Mr. Yash Shah – Managing Director, Go To The Address – CoWorking, Ahmedabad
This time we present to you one of the youngest Infra Leaders in our construction industry.
He has been the pioneer of coworking spaces in Gujarat. He belongs to a family that owns its construction company, True Value group of company, has already completed an average of 30 lakh sq. Ft of construction all over the country in the last eight years. They are definitely going to add up to 16 lakhs square feet of space in the next two and a half years. Our guest Yash Shah is the scion of his family and the founder and CEO of the coworking spaces, The Address. He has ventured out into coworking spaces, and his firm currently has 1500 seats and is operating in about 1 lakh sq. Ft of area in Ahmedabad.
HOW DID HE VENTURE INTO CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY?
Yash started his journey in coworking after he completed his graduation. He went to Singapore for an internship in a financial field in a firm. While he was interning there I got a job offer from a real estate aggregator company called Fly Spaces. Thus, he ventured into the industry keeping in mind what he had back at home. He says that as soon as he started with it, he was introduced to the concept of coworking, wherein the idea was very new and not known by much of the world. Once he seeped deeper he realized that there’s no looking back. Further, he did an executive course and started putting up coworking spaces in Ahmedabad.
THE MANTRA
Basically, when people are just starting up in the industry collaboration of places, they have so much exposure to growth & to learn from the industry giants as well as from the people that are also startups. That is something which is best about the community; coming together and working. It does not get any better than that as when you grow; you make others grow too.
Yash Shah says,
To be very honest, I would say that we-work has a very staunch model, which is followed all across the world. They follow a particular set of events, a particular set of operations that go on everywhere.
The Address believes in giving different feelings to different spaces & people. Here they are looking far behind just providing space and focusing on the expansion of the brand. Whereas, they are focused on expanding people at the core. Identifying the exact need of a person who is using the coworking spaces and delivering it to him his wants & desires, this is the best way to serve solutions to your patrons.
SKILLS-PLAY IN A COWORKING INDUSTRY
According to Yash, patience is one thing that is very significant in this business because there are many intricacies that work behind the running of a coworking space and many more. Things are going to come up that will keep you up at night.
Another crucial skill one should acquire is to be a fantastic manager because making a coworking can be given to people who are really good at it but running the show is a very tough task. As far as we know about running coworking spaces, it does not involve entertaining one person, ten people or twenty people, you would be entertaining a hundred different companies & thousands of people. Therefore, one has to do a fantastic job managing all of them alongside being a people’s person adds an added advantage while handling the tasks.
CHALLENGES
Starting anything new is the toughest challenge in any entrepreneur’s life. Each business has to face several challenges that keep to & fro. Still, the starting phase of opening any business is the toughest because there are quite a lot of things that you come to know just after venturing into and which are going to be happening for the first time. You should know that each day is a new learning experience. You do not know how to brand yourself, and you take time at making decisions as long as you’re not sure whether it is going to work or not.
WORKING WITH OTHER STAKE-HOLDERS
There are times when the architect and the inter designer come across disagreements while catering to the client’s needs. However, the better part is that there might be differences in opinion. Still, the vision remains the same, i.e., focusing on space that’s going to be of optimum utilization to the person/ people that are going to use it.
POST-COVID
This situation brings a purse as well as a peril to the industry. There are going to be firms that might get downgraded in size, and there may be a massive layoff in employees. Initially, it might give hit for 2 to 3 months or maybe a quarter or two, but at the same time, there are also going to various international and national companies now going to realize the significance of coworking spaces. As the ongoing phenomenon comes and goes, but the graveness of the situation will let every firm know the need of various flexible coworking spaces and be an eye-opener coworking in the next two months might be slow. Still, this industry in the next three quarters or a year might witness a boom much more than corporate leasing might foresee.
Coming down to the social distancing norms that all of having been aware of due to C0VID-19, there are quite a lot of players who have been trying to fill out the spaces, thinking that they could adjust a seat here and there, will have to completely change their game and consider the distancing factor as well.
Collaboration has always been human nature, but the situation leads to a backdrop in collaboration in some or the other way. Although for some time, there is going to be a scare among people to gather. Everything depends upon how people take the precautions.
TOWARDS THE BRIGHTER FUTURE
Firstly it should be adapting to coworking culture. As all of us hold different capabilities and habits adapting to the coworking spaces, not just professionally but also personally and looking out for the extra advantage that you get out of these spaces is what stands out and very important to focus on.
PIECE OF ADVICE
Research is something that really adds up to one’s skills and knowledge. Therefore, one piece of advice that comes straight from Mr. Yash Shah is to research correctly and try and get something new on the table every day. There are quite a lot of individuals who work to come up with out of the box concept. And before anyone starts, they should have a complete know-how of the industry and what they are leaping into. As mentioned above, micromanaging is going to be a considerable challenge, and that is one of the most important things to learn.
