Jaelle Ang
CEO and Co-founder of The Great Room

At The Great Room, my biggest challenge and my greatest satisfaction come from our commitment to being ‘long-term greedy.’

Gus Levy of Goldman Sachs coined the term, which is about playing the long game rather than looking for a quick buck – forging long-term relationships with clients because, ultimately, that’s going to lead to greater success. It’s an approach I come back to again and again as a chief executive, a member of the community and a human being.

Over the course of the past four years, The Great Room has opened and continues to operate six locations in three cities.

Our business is very much in the public eye; it’s highly scrutinised, inviting passionate opinions from experts in design, private equity, sustainability and amateurs alike. And, if we want to persist and thrive, we know there’s no time to rest on our laurels. 

My work is carved out. In a right-now world, where companies in the flexible workspace sector can grow (and lose) 10 times their market capitalisation in a mere few financial quarters, why would anyone want to support our long-term greed?

I know of no leadership that’s capable of driving solo, or at top speed through every straight shot or hairpin turn. There is, on the other hand, a certain momentum towards success when each player in the team plays their part with finesse. Then the whole endeavour becomes a flywheel. 

Jim Collins was the first to refer to the flywheel effect, in his book From Good to Great. A flywheel is a wheel that’s so heavy it takes great effort to push. Keep pushing, however, and the flywheel starts to move, eventually gaining enough momentum to turn by itself.

The Great Room’s flywheel consists of Team TGR, our landlords, our partners, our members and our investors. We’re passionate about growing each spoke of the wheel, and intentional about the order and importance in which we grow each spoke in order to optimise the flywheel.

Landlords and tenants often view themselves in a zero sum game: the more rent I get, the less profit you retain. Yet, when like-minded landlord and tenants come together, their partnership can create a flywheel effect, achieving higher order ambitions for the community.

In Hong Kong, which is globally notorious for its uncompromising landlords, we found a partner in our landlord: Swire Properties. With them, we built The Great Room in the global business district that is Taikoo Place. In the words of Guy Bradley, Chief Executive of Swire Properties, “The biggest thing that gives me satisfaction, and probably closest to my heart, is the ability to change places, to make a difference to communities.”

When you’re determined to create a space that people love to be in – when you’re not simply building an efficient workspace in order to put bums on seats – the rigour of choosing a partner to do this with becomes paramount.

Smart developers put human comfort at the centre of their work. Smart developers are bringing tactility to the workspace sphere – a distinct move away from omnipresent granite, bright florescent strips and lobbies with waterfalls. They’re considering the acoustic and aesthetic impact of each material; the amenities and activations partners, as well as the sustainability impact of the building.

After years of stripping back floorboards and ceilings boards only to uncover the decisions and values of developers, I’m heartened to see a shift is underway. So many developers truly appreciate the impact every facet of a building’s design can have on transforming the daily life of every single person within its walls – not only now, but for generations to come.

Pursuing sustainability, indeed the ambition to be a global leader in sustainability, is an example of the long-term greed mindset in action.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow, we at The Great Room intend to make decisions that will sit right with the communities of today, and of the future.

I’ve always believed that the deals a company doesn’t make tell you as much about that company as the deals it does. Much of the positive trajectory we have attained is the result of saying, “No, thank you” to opportunities that, while initially compelling, wouldn’t have been wise to pursue.

In a typical year, my senior team and I make as many as 25 exploratory forays into potential new ventures that we often don’t undertake in the end. Each step is a process of learning about the specifics of a deal. More than this, though, it’s an opportunity to explore a human connection.

In the process of exploring a new location, we make repeated visits to the prospective sites (with and without our hosts, alone and together). We meet with the landlords, developers and proactive partners (in their offices, as well as at our locations).

Visiting a company’s offices or projects gives us a much deeper sense of how people conduct their own business in their own environment. It gives us the flavour of the community surrounding the potential site (thinking ahead to what role we might one day play there). It helps us assess our prospects and capacity for fielding a winning staff.

Do our potential partners have great taste in art? Do they care if they do? Are their sustainability initiatives run by the most curious person, or the one who has been sidelined by the organisation?

In the real estate ecosystem, we’re often told it’s all about ‘location, location, location.’ You may think, as I once did, that I’m primarily in the business of finding the right location and building a beautiful workspace. 

Actually, though, location and design are secondary to something that matters even more: landlord and partnership. The landlord that takes the same long-term greed mindset we do is the context that provides a strong indication of what we can expect to find in the building, and of our business relationship to come. Our landlord’s capabilities, interests and values enhance the location and quality of the building.

It’s never about the real estate alone. Getting the relationships right is what sets the flywheel in motion, ultimately creating deeply positive, meaningful and sustainable human experiences in the places we change. It’s that simple, and it’s that hard.

From fashion to finance, some of your most familiar regional brands are rooted in Singapore

They took root on the Little Red Dot; and with ambition as their seeds, they are sprouting in cities around the region. As Singapore celebrated their 55^th birthday this month, we honour some of the regional names that have their roots in the Lion City.

GoBear

It started with a simple idea: to create a solution that makes choosing insurance and financial products a task that isn’t mired with attempts to comprehend complicated terms and side-stepping potholes masked by jargon. There was clearly a demand for such a platform, since its launch in 2015, GoBear’s free search service has transformed the experience of picking a financial product for more than 55 million users across the region – and the numbers are still growing. First launched in Singapore and Thailand, it now has presence in seven markets, including Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong SAR.

Within five years, the Singaporean fintech startup has gone from a metasearch engine to Asia’s leading financial services platform. In May this year, it raised US$17m, which will serve to accelerate its transformation into a full-fledged financial services platform with three business verticals; an online financial market, a digital insurance brokerage, and a digital lending platform. It might have been a simple idea that sparked the company’s inception, but GoBear is certainly going big. From their modest beginnings as a local lean team set up, to a grown up start up headquartered in The Great Room, Raffles Arcade, GoBear is here to stay.

Grain

A digital “food experience company” that applies a cloud kitchen model to deliver clean, and cost-efficient dishes. From meals on demand to nutrition plans and catering services, Singapore-based Grain is a much-welcome disruptor in the F&B landscape. Launched in 2014, it raised a US$10m Series B in 2019, which will be pumped into ramping up growth in its home-base, and to build infrastructure to support revenue of US$100m. To realise its growth plans, this local start-up isn’t just limiting itself to the Singaporean market: the Series B funding by Singha Ventures is working with Grain to expand in South-east Asia

Grain’s tasty yet healthy menu items such as a South-African spice rubbed vegan burger, sous vide Hainanese chicken brown rice, and a flame torched Wagyu steak with French mushroom fricassée, sautéed asparagus and roasted potatoe is quite literally the proof in the pudding that this local startup is well on its way to dominating the F&B industry, feeding the nation with delicious food spiked with nutritional ingredients. We at The Great Room value and admire the wholesome deliciousness of Grain’s clean meals, and are proud to be partnering with them to offer our community a taste clean eating.

Love, Bonito

What started as a blogshop by a trio of teenage girlfriends trying to earn some pocket money, Singapore-based Love, Bonito has become a household fashion brand with an international presence and physical shops in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia. A new pop-up shop is also due to be launched in Hong Kong soon, marking the brand’s expansion into the territory.

Flourishing from an amateurish venture with a start-up capital of just SGD$500 to a multi-million dollar business with orders upwards of 5,000 per week, Love, Bonito goes beyond inspiring budding entrepreneurs. The brand has transformed into a positive and powerful social influence platform, with their core team opinion makers at the pulse of thought leadership in positivity and female empowerment. Read nuggets of wisdom from Dione Song, Love, Bonito’s Chief Commercial Officer here on Great Minds Never Think Alike, a compendium by The Great Room on how local thinkfluencers are living their best life in work and in play.

The Great Room

Driven by the mindset that work is more than just a place to get a job done, The Great Room unveiled its first venue – a 15,000 sq ft coworking space at One George Street in Singapore in 2016. A coworking space like none other; plush as a five-star hotel lobby, yet designed for peak productivity. Transforming the way people approached coming into work. By the time the One George Street venue expanded in 2017, the 10,000 sq ft extension was full even before the space was launched.

Since then, The Great Room has brought their unique style of hospitality-led premium coworking spaces beyond Singapore to Bangkok and Hong Kong. Growth isn’t just a business advancement plan, its also an expansion of The Great Room community – one that works and grows together, transcending geographical boundaries. Just as it takes people to make a house a home, it takes members to build The Great Room into the vibrant, cosmopolitan family of colleagues it is today.

At The Great Room, we are all about going the distance together. We speak to three companies that share our people-forward values – and how their team-building philosophies have strengthened the company.

PWC SINGAPORE

United by mission

Think team drinks are frivolous? Think again. Harvard Business Review writes that  “people intrinsically seek joy. And joy connects people more powerfully than almost any other human experience,” – and PwC Singapore’s partner Fang Eu-Lin certainly knows that. During the Circuit Breaker period where her entire team worked apart, she ordered a round of drinks, “Just for fun!” shares the leader for  assurance, tax and consulting services firm’s Sustainability & Climate Change division. “The drinks were labelled with acronyms which we often use in our work. I think it was a hit!”

She heads a team that manages a complex, wide-ranging and ever-evolving area of work that require constant research of best practices, collaboration and enhancement of approaches to support their clients. The tangible, positive impact of the team’s work helps to keep team members energised, Eu-Lin feels. “One thing that I share as a guiding principle for whether or not you feel entrenched in your organisation are what I call the 3Ps – Purpose, Progression and People. Does your role give you a sense of purpose? Does your role allow you to progress and move closer to your desires and ambitions? Do you have good mentors and colleagues? I believe if you have broadly these areas satisfied, this is a strong foundation which will allow you to continue to flourish and commit to the cause.”

Even so, Eu-Lin acknowledges that the demands of the job can take a toll on her team members. She practices a “Go High, Go Deep” approach and is always ready to going down into trenches with the team. “This helps reiterate that you are alongside them, and at the same time be able  to understand the ground issues intimately and be au fait on the topic. This allows us to move forward with conviction and confidence.”

The foundation work she set down for building a strong, cohesive team paid off during the Circuit Breaker. “Interestingly, I feel that we have grown closer rather than apart during the COVID-19 period!” shares Eu-Lin. “This was a nice surprise. Technology has enabled us to keep even more connected (even socially!), and we are better for it. Applying some set cadence helps – weekly and daily catch ups for example. We are also only a phone call or text away from each other.”

While technology enabled the communication, it was how Eu-Lin leveraged on it that made a difference. While the team is working apart, she makes sure that everybody is on the same page through clear and increased communication. “Speak more often as a group, and be clear and concise about your top points, goals and strategy for the specific time frame,” she recommends. “And ask for feedback.” Transparency is also important: “Be authentic and transparent about the situation, even where you don’t have a solution. This is especially important during times of crisis,” she shares. Leading with empathy is also critical: “Individuals are impacted differently by the pandemic, and some face more pressures than others. Sometimes these struggles are not apparent and therefore it might be good to be more observant during this period. You may not be able to solve all their problems but we can certainly listen and be there for them. There is power in empathy and there can be beauty in being vulnerable.”       

LONGCHAMP

From Me to We 

When social distancing measures were implemented, the Longchamp team on the ground managed to put together a complete, organised and professional Home Delivery Service in record time – despite not even having an E-Commerce platform at that point. Mollie Jean De Dieu, the French fashion and accessory company’s general manager for Singapore and Malaysia, attributes it to the seamless teamwork within the company. “Everyone rallied together and made it so that we were able to run a sustainable business whilst the circuit breaker was still on,” shares Mollie.

“Building a spirit of resilience – where proactivity can be gained – can only happen through heightened communication, and through allowing each other’s humanness to shine through,” says Mollie. “I believe in harbouring a work culture where my employees feel comfortable to speak up about their emotions; and where they are reminded that doing so does not equate to weakness or unprofessionalism. Quite the opposite: it is our humanness that ties us together. As a leader, I also need to show what that looks like—making myself vulnerable and sharing with my team some struggles that I might be going through, gives my team the permission and the confidence to do so too.”

While team meals and CSR activities have been brought to a halt, the bonding doesn’t. “Now, taking the time to stop and have a conversation to check in with each other on an individualised basis,” says Mollie who is also a strong advocate for wellness in the workforce. Thus, she makes a point to check on each staffs’ emotional well-being at the start of their ‘virtual’ meetings, and invites them to speak about their challenges openly. “Bring your full self to work and dare to share how you feel: it allows for authentic sharing and creativity to take place in a very big way,” says the nurturing leader who believes that companies should invest in a trained professional in their organisations to address the emotional state of their employees. “(The aftermath of the global pandemic) is ‘our new norm’ and one that we will not quickly forget even as life moves on.”

BYND ARTISAN

Creating demand – and purpose

The return to office is a process to be eased into, and at The Great Room, we’ve introduced new protocols that put health and hygiene of our members front and centre. We haven’t forgotten the little details either: at the doors of each of the dedicated offices in our Singapore venues, a bottle of hand sanitiser hangs from a stylish holder, each handcrafted from supple leather by the people behind Singapore-based book binder and leather crafts atelier, Bynd Artisan.

Releasing a hand sanitiser holder in April 2020 was a lot more than creating a product to meet the changing demands of the market for the company. “The #ByndUnited leather hand sanitiser holder project was our way to let our craftsmen at the retail forefront continue to feel useful,” shares co-founders James Quan and Winnie Chan. “We wanted this project to keep our craftsmen occupied and most importantly, make them feel useful and confident that they can continue to contribute to the company.”

The hands-on leaders have always placed an emphasis on fostering a family-like culture at Bynd Artisan, and this openness has allowed them to be sensitive to the needs of their team. “Since February, our Bynd Artisan craftsmen have been very stressed. Their purpose has always been to welcome customers into our ateliers and to craft that meaningful personalised gift for them and their loved ones,” shares the couple. “They have been trying their best to stay motivated – but a shadow of fear has been cast over their hearts as they witness the impact covid-19 brings. Being in the service line, they know they can’t work really from home.” To allay fears, the company quickly came up with take-home kits for their craftsmen to work from home. Crafting the sanitisers and fulfilling the webstore orders kept them busy and gave them purpose. Their social media and digital team also found new ways to engage their customers and followers. “In line with Bynd Artisan’s spirit to be an enabler and platform for community building, we organized a Wonder Woman Zoom Forum online where entrepreneurs and professionals came together to share about their industry challenges,” shares James and Winnie.

This strong foundation allows them to keep closely connected even while working apart. “At a time when expressions are hard to decipher behind masks and working from home means you read a person’s body language to reinforce a message, communication has to take on a different style. Our strategy has been to combine hope with emotional sensitivity,” they say. “We made sure to keep in touch with our team during this time, to check in with those working from home, and to communicate and over-communicate. This ensures that everyone is rowing the boat in the same direction and there is no miscommunication.”

“Leaders feel fear too, but we have learnt that we should put the needs of our team before our own. And embracing our fears, talking about what is in our minds and communicating this to the team has helped everyone to understand the problem and to stay resilient and united in our purpose,” shares James and Winnie. “We need to stay calm during a crisis, embrace uncertainties, and stand up as a leader to rally our people, even as we ourselves do not know what lies ahead of us with this Covid-19 pandemic.”

Finding kindred spirits within – and beyond – your workplace might be the best thing you do for your professional growth

As children, we knew instinctively who our friends were. We dig the same games, pore over the same books, and obsess over the same music. We are our best selves around each other, comfortable in our own skin and unafraid to express our views. We egg each other to go further with our pursuits and go deeper into our passions, no matter how trivial they may seem. Our friends were our tribe, our pillar of support in the journey of growing up.

Such kinship of spirit remains critical in our development as professionals in the working world. The rules of engagement might be different from that of the school yard, but the rudiments to finding people who you connect and belong with remain the same.

Know your own values

To find your tribe, you have to first find yourself. Ask fundamental questions: What is my purpose? What are my non-negotiables? What do I value? Find the answers through deep introspection and you will be able to identify a like-minded person easily. This is especially important when expanding your tribe beyond the usual circle of colleagues and trade connections, and embracing new, inspiring people into your fold.

Go beyond your industry circle

It’s always great to have people who speak the same language – and you will often find them within your own industry. But in the age of disruption – especially one accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic – you would be doing yourself a favour by expanding your tribe beyond folks from your own trade. It isn’t just about networking, but about expanding your horizons. At our co-working spaces at Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok – each venue a natural ecosystem that has attracted a diverse pool of professionals – we’ve witnessed how sparks fly when people from different industries hit off. Diverse points of view – underscored by shared values – can often result in fresh ideas and radical collaborations. With talent from industries spanning Fintech and Venture Capital to Fashion and F&B, every casual encounter at lunch, or even that mid-day cuppa shared with a co-worker, could be an opportunity to grow your tribe beyond industry contacts.

Free up your calendar

That social invitation or lunchtime talk is all too easy to turn down, especially when deadlines are looming. Yet each activity is a window to inspiring teachings and enlightening encounters – all you need is an open, positive attitude. At The Great Room, a host of activities and perks – from our boisterous monthly networking event Great Thirstday to our Spend the Night business learning sessions – bring a host of professionals from a diverse spectrum of industries together. These are prime opportunities for seeking out members of your tribe.

Let your tribe evolve

A common misconception many have is that our tribe sticks with us for life. Yet, we change as we grow in experience and wisdom: we might discover new facets to ourselves, or even a paradigm shift in our values. It is critical thus to find people whom you can connect with, at different phases of your professional growth. Says thought leader and depth psychologist Anne Davin: “Don’t be disillusioned if your “tribe” goes by the wayside—many have. Do what the ancients did: Go find another one or start one yourself… Modern-day tribes must be fluid, flexible, and have open boundaries. What remains constant is the ‘village heart’ that tethers everyone together with a feeling of belonging that transcends time and change.”

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