(NBD) Sept. 1 -- On August 28, as a part of NBD's Journey of Discovering GOOD BUSINESS, NBD reporter conducted an interview with Dominic Penaloza, Chief Innovation Officer of Shanghai-based co-working space operator Naked Hub. In the interview, Penaloza shared insights into how co-working is changing the traditional working modes.

Dominic Penaloza

NBD: Naked Hub shifted its focus from the hotel industry to co-working in November 2015. Back then, co-working was a new concept. So, how did you think about the co-working industry at that time?

Penaloza: Naked Group decided to go into co-working because of one single belief that Sharing Creates New Possibilities. We think that the revolution of sharing economy is only at the very beginning stage in the real estate world. Maybe November 2015 is the stage one, and today is at stage two. But I think we have ten more steps before it becomes mature. That is why it is so fun, because there is still so much innovation.

NBD: There exist about 2,300 co-working spaces in China, with a daily average growth of three. What makes Naked Hub special and stand out among all these many spaces?

Penaloza: The first advantage I think is our SERVICE. Actually, from Naked Group's experience in running over our resort business, we could see a huge revolution is coming to real estate because of sharing. Co-working means to give people a better office at a lower cost, which is most spaces are now doing. Our hardware and software are easy to be copied while service is not. Because it is really hard to providing amazing services. We believe that with our DNA in hospitality business, we can do something really special to create a revolution in office.

The second is our COMMUNITY. Every co-working company talks about community. What does community mean on earth? We define it as solving business needs, which means something more than making business contacts or making new friends. For example, I believe we have by far the best online community mobile application in the whole industry, on which our members are posting their business needs such as to find an investor or to recruit a certain kind of employee. Today I’m really happy to say that 47% of all the business needs ever posted have been already solved, including some really challenging ones.

NBD: Do you agree with Michael Norton's idea of "Good business is business for good"? Specifically, what have you done to become a GOOD BUSINESS?

Penaloza: Before entering into co-working industry, our Moganshan resort has been quite green, environmentally friendly and sustainable. This kind of attitude has been part of Naked brand at the beginning.

As it is said in many reports, the highest utilization rate in general office buildings is 50%. This is inefficient and wasteful. Co-working means sharing the real estate, the most valuable and limited asset in China, or even in the world, while business for good is to reduce waste and improve the utilization rate in the whole real estate industry.

And we keep innovating all the time. Now for Naked Hub, we want to enhance our concept of being green. We design our spaces into which can be used for meetings or activities during the day and for other functions such as physical health in the morning and evening. For example, the floors of some rooms in our Loushanguan Hub are suitable for Yoga. We do all these things to avoid wasting real estate.

NBD: How are you seeing existing sharing forms other than co-working?

Penaloza: The past five years have proved us the great power of sharing. The first one to open people's eyes is probably DIDI and Uber. Then there is Airbnb. Now, Naked Hub and co-working is showing us the power of sharing as well. So I think it is very clear that sharing is so powerful, it can create innovation and great results in almost any big industry. DIDI, Mobike and Naked Hub are all the same. Generally said, it is a better user experience for a lower cost. Going forward, especially now, everyone is trying to apply this principle to everything. Maybe one day we will have shared robots, which are also expensive. That’s the same reason as real estate, like I said. But it is also much fun and exciting.

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Or click the link:

http://www.nbd.com.cn/articles/2017-08-30/1143614.html

http://www.nbd.com.cn/articles/2017-08-30/1143606.html

Email: lansuying@nbd.com.cn