[Manager] — Jing Er Looi, Global Expansion Lead at CO3 Coworking
How do you feel whenever you enter a coworking space? Are you feelings a mix of emotions from excitement to curiosity? That is a bit how we feel every time we push the door of a new space. Those open environments are lively, busy, nicely designed and you feel like you can do pretty much anything from work to meeting someone new or even just relaxing. Have you ever wonder what it takes to run a coworking space? What does the road from the day you open to building an actual community looks like? It is paved with so many challenges that no one sees. In our series of portraits, we meet inspiring individuals from very various backgrounds, who have embarked at some point in their life in a journey leading them to run a coworking space. We sit down with them and discuss how they did it, the challenges they encounter and the good things it brings to them on a daily basis.
During a very short trip to Kuala Lumpur, we met Jing, Global expansion Lead for CO3 Social, a coworking space offering a whole new work experience to their members. With Jing, we spoke about the coworking scene of Malaysia, community building, challenges, and much more.
Scroll down for the full interview.
Hi Jing, thank you so much for your time, we are SO glad to share the story if CO3 on Coworkies! Could you start by telling us how you landed in coworking?
I had a friend who was part of the pioneer team at CO3, one of the speakers on stage during the CO3 ‘small team . BIG IDEA’ launching to 2,000 members of the public and media on 6 March 2017. He invited me to like the CO3 Facebook page, and from what I knew about coworking, I sent him a message asking him whether what they were doing was similar to WeWork, which was relatively unknown in Malaysia at the time. He said similar, but with CO3’s own unique qualities of ‘hardware’, ‘software, and ‘heartware’. I was interested to find out how they were planning to make it more than a sub-leasing business, and by the idea of making Google-like work spaces accessible to all, especially in Malaysia. We met and instantly I was drawn to the concept of CO3 being a container for people and ideas to come together, and the aspiration of creating a community, built on freedom, dignity, and trust.
Who are the founders of CO3 and why did they decide to start a coworking space?
CO3 is co-founded by Sin Chew Media Corporation Berhad and a group of Malaysian and Bruneian entrepreneurs. The idea started when the friend of CO3 co-founder, YONG Chen Hui, told him that he saw an underutilized stadium in Poland which was turned into a cool office.
YONG at the time, was the founder of Korea Wallpaper, Malaysia’s leading wallpaper retailer. Being a wallpaper retailer, YONG’s company had a warehouse, which his friend told him, was underutilized. From then, the idea began, and other co-founders joined them as they believed that this will make people’s lives better.
What is the vision behind CO3?
CO3 saw that cool office like Google’s, Facebook’s, made people envious, everyone wanted to work in cool offices like that.
These tech giants believed that vibrant work spaces lead to happy people, everyone wished they had an office like that. The problem is, few get to enjoy working in such environments, these cool offices are ‘exclusive’. CO3 wanted to make cool offices like those ‘inclusive’, open to all.
The founders then began to imagine what it would be like to have a space measuring 20,000 sq ft, housing 300 individuals coming from different companies, all working under the same roof of a Google-like office. But having 300 people come together isn’t enough. CO3 Social Office is about 3 core values, the first being ‘connectivity’, whereby CO3 wants to create opportunities for people to connect, leading to ‘collaboration’, and eventually forming a community, which as it grows, becomes an economy.
You are based in Kuala Lumpur, how would you describe the coworking scene there?
Generally, the idea of coworking is still gaining traction, and new coworking spaces are emerging regularly, each trying to cater to their own niche but similarly, are about providing work spaces for individuals and companies ranging from freelancers to startups, while larger coworking space providers are turning focus to corporate or more established companies.
What is your role exactly at CO3? How does your regular day looks like?
CO3 CEO, YONG, has also championed intrapreneurship, setting up 7 sub-committees to develop the 7 Key Aspects under the CO3 BELIVEABLE movement to create ‘The World’s Most Liveable Work Space’.
CO3 BELIVEABLE covers everything from what we eat everyday, to scuba diving trips, and even opportunities to grow personally and our business. These 7 Key Aspects are CO3 EAT, CO3 SLEEP, CO3 GO, CO3 STYLE, CO3 PLAY, CO3 EXPLORE, and CO3 CONNECT.
I am Lead of Global Expansion at CO3, while also playing the role of Sub-Committee Chair of CO3 CONNECT. With CO3 CONNECT, I hope to empower entrepreneurs to gain different world views and extend their global footprint, recently launching the CO3 PASSPORT which enables CO3 members to gain access to work spaces, events, and resources of the different CO3 Global Partners in cities like Tokyo, Singapore, and Bangkok.
As part of that, I have been reaching out to coworking spaces, business hubs, startup hubs, innovation spaces etc. in different cities around Southeast Asia to explore how we can all work together to bring our communities closer together, whether in developing programs and even co-organising the CO3 CONNECT Study Excursions to spur the startup scene in the region
Now if we look closer at CO3, could you talk about your community? Who are they, why do they choose CO3 as their space?
The CO3 Community are those who understand that coworking is much more than just a desk and a chair. They are the people who believe in CO3’s vision to extend work life balance beyond the space, being part of our vision to creating ‘The World’s Most Liveable Work Space’. They are also energetic, highly adaptable, open to challenges, and have such a drive to give their best everyday in everything they do. Essentially, we see that people who choose CO3, choose us not for the space, but for the values we stand for and our aspiration to make life better for each and every one of us, starting from the work space.
What is, in your opinion, the most unique thing about CO3?
CO3 BELIVEABLE — having all 7 Key Aspects cover everything from basic needs to self fullfilment and entrepreneurial growth.
I want to talk with you about innovation and coworking. Do you think both can work together? How do you guys innovate at CO3?
Before innovation can come, we trust that it is imperative to first, be open to admitting that we make mistakes. At CO3, we live by the courage to admit where and when we have gone wrong, and work together to come up with the changes necessary to solve it and ensure that the same mistakes do not happen. However, we are also fearless in making new mistakes, because new mistakes mean that we are trying new things and new ways in doing things, and it is in the spirit of daring to try new things that we are open to hearing out anyone and everyone who has something to say to help us improve, and act on it.
What is the biggest challenge for CO3 at the moment?
The CO3 Community truly believes in our vision of making CO3 ‘liveable’ through the 7 Key Aspects, they are our strongest supporters. The only challenge we face now is in turning our goal of creating ‘The World’s Most Liveable Work Space’ a reality. There are countless ideas and works in progress in reaching that goal, and the CO3 team is constantly working tirelessly to bring change for the better to the lives of every CO3 Community member.
What is the ONE thing you would love to have in your coworking space?
In terms of the physical space, I’d say that CO3 pretty much has everything you could (and couldn’t) think of finding in a coworking space.
But if I were to be thinking outside the box, maybe a an indoor bonfire where we can gather to chat over hot chocolate and s’more (which I’m sure, might not seem practical in Malaysia, but isn’t an impossible addition ;) ).
Complete the sentence and elaborate on your answer, “ For me, coworking is all about…”
Bringing people together.
Most of us spend most of our time working, so why can’t we make work and life fulfilling? I believe coworking is the way to giving us the freedom to work on what we love and more importantly, live life to our best. It is finding great opportunities to grow our worldviews, improve ourselves, build meaningful connections with others and even find opportunities as entrepreneurs, business owners, whoever we are, almost every single day.
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