WeWork lets you find your Southeast Asia innovation partner

It’s all about proximity.

Humans are social creatures; we tend to trust people we have close proximity with or those who move in the same social landscape as we do. It’s not being snobbish (though sometimes it is perceived to be) but merely logical — if we know what they’re up to on a daily basis, it’s easier for us to understand them and see how they fit in our lives.

The same can be said for businesses.

Companies tend to collaborate with other companies who move around the same community. How many times have you asked a startup how they ended up collaborating with another company and their answer was somehow related to being aware of the other’s existence because they are part of the same community?

But in today’s world of great connectivity, communities go beyond visual and geographical proximity. So, a more accurate phrase would be: it’s all about community.

Take WeWork, for example.

WeWork prides itself as a builder of community. Not just hundreds of communities in their spaces, but a single global community that acts as a platform for borderless collaboration.

Shared workspaces are a bed of collaboration opportunities

In a typical WeWork location, an enterprise will have over 160 potential companies to collaborate with. That means over 160 companies across different industries that could help an enterprise innovate its product or improve its service, or even create more efficient internal processes.

Hiring platform Wantedly is one such example. With the goal of helping corporates and startups with their hiring needs, Wantedly has had several collaborations simply by being a part of the WeWork community.

“Through the network of WeWork, we were connected with Zilingo,” said Gerald Koh Zong Wei, Business Development at Wantedly. “We were able to form a partnership that resulted in them being part of our recent successful Halloween Hiring Fest that saw over 400 attendees.”

The partnerships that Wantedly formed were not limited just to the companies they share workspace with. They were also invited to join events and work with companies in other WeWork locations.

That is the idea behind shared work spaces that WeWork is cultivating in to a culture; that collaboration is the key to better, quicker innovation, and that your next partner just might be sitting across from you in that communal space.

Communities beyond borders mean more collaboration opportunities

WeWork’s global network of over 400,000 members found in more than 425 locations globally is a massive community. What does this mean? Massive opportunities for collaboration.

Imagine that you’re a large enterprise in Singapore that wants to expand in an emerging market like the Philippines. Who best to help you possibly develop your business or product than someone in the Philippines, who understands the market and business landscape?

And it goes beyond that.

You don’t need to limit it to expansion opportunities. Corporates can develop new products, improve their services, and make their internal processes efficient by collaborating on innovation projects with startups from across the region.

Community is central to innovation. Corporates who want to confront the threat of becoming obsolete can open their innovation strategy to increased exchanges with the ecosystem, beginning with the WeWork network.

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WeWork offers more than just shared workspaces – they create environments that increase productivity, innovation, and collaboration. For enquiries on WeWork membership, visit their website or schedule a visit at a WeWork location near you.

Image credit: 123rf.com / 83598913 / Katarzyna Bialasiewicz

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