The plan is to double our network in 36-48 months

01 Nov 2018 CW Staff

- Harsh Lambah, Country Manager-India, IWG IWG is a multinational corporation that provides workspaces. A global leader, it is present in about 120 countries, with over 3,300 workspaces. In India, too, it is a leader, with a network of 120 workplaces and operating in 16 cities. In fact, it is the only global player in India with a presence in Tier-II cities as well, including Lucknow, Jalandhar, Jaipur and Indore, among others. Harsh Lambah, Country Manager-India, IWG, shares more on the company's operations and plans. How will you differentiate between Regus and Spaces? Spaces, our co-working brand from Amsterdam, was introduced in India 16 months back. Spaces is a large-format, co-working brand with a unique entrepreneurial spirit that promotes creativity, community and collaboration. The brand is more informal and open, and has a spread of anywhere between 40,000 sq ft and 100,000+ sq ft. On the other hand, Regus is our serviced office format which promotes productivity and offers a calm, professional environment. Of our 120 workspaces in India, Spaces operates six workplaces and Regus, 114. Is the target audience for Spaces and Regus the same or different? It depends on the needs of the customers, their requirements, and location that the workspace is based in. We prefer to bring our customers on a tour of our workspaces so that they get a 360¦ view of the services we offer and then make an informed decision. Why would companies choose co-working spaces compared to permanent office spaces? Co-working holds more benefits than a conventional office space; the first is cost. Real estate is the second-largest expense for any company, after people. And a lot of companies now realise that a large part of their real estate is not being used effectively. Co-working provides a lot of positive work elements for all segments and allows for less hierarchy in workplaces, and hence, more collaboration. Large corporates want to imbibe the advantages from co-working and bring these changes into their organisations. In terms of increasing office space, what is the number you are looking at in future? According to a recent Regus study, India is predicted to see the greatest gross value add (GVA) increase from flexible workspace, potentially seeing an increase of GVA of 141 per cent in Indian economy. This equates to $375.8 billion for India per year. How do you see the growth potential of co-working spaces in start-ups and SMEs? Industry reports have highlighted the trend of start-ups adopting a co-working work culture. From a cash flow perspective, co-working space is ideal for start-ups and entrepreneurs, looking for a professional workspace without the high upfront costs. Start-ups and SMEs showing significant promise for growth will also increase demand of the commercial real estate, and co-working will be the biggest beneficiary of this demand. At IWG, this means opportunity to expand our network to more cities as well as bring in other brands in the country when the time is right. One of the key reasons why we are the global leader in this segment is because we analyse global and local trends. We take the inputs from our global research, the market place and build these into our workspaces and service offerings. What are your plans going forward? For now, we are focussed on Spaces and are concentrating on keeping our leadership position in India. The plan is to double our network from the current 120 workspaces in the next 36-48 months. We see a lot of opportunities in India, as it is one of the focus countries for us.