Transforming Purpose-Built Workers’ Accommodation, to Asia’s Leading brand

Transforming Purpose-Built Workers’ Accommodation, to Asia’s Leading brand

Centurion Corporation Limited (“Centurion” or the “Company,” and together with its subsidiaries, the “Group”) is a leading provider of purpose-built workers' accommodation assets in Singapore, Malaysia, and China; student accommodation assets in Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and China; and build-to-rent assets in China. The Group owns and manages a strong portfolio of 34 operational accommodation assets, totaling 66,660 beds as of 30 September 2024.

Centurion’s operational workers' accommodation assets are managed under the “Westlite Accommodation” brand and consist of nine workers' accommodation assets in Singapore and eight assets in Malaysia.

They had proactively planned to stay ahead of the game, anticipating new competitors entering the market even before the pandemic. Centurion seeks to achieve sustainable economic growth and provide strong returns to stakeholders such as shareholders, employees, suppliers, and society.

The goal for Westlite Accommodation was to maintain its leadership position, providing a "home away from home" for foreign workers who contribute to the economies of Singapore and Malaysia, with future potential in other key gateway cities across Southeast Asia.

The APAC Global Advisory team was appointed as Change and Brand Consultants, led by our Chief Change Advisor in various capacities both prior to and post-Covid-19 pandemic.

Challenge

  • To continue to stay ahead of the game and grow across markets given the external environment.

  • Holistic awareness of gaps in how the current vision, mission, values, and positioning have evolved or may need to evolve to better cater to the environment, as well as internal and external needs.

  • Readiness of the category to embrace brand and customer experience and how it translates to people, operations, and culture.

 

Solution

  • A holistic internal and external physical brand audit and review. APAC Global objectively audited and assessed how the actual brand experience at the properties align with the vision, including both online and offline community events and the in-resident consumer experience and provided strategic recommendation.

  • Strategic analysis of audit findings and brand recommendations, including redefining the brand vision, values, mission, purpose and positioning. Defining the "Live, Learn & Play" brand pillars and best practices.

  • Identified opportunities for improvements and change for brand offering, identity, and experience, and outlined the steps for implementing change.

  • Set up a change process and workgroups to achieve the change (brand, people, culture, and process). Facilitate and collaborate with the stakeholders to run workgroups that translate and modify any areas impacting the brand experience.

 

Difference we made

  • We were committed throughout our journey with the teams, both pre and post-Covid, to address challenges as they arose.

  • Highlighting the change and benchmark to achieve the position of a leading brand in Asia allowed them to raise the bar on “caring” and the delivery to occupants of not just physical but also mental well-being.

  • Greater consistency in articulation and expression across multiple channels that goes beyond the traditional approach for dormitories.

  • Provide objectivity through an external point of view and voice, change expertise to encourage and motivate the teams to embrace the change through workgroups.

 

"This integrated [purpose-built workers accommodation] — Live Learn, Play — is an advance in how we treat our foreign workers. It is a far cry from the norms we saw in foreign worker dormitories less than a decade ago. It is also part and parcel of our efforts to engage our workers in ensuring a higher-productivity industry."

 

Tharman Shamugaratnam
President of Singapore
(Former Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic and Social Policies)

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