The week that was… 20-24th March 2017

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The week that was… 20-24th March 2017

Shenzhen – Hong Kong – Singapore, weekend 25-26 March

As I prepare this blog I am in transit in Hong Kong on my way back from Shenzhen to Singapore after an intensive design workshop with the interior design for one of our projects in China. While it was full on, we did have time for a “light” moment, see one of the pics below :). While in Shenzhen I also took the opportunity to revisit one of our earlier projects, the Shangri-la Futian, that was complete about 9 years ago. It is always educational to revisit your own projects just to see how they stand the test of time…and I must say I was pleased with what I saw…pretty much the same as then, though it now clearly looks a bit dated. The lighting still functions well and some of the early day LED linear lights that we installed were still working and had never been replaced! How do I know… because we had a chat with the GM and did the rounds with the chief engineer who had been there since the opening! But what we did see is what we see happening all over the world, engineering departments asking the help of lighting suppliers to replace conventional lighting with LED lights…with disastrous results (poor color temperature, bright and glary, etc). The coincidence of our visit was timely as we agreed to prepare a proposal for the LED conversion…we look forward to help the hotel move into the new age of LED lighting…see some pics below.

This week is the turn of Siew Mei, my trusted personal assistant and the one who manages our office as our office manager. While she is not a lighting designer her role in our company cannot be underestimated; she is the glue that holds us all together! For a SME like ours, people with Siew Mei’s skills and administrative experience are vital. She plans, she organises and make things happen while not hesitating to tell us all off (me included!) if we err from our responsibilities to keep our company successful! So here she is…have a great weekend.

Introduction

Martin asked me to share my perspective as an office manager working in a lighting design company via our Light Talk blog. My job scope is totally different from the designers, but I provide them the support in order to complete their work as efficiently as possible, chasing clients for signed contracts and invoice payments, making travel arrangements for them, assuring that the bills are paid, the air-con is cooling, the office is clean, up to mundane things like making sure there is enough toilet paper… J. Does it resonate to the role of a mother? I sometimes do think so too. I may not have any exciting projects and pictures to share with you but it’s the exciting changes we will have internally in KLD that I would like to talk about.

For a company to continue growing, the first priority is to be able to retain good quality employees and groom them to take on more responsibility. Thus, this year, we focus on growing our designers. We had our very first workshop together 2 months ago and it was very well accepted by all fellow colleagues. This type of workshop not only let the whole team relax from their routine but also let them get to know each other better. To that, we all are looking forward to the coming workshop in April…

Apart from grooming our employees, we have also invested in the some of the latest software so we can stay a step ahead of our competitorsJ. Clients are still very much impressed with the way we present our concepts, but it is not enough, we need to look ahead and move with the times. Animation and 3D is the new love in design industry. The enthusiastic feedback that we have received from our clients is of course the best encouragement to our team to keep on improving.

Another exciting change you all will see very soon is the revamped company website! The new website will have a crisp and modern look with all the new functions, interactive features and interactions with social media. The new look hopes to improve the way we present our projects to the public and to attract potential clients as well. Keep a lookout for our new website to be launched in the next 2 months!

All these constant improvement and changes have been keeping us going and going strong despite the constant news of economy downturn. With the lead from Martin, we hope to achieve another great year ahead!

Siew Mei