Getting big by keeping it small

By Zsarlene B. Chua, Reporter

Sometimes rows and rows and rows of cubicles in an office space located on the 10^th floor of some high-rise building just doesn’t cut it. Many companies now prefer a more novel approach to work spaces, going for co-working spaces which involves working in a shared environment with people from different business or industries.

“Co-working for me is just a label that other people use to describe a particular trend right now but at its root co-working is something that we all do — in fact Filipinos probably work together side by side more than people in cubicles in London. So I think co-working, as a condition, is just people coming together and choosing to work side by side,” Matthew Morrison, A Space founder, told ����ý in an interview on Aug. 10.

“Co-working as an industry trend is all about flexible, cheaper work spaces or targeting certain marketing demographics,” he added.

A Space runs four co-working spaces in Metro Manila and Cebu according to its Web site. These are in Legazpi St., Makati, another in Chino Roces Ave. (also in Makati), another in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, and Crossroads in Cebu City. All in all, the company operates around 3,500 square meters of co-working space.

The company started in 2013 and opened its space in Legazpi St. on April 24.

“When we started, it wasn’t [about] the idea to create a co-working business. It was a desire to create a place where people would choose to come every day to collaborate and connect and work,” Mr. Morrison said, but then that simple desire turned into something else as he noted that there’s been a “complete paradigm shift because now you’ve got technology that empowers people — in many industries — to effectively work wherever they want.”

“Alongside [that shift] there’s also a cultural shift happening where people are choosing how they prefer to work, and I think that’s where the co-working side of things came from… you can work at home or Starbucks because of technology, but you’ll still need humans at some point,” he explained.

Unlike traditional work spaces, co-working spaces are set up in such a way that companies can opt to have a small private office while freelancers can rent a chair and a table to work from. To make coming to work more of a pleasure than a pain, some co-working spaces deck out their spaces with facilities like game tables (Foosball), lounges, etc.

“Anyone who’s looking for flexible, cheaper office space in a city where office spaces can often be quite expensive or [have] terms that can be quite Draconian for start-ups [can choose a co-working space],” said Mr. Morrison.

“There’s a lot of things that prevent ideas from flourishing… you need people like us to really be pushing boundaries as to what work means to people now. This is like a hotel for start-ups more than it is a co-working space,” he added about what his company offers.

PRODUCTIVITY
More than just an alternative office space, co-working spaces seem to increase productivity in workers as a 2015 Harvard Business Review article on co-working spaces noted, citing a then ongoing study on co-working study by the University of Michigan. The study suggested “that the combination of a well-designed work environment and a well-curated work experience are part of the reason people who co-work demonstrate higher levels of thriving than their office-based counterparts. But what matters the most for high levels of thriving is that people who co-work have substantial autonomy and can be themselves at work.”

“In terms of office space, we’re just a splash in the water but in terms of the innovation community having the choice of where they work, given the choice, they’re gonna choose us,” Mr. Morrison said confidently before adding that all of their spaces are currently at 90% occupancy or higher.

While A Space prides itself in being the space for start-ups — Grab rented a space from them for a while — at the other side of Makati City is another co-working space, this time focusing on people with creative energy.

Warehouse Eight, a 400-square-meter literal warehouse located at the back of the La Fuerza Compound along Chino Roces Ave., is trying to position itself by being the “artists co-working space… geared towards creative entrepreneurs,” as the compound houses several furniture showrooms and an art gallery among others, according to Kayla Dionisio, owner of Warehouse Eight during an interview on Sept. 29.

Warehouse Eight — which officially launched on Sept. 29 but has been in operation since May — provides work space for companies like Tomato Time, the timepiece arm of the local fashion brand, to service-based companies like A-OK which does odd jobs for people (like getting coffee or groceries).

“Private offices are [used] by those who have been in the business longer and are already established as compared to the co-working seats where it’s more of freelancers, smaller companies (some consisting of only three people). Just people who need a place to work basically,” Ms. Dionisio noted before adding that unlike office spaces which sometimes require a two-year lease term, co-working spaces offer more flexibility.

“It’s something that people don’t have to think too much on because the minimum lease is a month for an office space which was unheard of a few years ago,” she said. Other facilities like seats or meeting rooms can be rented out for a day or even per hour.

Warehouse Eight also introduced an Artist Residency product which allows people “who probably have nine-to-five jobs to work on side projects or passion projects” by giving them a space to work with.

“It’s all about sharing resources and making connections,” said Mr. Morrison, a point which Ms. Dionisio echoed as one of the draws of co-working spaces, she said, is “getting to meet new people” and “networking.” She noted that sometimes collaborative projects start between companies sharing the space.

But even if businesses from different industries can call co-working spaces their home base, the key point here is that they should be small.

In fact, Mr. Morrison said that once businesses get a little too big, “we kick them out.”

“As soon as they get to 20 people, we start to look for a route for them to leave because we really don’t take on teams that are more than, say, 30 people because at that point, you have your own culture so you may as well invest in your own space to really embed that culture in there,” he said.

But far be it for the company to literally throw their customers out on the street as A Space prides itself with giving support to its teams.

“If we know where their ambitions lie… we can connect them to everything from services to better deals with vendors. We can matchmake with companies who have gone through what they’ve gone through, etc… to soften the landing when they go,” Mr. Morrison explained.

And despite already having more than 3,000 sq.m. of space, A Space is looking at expanding even more, planning to open another space in Bonifacio Global City by end-September and another in Quezon City “within the year,” seeing as there’s quite a demand for these kinds of office spaces.

Other expansion plans include management and operating existing spaces and expanding on the real estate side.

When they started, Mr. Morrison pegged their market capitalization at “$500,000 at most” which managed to open the current spaces. Now he said that the business is worth “around $5 million.”