A Culture of Innovation and Sustainability
CBS is known for continuously pioneering incredible ergonomic products that become category defining designs. As stated by their team, the core of their design approach is to understand how the person interacts with their technology so that their products can create harmony and balance between the two. Additionally, CBS places heavy emphasis on sustainability while still maintaining high-quality design and competitiveness.
“Most of our products are designed for a lifecycle of 12 years at three shifts per day,” says Azar. “In addition, we are working to reduce our single-use plastic to zero and some of our products are 100 percent recyclable. A major part of the region still considers ergonomic tools to be a luxury, unlike in the UK. However, post-COVID-19, we have noticed the mindset shift in the right direction, and have also seen more involvement from institutions. We believe that this demand will continue to gain momentum. This region is very diverse in terms of culture and demographics, which comes with opportunities and challenges, something we’re very excited to learn from.”
Adapting to the Changing Landscape
As Matt Geddes, Sales Director, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa at CBS, explains, the nature of work has fundamentally changed. The generally accepted idea of work involved going to the office. The pandemic and WFH has changed that mindset. “Work used to be somewhere that we all went to. Now work is something that we do. And that presents a challenge for us, because how do we move from creating an ergonomic work environment that people have been used to, to now working from home or anywhere else. It could be the dining table at home or a coffee shop. What we’ve seen is a shift that was already happening, but has now accelerated. We’ve had to think really quickly and creatively about solutions to support this new way of working.”
In the past few years, CBS has managed to launch six new products and really double down on their sustainability. All of those products also use wholly plastic-free packaging.
“In this part of the world, there are a lot of exciting new growth markets,” says Matt. “For us, that presents a real opportunity to get in and talk about the health and well-being aspects of CBS’ offerings.Certainly, we will be rolling out more digital tools as gaming is something that we’re really passionate about supporting. We also have some innovative products in the pipeline in that respect, and in retail as well.”
Another interesting offering from CBS to watch out for is Kurio – a series of creative workshops with a small curated group to allow them to engage in creative activities. Derived from the term “Curiosity”, this space provides a relaxed, neutral, and exciting environment for architects and designers to escape their daily stress while engaging with their fellow creatives.