The CEO With No Office

Jo Hu, head of tech-driven co-working space Distrii, shows what it is like to work in the office of the future.

- Jennifer Chen

Enviably located at Republic Plaza, Distrii Singapore, the South-east Asian offshoot of a Chinese property technology company of the same name, is this country’s largest technology-driven co-working space at 62,000 sq ft. So, it’s no small irony that its chief executive, Jo Hu, does not have a proper office on the premises. She and her team work at any unoccupied space over four of Distrii’s six floors and book meeting rooms like any tenant. Yes, there is room to store hard copies of necessary files but, by and large, Hu works out of her mobile phone, sometimes a laptop if she has to write long e-mail messages. There’s nothing that says a CEO cannot partake in the sharing economy.

It’s all in the name of efficiency and flexibility, the principles that underpin Distrii’s drive to provide a workplace of the future. Says Hu, who moved to Singapore from Shanghai last year to set up Distrii: “Everybody is looking for new ways to work. People’s habits have been changed by the availability of technology. This is a new trend that marks another stage of life.”