CEO SUITE

For this issue of JSEB Insight, we had an interview with Ms. Mee Kim, President Director of CEO SUITE, one of our tenants at the Jakarta Stock Exchange Building. For the past eight years, CEO SUITE has grown and developed into a business center offering one-stop business solution to other tenants and companies in the Jakarta scene. And in a span of 16 years, this power executive has successfully taken her business to a number of major countries in Asia. Below are excerpts of the interview:

JSEB Insight (J) : When did CEO SUITE start operation in the Jakarta Stock Exchange Building?
Mee Kim (MK) : We were one of the first tenants when Tower II opened in September 1997.

JI : What facilities does CEO SUITE offer its clients?

MK : We offer all kinds of services: company establishment, document maintenance, information technology, reception services, meeting rooms, video conferences, interpretation and translation services as well as instant offices. All in all, we make available anything you need to start or run a business.

MK : We hope to be a one-stop solution center to any person or company who requires an office space for running his business.

MK : About 90% of our clients are multinational corporations from all across the world, including sectors from oil and gas, information technology, and banking. The other 10% are local tenants who require office facilities. We also provide virtual offices. Our target is far and wide, and includes any business person, anywhere.

MK : Our difficulties include external factors such as economic stability, national security and competition from traditional offices, internally, the search for good human resources who are trained for excellent client services can be tough.

JI : We all know that the business center concept is new in Indonesia. How did you manage to expand your business?

MK : I had been in this business for 7½ years before I started CEO SUITE. My previous work experience gave me an extensive network of clients in Asia. This business is all about gaining trust (from clients), and up-keeping of a reliable image and reputation. The other important factor is the ability to train employees to be productive, reliable, and independent workers, capable of handling many tasks.

MK : We currently have two centers in Jakarta, in this building and in Wisma GKBI; other centers include Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Shanghai and Beijing. We are looking at Korea next.

JI : You established Yayasan CEO SUITE in Indonesia and offer scholarship programmes to children in Korea. Can you tell us a little about this foundation?

MK : It is an agricultural programme which CEO SUITE runs in collaboration with World Education, an American non-profit organisation. As of now, we have around 30 youths under the care of the foundation. We lease three hectares of land from Father Agatho, a pioneer in organic farming, and teach these children everything about organic farming, and crops. We hope they pick up social, and survival skills from these training and teaching as most of them are either street kids, or school drop-outs.

MK : In my career, I have always been working in city-renowned buildings in more than 15 countries in Asia and Australia. The Jakarta Stock Exchange building is impressive in terms of construction and its management. Our clients like this location too. We hope we can continue our presence here for many more years to come.

JI : What are your expectations for the Jakarta Stock Exchange Building and its management?

MK : We are in the same business of management. Consistent 24-hours security makes clients happy. It may not be easy to make everyone follow proper procedures to enter the building, pass security checks, and to help keep the lobby clean. But this beautiful lobby creates an excellent first impression for us, and our clients. The impression lingers way past your lobby. The building management should therefore give such considerations priority attention.

Instant Business Solution
Problems are expected in the course of running any business : it could be the urgent requirement for the use of a meeting room, a disconnection of internet facilities, the unwanted noise pollution from office renovation above. They all require prompt attention, and solution which a business center can provide.

Trend
A business center is a place that caters to most of office requirements. It usually offers office space equipped with ready-to-use office furnishings and equipment available for short-term rent on hourly basis or longer-term lease on annual basis.

Most office buildings located within the CBD of a capital city like Jakarta would like to have a business center as a support facility, or a marketing-arm for their buildings. CEO SUITE is one of such business centers in the Jakarta Stock Exchange and GKBI Buildings in the Sudirman Central Business District (SCBD).

Location
Companies planning to do business in Indonesia should first decide where they want to set up their business. The location of a proper office space forms as one major consideration for an entrepreneur who is just starting a business, or for an established foreign or local company looking for a new or permanent address. It starts with the identification of a strategic spot offering prospective business opportunities, with convenient surrounding amenities.One would have located the solution to that No. 1 consideration as soon as CEO SUITE is located in the Jakarta Stock Exchange Building. “Many foreign companies would not have a clue as to where to go or how to start. They tend to be reliant on business centers as their support office until they settle down to locate a bigger or more permanent place,” explains Mee Kim, the President Director of CEO SUITE. “And while many of our foreign clients have moved on to their own offices, there are many too, who have subsequently become tenants of this building.” she adds.

Facilities
Unlike a traditional office where a company would need to furnish with its own furniture, equipment, and supervise its own renovation; a business center would have them all already in place. An office unit is readily furnished for immediate rental, and common facilities such as meeting rooms, secretarial service, internet, teleconference and video conference facilities can be rented on an ad-hoc basis.These business centers can also cater for those who do not need a physical space to conduct their business activities. In such cases of a Virtual Office, an individual is only provided with a partitioned space with a workstation and a computer for usage anytime it is needed.CEO SUITE now has as many as 500 names who are listed as current and ex-clients, most of them large multinational firms. “Foreign enterprises use our services because of language barriers. It is not uncommon for them to rent a unit in our center as their representative office, and have our staff to assist them in their day-to-day operations, such as answering calls, liaising with local vendors, secretarial services while they focus on their main core business,” says Mee Kim.Business centers are known to be contributors to both building owners, and to companies in neighboring buildings. The main advantage is an immediate office for rental at a good building, in a strategic location for business owners in need of an urgent space without having to spend too much money.

JSEB Opinion
Reynolds Darmadi - Office Leasing (PT Procon Indah)
We have a lot of demand for small spaces which building owners cannot accommodate. For such cases, business centers do come in very handy to provide flexible rent periods, at varied space areas.

PT Fraser Diving Indonesia
Desira Syatia - Office Manager (PT Fraser Diving Indonesia)
CEO SUITE at the Jakarta Stock Exchange Building offers great benefits to small companies just starting up their businesses. This center in particular offers great secretarial services! We utilize both their office space and virtual facilities.

One-stop business solution