Pantry and workspace solutions company, The Workspace People, comprises a trio of petrolheads that bonded through a common passion for sportscars
Car culture is the Krazy glue that binds many persons of interest together.
Having been in and around sportscars and the accompanying octane-fuelled petrolhead owners and enthusiasts for over three decades, this writer can attest to the fact that you meet all sorts of people… and mostly the good sort at that, many of whom have cool, “teachable moments” to share.
We’re all passionately enthusiastic about high-performance, high-precision machines, and I reckon it is this anorak-attention to detail (that is in many cases, borderline OCD) in fixating over the minutiae that differentiates one car model from another that inadvertently shapes and molds us.
The car community is a great leveller, with petrolheads from all walks of life rubbing shoulders in convivial camaraderie regardless of whether they are CEOs, Listco scions or car spotters.
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Don’t be too quick to dismiss this phenomenon, because regardless of shape and size (of car and bank account), there’s no judgement and everyone gets along, which is more than we can say about most social clubs and class reunions.
Beyond this, modifying and enhancing one’s car requires research, commitment and shrewd investment, which translates to a resilience and fortitude that will stand an entrepreneur in good stead, especially since there’s no better institution to learn from than the school of hard knocks.
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At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, it’s always inspirational to talk to motivated young people who have their heads screwed on properly and exhibit a drive and passion for success, especially considering such mental maturity far surpasses their relatively tender age. (pictured L-R: Joshua Ng, Sean Lim, Antariksa "Rik" Lim)
Some of you may be familiar with the “ai mai sua” working style of a certain strata of employees, but the trio that comprises workspace solutions company, The Workspace People, demonstrates that there is only “can-do” as far as it is concerned.
In fact, our meeting place for the photoshoot is a cold room where The Workspace People receives and stores its snack supplies.
Due to a last minute request and the fact that their staff had already been redeployed elsewhere, the boys are decked out in light jackets as they pitch-in to pack pallets in the 1ºC storage room.
The Workspace People is made up of the 20-something Messrs. Antariksa “Rik” Lim and Joshua Ng, with 35-year-old Mr. Sean Lim rounding up the tight-knit trio as both partner and mentor.
At present, it curates a selection of snacks for the pantries of several MNCs and Fortune 500 companies based in Singapore.
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With a prescribed budget and flavour direction from the commissioning company, The Workspace People will source (it has since evolved into importing whole containers, so it supplies too) and assemble a selection of familiar and foreign munchies (as well as alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages) with which to stock the office pantry. It even provides inventory management and storage solutions for the snacks supply.
Think it sounds like a snack made in Heaven? Well, don’t forget the whole point of such welfare strategies is to entice employees to stay in the office. After all, if the perks and amenities at the office are better than home, you might stop wanting to go home!
However, this is merely the tip of the iceberg, because the trio has bigger plans to become an end-to-end pantry and workspace solution “one-stop shop” for the conglomerates, with a list of supplies that is expected to encompass toiletries, stationery and other consumables.
In a way, it is an extension of Mr. Sean Lim’s existing catering business, which currently provides complete meals and other F&B solutions to big companies. He realised it would make more sense to create another business to fulfil complementary workplace solutions (especially since he already had an existing vendor relationship with these MNCs), not just in Singapore, but with a view towards scaling this regionally.
Having just met fellow car enthusiasts Rik and Joshua a year prior, Sean joined forces with them to incorporate The Workspace People.
Rik (pictured above with his BMW M4 Coupe) and Joshua were already friends, and it was Joshua who inducted Sean into the fold of the larger “PSC” (or Professional Son’s Club for short!) car club, a running gag referring to the sons of well-to-do families who work hard at the job of being sons!
But this is all in jest, because they are a highly-motivated bunch with a work ethic that is beyond reproach. They have the grit and willingness to put in long hours, as well as roll up their sleeves and pitch-in when needed.
It was particularly trying at the start, when they went from just a vision to a full catalogue and inventory of snacks with accompanying warehousing and logistics arrangements within a month.
Joshua smiles ruefully, “We gave a very good impression during the pitch, but maybe it was too good of an impression, because it set the bar very high! At that time, we had nothing concrete yet, except for the orders from two big clients. We had to rush everything out, from catalogue to sourcing, warehousing and logistics. We practically worked 24/7 that month to get everything underway.”
Mr. Sean Lim currently wears several hats, and his rags-to-riches rise is well-documented in several local titles. However, that’s a tale for another day because this story is all about The Workspace People and how bonding over cars forged a bond in business.
The two younger partners haven’t just been sitting pretty before The Workspace People and bring with them a fair amount of operational, logistical and digital savvy, not to mention network and connections.
Joshua started out in luxury e-commerce when he was just 17, while Rik works for the family engineering business (his father made him start from the bottom, so he could appreciate how hard the staff was working).
Age clearly wasn’t an obstacle either, because the three clicked right from the very start and Sean recognised the energy and the combined experience Joshua and Rik could bring to the table despite their relatively young age.
21-year-old Joshua tells us, “The truth is, when I speak to some people, they look at my age and think I’m just a kid with no valuable experience. Sean looked beyond my age (and Rik’s), and recognised that we could be pretty good partners to have for The Workspace People.”
However, their youth is proving to be a strong suit. “When you're young, you're a lot more adaptable and a lot more current, so you will know what's trendy and what's not. For younger people like us, our community is a growing market, because we're the ones that spend quite a lot. It's definitely a market to pay attention to, and we know this market best because we are of the same age group,” Joshua tells us.
The guys don’t just work hard, they play hard too, especially when it comes to fast cars. Between the trio, Sean owns a Porsche 718 GT4 RS, Joshua, a tomato-red BMW M2 and Rik, a track-prepped BMW M4 Coupe in Ultraviolet (pictured above) inspired by the 991.1 GT3 RS’s factory colour.
Lessons learned from deciding what and how to go about modifying their high-performance sportscars can be applied to their business, especially when it comes to being detail-oriented and data-driven, because it’s all about making the company (and sportscars) run harder, faster and more efficiently.
Besides, their sportscars aren’t just for show-and-tell. Rik explains, “When you own a nice car, it really motivates you to work harder, because you want to be able to continue to afford to enjoy such sportscars. Beyond this, we also tap on the community of sportscar owners to meet the right connections and build a network, which opens up many different opportunities. If you can capitalise on these connections, it can reap rewards.”
At present, The Workspace People’s client base for pantry supplies is represented mostly by American tech firms and MNCs, although there’s a growing interest among local companies.
“With the younger generation heading local companies, there's more focus on this (staff perks) as well. In an employees’ job market, prospects look for benefits that tend to be associated with bigger MNCs, so local SMEs need to start changing and adapting to attract and retain talent,” Sean explains.
