Dr. Gleb Tsipursky – The Office Whisperer
Cat Johnson – Coworking Marketing Maven
Angela Howard – Culture Expert
Drew Jones – Design & Innovation
Andrea Pirrotti-Dranchak – Competitive Advantage
Jonathan Price – CRE & Flex Expert
Jeremy Fennema – Tech Innovation Alchemist
The Alliance Network continues its portfolio expansion, this time in Seoul with new member HJ Business Center.
In the heart of Gangnam on Teheran Street, the business mecca of Seoul, HJ Business Centers first opened its doors in 2011. Unlike the typical business center, HJ has embraced modern times and needs by offering a variety of services – from executive suites to coworking spaces, to virtual office services and conference rooms – that can be rented out on daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis.
Sopia Kim, Sales Manager of HJ Business Centers, shares with us how joining the Alliance Network as well as Alliance Virtual Offices will allow them to grow in an international market.
“We have been experiencing a saturated and competitive market in Korea and have been looking for new opportunities to market to international clients. We realize that ABCN and AVO can help us break barriers and provide unique exposure.”
At the same time, Ms. Kim mentions how the decision to join the Alliance Business Centers Network was also greatly influenced by the fact that ABCN is known for its industry knowledge.
“Being a part of ABCN is a huge benefit in regards to sharing information and ideas with other like-minded organizations.”
Sopia is referring to ABCN’s annual conferences and forums, the next of which will take place May 3-6 in Los Angeles in collaboration with the Global Coworking Unconference Conference (GCUC).
HJ Business Centers is hoping to establish itself as a strong member of the global flexible workspace community: “we want a voice and a reputation,” Sopia says.
Currently operating at full capacity, HJ Business Center saw the need to increase its available workspace. The Seoul based operator opened a new floor of workstations earlier this year, and their marketing strategy is focused on acquiring international clients.
“Currently 30% of our clients are foreign companies. We want to increase this to 50%; joining the Alliance Network and adding our Center to Alliance Virtual Offices listings will help us reach this goal.”
HJ Business Centers has been steadily growing since they first opened back in 2011 with one floor of available workspace. Two years after they launched, they added a second floor to their portfolio and this year, due to clients’ demands and needs, they opened another floor of workstations; this last one fully dedicated to coworking spaces.
As for the future, by the end of 2016 we’ll see HJ increase their capacity and by 2021 we can expect them to have more than 30 HJ Business Center branches available in the global market.
“We hope that by starting and continuing a successful relationship with the Alliance Network and Alliance Virtual Offices we can achieve and reach our goals.” – Sopia Kim, Sales Manager.
