黄昕，深圳思微SimplyWork联合办公空间合伙人 – Stephen Huang, Co-founder, SimplyWork Coworking Space, Shenzhen.
DB: 思微成立两年多，已经成为中国联合办公空间TOP10的一员，且入驻率高达90%，请问取得如此成绩的具体战略有哪些？ SimplyWork has been running for over two years and has already become a TOP10 China co-working space, with the occupancy rate reaching 90%. What are your strategies for making your business successful?
主要是两个战略：
– 专注在深圳地区。联合办公是一个线下的business，他有一些互联网的元素（例如线上推广和我们自己的云端空间管理系统），但是他并不会像典型的互联网产品那样子可以跨地区进行垄断。所以我们认为在一个城市有10个空间，比在10个城市都有一个空间是更加有价值的。这也是为什么在深圳地区，思微的知名度和大众认可度是比较高的，因为我们在这个地区做的很深。
– 专注社区体验，我们一直不认为空间是我们的产品，我们一直认为的是社区才是我们的产品，空间只是一个载体。所以我们从空间的设计的那一刻开始就专注在如何打造一个可以自转的社区。我们要让入驻的微友体验到在传统写字楼永远都体验不到的工作氛围、社交体验以及无微不至的服务。
We have two main strategies:
– We focus on the Shenzhen area. Co-working space is an offline business with some Internet elements. For example, we have online promotion and a cloud management system. However, this does not mean that co-working space can monopolize across areas like typical internet products. We think it is more valuable to own 10 spaces in one city than own 10 spaces in 10 cities. We focus on Shenzhen and that’s the reason why SimplyWork is popular and recognised by the public in this area.
– We focus on community experience. We don’t think our product is the co-working space. The community we create is our product. Space is only the supporter so we focused on creating an effective community when we first decided to start a co-working space. We want to provide the caring service and atmosphere, which cannot be experienced in traditional offices, for the people who work in our space.
DB: 思微成长得如此迅速，想请问管理团队的成员都是如何分工、合作的？ How do you manage multiple office spaces with such a small team?
有三点可以分享：
– 对于快速发展的创业型公司，扁平化管理是最有效的团队管理方式。充分放权，让每个小组都有足够大的权力，不需要时刻等待我们的审批。
– 我们是以小组的方式进行协作的，有社区、微招（招商）、品牌和空间等若干个小组。对于每个空间刚开业的时候，这些小组又会机动性的组成一个新的小组。有点像海军陆战队的感觉，我们有海军空军和陆军，但在一些时候他们又会组合在一起变成一只精英部队，海陆空全部都有去解决一个特定的问题。
– 我们鼓励犯错，失败是创业的常态，大家要不断去尝试，然后不断复盘总结经验。创业公司相对于大公司最大的优势就是不怕失败。
There are three points that we can share. Firstly, for the fast-developing startups, Flat Management is the most effective way to manage a team. It gives enough power to each small team and they do not need to get approval from us for their jobs every time. Secondly, we cooperate with each other by teams. We are divided into several groups such as community, business, branding, space and so on. Everytime a new space opens up, these groups will form a new group with maneuverability. This is similar with marine corps. We have navies, air force and ground force. They will be combined as an elite team sometimes to deal with a special problem.
DB: 我们发现不同的联合办公空间会有不同的着重点，请问思微区别于其他联合办公空间的地方在哪里？ We notice that there are different types of co-working spaces. What do you specialise in?
– 每个联合办公空间肯定多多少少是有自己特色的，像思微我们注重的是社区的运营还有标准化系统的输出。
– 但是目前我们觉得联合办公还是一个很早期的行业，我们竞争不是其他联合办公品牌，而是传统的写字楼。我一直手机行业举例子，我们是早期的智能手机，我们的竞争是传统的功能机。我们要让更多人知道联合办公的好，离开传统写字楼进入到我们这里办公。
– 等联合办公再发展多几年，才有可能跟现在智能手机的行业一样进行分化，有些注重拍照，有些注重性能，有些注重价格。
Every co-working space has their own characteristics more or less. For example, SimplyWork focuses on community operations and standardised system input. But for now, we think co-working space is still at its early stage. We are not competing with the other co-working spaces but the traditional commercial office buildings. I always take phone industry as an example. We are the earliest smart phones and we are competing with the feature phones. We are promoting the benefits of co-working space and letting more people leave the traditional office for our space. (I think,) we should wait for several years for the development of co-working space and then it will be possible to have differentiations like the current smartphone industry i.e. some focus on camera, some focus on functions and some focus on price.
DB: 思微成长路上有遇到什么特别有趣的故事或者困难的事情想要和我们分享一下吗？ Are there any interesting stories and difficulties you want to share with us?
– 联合办公属于新型的房地产业态，也是现代服务业，所以其实早期的投入还是挺大的，这就导致了思微一直处于比较缺钱的状态。也正因为我们没有钱做推广，我们才会想一些不那么花钱、却能达到不错宣传效果的推广方式。例如我们空间其实可以带宠物上班的，所以我们同事就把空间里的一只常驻的宠物猫打造成了深圳创业圈的“网红猫”，经常发它在空间里的趣事，甚至还给它办过粉丝见面会。后来发现不少小伙伴都是通过这只猫了解到思微的。
Co-working space is a new type of real estate industry as well as modern service industry so the amount of investment is largely at an early stage. That’s why SimplyWork always lacks money. At the same time, as a result of lacking money for promotion, we came up with some ideas that cost less money but have good publicity effect. For example, in our space, people can bring their pets to work. Consequently, our colleagues have a pet cat which comes to our space very often, and it become an “internet celebrity” in Shenzhen enterprise circle. We always share some interesting stories with it online and even hold a “fans meeting” for it. Later we found that some people knew SimplyWork because of this cat.
DB: 思微未来的发展计划是什么？ What are the future plans of SimlyWork?
– 思微短时间内还是会扎根华南地区，进一步巩固我们在华南第一的位置。
– 我们也会更多房地产商合作开拓更多联合办公空间。像我们最新的一个空间（中京思微）就是跟广东的中天集团旗下的深圳公司中京实业一同开发推出的，目前在深圳的科技园核心地段的写字楼拿了3层合作，是目前深圳最大的联合空间。
– 我们的创始团队都是海归，我们也致力于把社区打造的更加国际化，目前有来自于不同国家的微友入驻思微。
– 所以我们也会把眼光投向海外，希望能在未来把SimplyWork的品牌推向海外。
In a short time, SimplyWork will still be based in Southern China and we will consolidate our NO.1 position in Southern China. We will also cooperate with more real estates to open more co-working spaces. For instance, the latest space is built collaboratively by SimplyWork and Zhongjing Financial Innovation Center of Center Enterprises Group Guangdong. At present, we have a three-floor Grade A building in the High tech park area. This space has been the biggest co-working space in Shenzhen so far. Due to the fact our teammates from founding team are all overseas returnees, we also are attentive to make our community more international. Now there are members from various countries joining in SimplyWork. We will also keep an eye on the oversea market, with the hope that one day we can promote SimplyWork to abroad countries.
