In Conversation With Our Members: Workiva

Can you tell us who you are and what you do?

Erik Saito, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Asia Pacific

Workiva is a cloud software-as-a-service company that enables companies to simplify complex work. That is our mission.

Founded in the United States in 2010, we currently have around 2000+ employees in offices across the US and Europe and, more recently, Asia Pacific.

Servicing 4000 customers around the world, what we do is essentially simplify complex workflow in reporting. Reporting external disclosure and internal reporting to stakeholders is a manual and tedious affair, and more often than not, valuable insights from the data are overlooked.

By utilising our services, companies can spend less time compiling information and spend more time making crucial decisions based on the data collected.

In 2014, we went public on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and quickly expanded our footprint across the US, from the West Coast to the East, New York, Arizona, and Texas. The same robust expansion occurred in Europe, with offices in Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, and London.

In Asia Pacific, we’ve established a substantial presence in Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne, and Tokyo.

Can you tell us about your expansion strategy and what were you thinking of in terms of opening a new office?

When we came to Asia, we were small; it was just me initially. However, as we began expanding at an unprecedented rate, we quickly had to think about finding a workspace provider that could, for one, have the flexibility and stability to grow with us and two, a workspace provider that had the resources and headcount to manage an office space whilst providing professional services.

Ideally, what we wanted was a provider that was aligned with our mission and matched our brand image with how our customers and ourselves viewed Workiva.

What sort of considerations did you have when you were first looking for corporate real estate before turning to flexible workspaces?

From the get-go, our company were looking for flexible workspace providers that had a large footprint in markets that we operate in – the reason being so we could easily scale up or down in tandem with our user base.

Interestingly enough, we did not originally start with The Executive Centre. We opted for another flexible workspace provider that we thought could provide us with all the necessary tools and services we wanted, such as meeting room bookings, regional passes, etc. Unfortunately, they did not meet those demands nor provide us with the professional level of service we aspired to have.

However, not long after that and with the help of an acquaintance of mine, I was referred to The Executive Centre. My team and I checked it out and were immediately impressed with the professionalism of TEC staff and the professionalism of the office fittings, the class A buildings, and locations.

Can you describe the work culture at Workiva?

Bobby Rubino: Director of Operations Asia Pacific

Work culture is super important at Workiva; how the team interacts and feels is paramount. We wanted a place where we could host conferences and go to socialise and unwind, a place in a convenient yet prestigious location. All these points impact our ability to grow our team, and TEC has ticked all the boxes for it.

Erik Saito:

At Workiva, we collaborate closely daily, so having closed offices for each employee was not conducive to our workforce. We wanted an open environment where people could see, speak, and walk across to each other.

What are your favourite things about working from an Executive Centre?

Claudia Enriquez: Senior Manager of Customer Success

My favourite thing about working at The Executive Centre is the ability to bring my clients to my workspace, which is incredibly important for me as I work in Customer Success. The ability to meet face-to-face is a must, so circumnavigating having to organise or book a catch up at a local coffee shop or café is perfect.

Furthermore, the opportunity to network whilst at work with individuals from all industries is refreshing; the community within TEC is 38,000+ strong and being able to meet like-minded professionals is something that is very unique.