at home. Dare I imagine looking leaner and more mindful when we return to The Great Room.

Finally, as we adjust to our new normal, use this intermission for an extra hug after composing that important email, and hop on your video call in athleisure wear after an online Ashtanga session. Because “there is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither”. 

I look forward to welcoming you back with the mother of all Monday Breakfast Clubs and a cheeky night cap (or 3). 

Conversation with My Mentor – Jaelle Ang and Mark Edleson

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Highlights from the inaugural session of this signature series at The Great Room

At The Great Room, we believe in the sharing of wisdom. For in the age of data deluge, wisdom is what will give us the clarity to move forward by leveraging on the massive amount of information – rather than be distracted. Conversation with My Mentor was thus created: to gather deep insights and stories through the intimate interaction shared between mentor and mentee.

In this inaugural session, Jaelle Ang, CEO and Co-Founder of The Great Room chats with Mark Edleson. A legend in the hospitality industry, Mark has been associated with a number of successful brands in his multiple roles: as a founding partner of hotel management company GHM Indonesia and leading global operator of resort spas Mandara Spa Asia, and founder of Alila Hotels & Resorts, which was acquired by the Hyatt group in 2018. Here, we sift out the shining nuggets of wisdom:

Let life bring you to your destiny

I had no intention of being a banker, just as I had no intentions of being hotelier in my next phase of life. I started out in the American Peace Corps when I graduated university at 20 years of age. After the Peace Corps, I backpacked around Southeast Asia for three or four years and decided one day, on a beach in Kota Kinabalu, to get on with my life and do something. So, I went back to graduate school and studied anthropology, Indonesian language, literature and economics—knowing I wanted to eventually come back to Southeast Asia.

After graduating I applied to any company that I remember seeing on a billboard for in the region and eventually joined Citibank. When I quit in 1983, I became the first expat in the company’s history in Asia to resign and continue to stay in Jakarta. People thought I was crazy.

I went into corporate advisory work and did that for about 10 years, where Aman Resorts was my biggest client for the last five years. An Italian friend and Australian architect were doing a little hotel near my house in Bali and I was helping them with corporate structure and bank financing.

One of them knew Adrian Zecha and said: ‘We’re building this little hotel in Ubud and it is sympathetic to Aman Puri in Phuket – the first Aman resort – perhaps you want to come and have a look?’ This eventually became Aman Dari. I was there, got to know Adrian, and he left me on the board after it opened. After that, I would organize the joint ventures, board of investment approvals and bank financing for the next five Aman resorts opening in Indonesia, and became so enamored with the boutique hotel business that I eventually went full time into it in 1993 through a partnership with Adrian. That was the genesis of my winding path to hospitality.

Values build the company

We opened Alila in 2001, influenced by Aman to do something small and culturally, environmentally-oriented. Adrian can do things that are perfect without putting too much consideration to the commercial end game, that’s why nobody will ever be able to do anything as special as him. I don’t quite have that charisma, so I have to be more owner friendly and be dynamic in our pricing, pay attention to seasonality and make sure that there is cashflow for the owners.

Yet even so, I had a strong social, community and environment sustainability focus. Trying to introduce sustainability into the capital development of the hotel is not always easy because it was a cost, and we have to convince bottom-line-oriented developers that the cost was worth it. But even if that is sacrificed in the construction phase, how we operate the hotel can help to save the company money, and also make a difference. They might be small things, like using energy saving devices or saying no to plastic straw. Yet these small steps gave the company a strong core value that attracted strong people to work for us, because they bought into our vision of a boutique hotel that respects the environment and the local culture. Our people enjoyed coming to work each day because they felt that they were working for that cause.

Believe in the intangible

Our first hotels in East Mangis and Ubud were in beautiful locations with small communities, and it became apparent to me that these environments and community cultures were becoming less important to visitors and being trampled on. Back in the 80s my wife and I would spend a lot of time going out to the rice fields to visit an artist – but nowadays, the painters position themselves near hotels and restaurants.

That this physical and cultural environment be maintained and sustained was important to us. Did that benefit our business? Did we increase occupancy because of that position? I would be hard pressed to prove that statistically it benefited us in that perspective, but to the end of building the personality of the hotel that would attract people to come – for we are a bit ahead of the curve –  over time this is becoming more and more important in the hotel business.

Giving up opportunities for sustainable growth

I see a lot of businesses today that would grow at all costs, and balancing (between growing quickly and sustainably) was a constant challenge (even in our time). With my financial background and conservative nature, the focus was always on cashflow, especially since we didn’t have a lot of capital in the original partnership. We could either use cash generated from organic growth or ring in more people and dilute our capital – which I had a few experiences in, and in retrospect might not have benefited the growth of the business in the way we wanted.

Thus, my tendency is to grow organically and slowly with the cash we can generate. We had offers from Brazil and Portugal, and while they sounded fabulous and would have been great for the brand, I also think about my executives who are already travelling so much – they would be down for a week just for one design meeting in Brazil. So, I said: we have half the world’s population in Asia, let’s keep our radius to Tokyo, Dubai and Singapore. We missed some growth opportunities to take the brand globally, but that was our discipline.

Make exit plans

I consider myself an entrepreneur before a hotelier, and for any business I went into, I realise it is good to have the exit in mind before you start, and the exit usually involves a sale. Having that in view give you direction and helps you in structuring the business, and in deciding the kind of people to bring in.  Building a brand in this industry is very tough: one has to face the competition from the big brands, the global disruption and the technology, with people spends tens and hundreds of millions on it.

We got up to 16 properties, and I saw that my partners with 60 or 90 properties are still struggling. So I decided that it was better to get out if we can get a good sale, and find something else fun to grow. My projects have always been a bit short-attention span, but this was 20 years – Alila was a child that we nurtured, so it was bittersweet.

A leadership role in metamorphosis

It is important to bring people along as you grow: to be accessible to your team, and to keep them motivated and together. You have to keep having fun too, so hire people to do the stuff you don’t want to do! You have to decide what you are best at and prioritize your time. My strength was in bringing people together, I gave confidence and supported the team in doing things. But you have to do a bit of everything to see how your own skills will benefit the organization on a bigger scale.

Essential survival skills

I had a very liberal education – my Masters was in international affairs and Asian studies, and I did economics, anthropology and literature. Education can give you a broader outlook on life. One of the things we also talk about is constantly having to adapt: every 10 years in my time, but every six months these days. Keeping your eyes open, keeping an open mind being able to learn is the key. I didn’t know anything about banking when I went into it. Similarly, I had to learn quickly and adapt while doing financial advisory, spa, and all the other industries I entered. A lot of it is intuition and luck, but it is also being willing to adapt and finding the right people to associate with

Go Deep: How Focused Work can Set You up for Success

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Forget multi-tasking. Deep work is the key to boosting productivity and performance. Here’s how to do it.

Last year, a McKinsey Global Institute survey, “The social economy: Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies”, found that most professionals spent an average of 28% of their work-week reading and answering emails. Your inbox is probably just one of the many distractions you now face throughout the working day, and it’s likely keeping you in a superficial state where you don’t really accomplish anything of significance. The antidote? Deep work.

What is Deep Work?

Deep work – a term coined by author Cal Newport, who wrote Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World – refers to the process of undertaking cognitively demanding professional activities that require you to block out anything that could distract you; whether that’s the tap on the shoulder from a colleague, the overflowing inbox, your admin tasks or your friends’ social media posts. Instead, deep work is about setting aside a decent nugget of time in which to focus on one task, and one task only.

Some of the world’s most successful people make time for deep work, from Carl Jung and Bill Gates to authors J.K. Rowling and Neal Stephenson. At The Great Room, which provides hospitality-led premium co-working spaces in Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok, Cofounder and CEO Jaelle Ang carves out space each week for deep work.

“Deep work requires large chunks of time without external conversations or split periods,” she says. “Usually, I’m able to do deep work after the kids go to bed – from 8.30 – 10.30 pm; I call it my second shift, or larger, four-hour chunks on Sunday afternoons when I need to review designs, review feasibilities, write strategy, op-eds… In the typical weekday at work, there aren’t many opportunities for deep work chunks, as my time is filled with meetings, emails and calls.”

Here are some quick tips on how to get into that focused work headspace in order to maximise productivity and performance, so you can block out distractions and finally achieve that big dream.

The Four Rules of Deep Work

Newport breaks it down into four essential rules:

1. Work deeply.

Put “smart routines and rituals” in place that will help minimise procrastination and distraction. While he says there’s no one formula fits all, he suggests ritualising your work location – pick somewhere quiet where you won’t be disturbed; at HK shared office space The Great Room, the dedicated offices and Workhall for its hot desk members were designed with concentrated, serious work sessions in mind.

In addition, ritualise how long you’ll work for and how you’ll work – get structures in place, like cutting email and internet access, predetermining a number of pages read or words written – and what you’ll do to support that work. That could be working with your coffee or tea of choice at hand, playing music designed to get your brain accessing gamma and beta frequencies… etc.


For co-working space provider The Great Room’s CEO, Ang, music works best when she’s doing right-brain work. “Like writing or designing,” she says. “I need stillness when I do left-brain work, like structuring and reviewing spreadsheets.”

2. Embrace boredom.

Deep work is like training for a sporting event: it requires effort and practice to get to peak performance. Part of that effort involves accepting that you’ll naturally get bored while you’re trying to work on your project of choice; instead of giving in to distraction and checking email or hunting down a snack, lean into the boredom. You can get past it (the only way is through!).

3. Quit social media.

It’s the opposite of deep work, offering very little ROI.

4. Drain the shallows.

Minimise the amount of time you spend on low-value tasks like email, phone calls and meetings.

Other Insights

Here are some quick, final tips to get you in the deep work zone:

  • Say yes to a project/subject that evokes a “terrifying longing” in you, rather than saying no to other distractions. You’re more likely to engage with your task if you’re excited or inspired by it. Say yes to it, and watch as it drowns out all the noise.
  • Be prepared for attention residue. If you need to get into deep mode for more than one project, be aware that part of your focus will lag behind as you switch between your tasks. The trick? It goes back to Rule #1 of deep work: work deeply. The longer you spend on each task, the more you optimise your productivity.
  • Consider investing in a website and application blocker like Focus or Freedom to help you combat distractions.
  • Systematise idleness. Make guilt-free downtime a part of every day: this will help your brain recharge and gear up for the next deep work session, and it will also help you unravel problems, too. Newport recommends ritualising shut-down, bringing downtime in at a set time at the end of every workday.