Joey Leong - Marketing and Communications Manager

Chapter 5: Sunset OASIS

A lot can happen in four years.

I took a year-long hiatus after leaving FirstCom Solutions, jumping between one-off freelance projects, finding Geek Culture, and figuring out what I wanted to do next.

CBM was my first move into an official Communications and Public Relations role, and I consciously moved away from focusing solely on video production. This meant sharpening my graphic design skills to maintain internal corporate communication materials, write newsletters, work from brand guides, and even draft crisis communications policies.

Although I didn't have the proper certificates or academic background in Communications then, I was confident I had the skills and experience to practice the trade.

Avoiding post-work hours, working through midnight, and sticking to a 9 AM-6 PM schedule were key factors in my decision. After all, I was completing my part-time studies, and I needed a more 'manageable' (not necessarily 'easy') work-life balance.

CBM has given me broad exposure to Communications and Public Relations. While I was looking for Corporate Communications and expecting the mundanity of newsletters and revamping letterheads, working at CBM gave me the opportunity to practice a whole other world of branding, awards writing, photography, marketing, policy writing, Corporate Social Responsibility, representing the company for strategic business opportunities, and more.

Here, I was exposed to Facilities Management and learned complex concepts behind running malls and buildings, like how AHUs work. I had the privilege of seeing how technology is shaping Facilities Management, from using robots to enhance security to watching a team transport one of Changi's largest chiller plants into the chiller room (this happened overnight and during my birthday).

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What is CBM?

CBM Pte Ltd, formerly 'City Building Management', is a Facilities Management Company.

Today, they are 2000 strong.

A sister company of CDL, CBM provides Integrated Facility Management (IFM) services, offering a one-stop solution for managing facilities across all industries and facility types.

Through its subsidiaries, the company addresses various aspects of facilities management.

Aside from an Environmental division, an Engineering division, and a Project Management division, where they manage cleaners and housekeepers, engineers, and project management, respectively, they also operate through the following subsidiaries:

Empire City Consultant (ECC)

ECC is the Managing Agent subsidiary of CBM. They offer a comprehensive suite of property management services and manage condominiums as well as commercial and industrial complexes.

Notable track records include W Residences at Sentosa, Cube 8, and Cendex Centre.

CBM Parking (CBMP)

If you drive around Singapore, you will notice that most car parks around HDB estates are managed by CBM Parking.

CBM Parking operates and manages Full and semi-electronic parking systems, cash card systems and Proximity Disc Systems.

They were the first car park management provider for Punggol Digital District, implementing wireless and contactless gantries.

CBM Security (SEC)

CBM's security wing not only manages manpower for security guards and concierge services.

They also provide robotics that patrol prestigious locations like South Beach Towers and Republic Plaza.

CBM Solutions (CBMS)

CBM Solutions provides building owners with integrated sustainable solutions that support their business operations and processes.

This means they conduct Sustainability and Energy audits and offer consultation, professional engineering, and project management capabilities to keep buildings energy-efficient.

They recently installed Changi Airport's largest Air Handling Unit (AHU) and chiller plant.

Systematic Laundry and Healthcare Services (SLHS)

CBM operates a dedicated laundry plant under Systematic Laundry.

They provide laundry services for both consumers and businesses. Systematic Laundry washes and services most of Millennium & Copthorne Hotels' linen.

Ingensys (ING)

Complementing CBMP's car park management services, Ingensys develops in-house car park products, including dedicated gantry systems and software.

Ingensys also installs and maintains these systems in-house.

Together, these services form an additional division, Integrated Facilities Services (IFS), which manages large portfolios across all sectors of society, including Government and Private.

The company managed Ministry of Education (MOE) facilities such as schools, Resorts World Sentosa, Gardens by the Bay, multiple JTC facilities, and even one of Singapore's tallest skyscrapers, Republic Plaza.

They also have a hand in international markets, including Qatar, Taiwan, and Thailand.

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How Was I Involved?

Jul 2023 - Present

This is going to be a long one.

My role sits at the centre of the company’s communications and public relations efforts. Daily, I lead and manage internal and external communications for the company and its seven subsidiaries, working closely with the Head of Business Development and the C-Suite. With a small team of two additional executives, I handle not only communications planning but also the hands-on execution that keeps the function running day to day.

Much of this work happens behind the scenes, but it shapes how the company presents itself at every touchpoint. I oversee the production and upkeep of the company and subsidiaries’ websites, alongside corporate materials such as letterheads, quarterly newsletters, EDMs, corporate brochures, vehicle decals, and digital and print name cards. From the smallest corporate collateral to the platforms that represent the company publicly, I ensure our communications remain consistent and reflect the organisation we want to be.

One area where I have seen a particularly tangible outcome is our LinkedIn presence. When I took on the platform, the company had around 2,000 followers; today, that number stands at 5,000. I built a dedicated weekly content calendar to move us away from posting only when there was something to announce, creating a more consistent organic presence through recruitment drives, public holiday content, and B2C marketing materials that I conceptualised. This gave the company a stronger voice online while allowing me to experiment with how a traditionally B2B organisation could communicate with a wider audience.

My work also extends beyond our own communications channels. I manage external media relations, including visits from organisations such as MINDEF, and represent the company in collaborations with governing and editorial bodies including BCA, The Smart Local, SPH, APAC Outlook Magazine, and MediaCorp. These engagements have placed me in a position to shape how CBM and its services are introduced, represented, and remembered outside the organisation.

CSR is another area where I have brought people together around something meaningful. At least three times a year, I coordinate initiatives that give our staff the opportunity to contribute to the community. During my employment, these efforts have reached more than 500 individuals and households through pro bono home maintenance, beach clean-ups, annual charity carnivals, and the refreshing of different spaces within charity homes. These CSR events have drawn the attention of key national leaders, including parliamentary leaders Ng Eng Hen and Tan Kiat How.

I also support photography for our CSR initiatives and in-house events such as Vendors Day, Learning Day, and festive celebrations, allowing me to capture and preserve the people and moments behind these activities.

The Annual Client Survey (ACS) is another part of my responsibilities, but over time, I began looking beyond simply sending the survey. The ACS gathers quantitative and qualitative feedback from our clients, supports ISO audit preparation, and provides useful insights into where we can improve our operational processes. That led me to examine the survey dissemination process itself and ask how to make it more efficient.

Previously, we drafted and sent survey invitations and chasers manually through Microsoft Word and Outlook. I introduced email automation through Brevo, turning a repetitive, manpower-heavy process into a more streamlined workflow. This change reduced the manpower required for the ACS process by about two weeks—a relatively simple improvement that made a recurring process significantly more efficient.

These responsibilities form the baseline of my role. What I am particularly proud of, however, are the opportunities I have had to take the company's story beyond its day-to-day communications.

Over the past four years, I have played a key role in helping the company secure a number of prestigious industry awards, taking each application from research and conceptualisation through to the final submission. This meant drafting the applications end to end, gathering the necessary supporting information, identifying the stories and achievements worth highlighting, and translating our people's work into compelling narratives that could withstand external scrutiny.

Among these were the FM Visionary Award received by CBM's CEO at the Facilities Management Expert Summit (FMES) 2023, organised by the Singapore International Facility Management Association (SIFMA); the FM Visionary Award for CBM Solutions' CEO; Woman Facility Manager of the Year; FM Team of the Year; and Best FM Partner Award for Security at FMES 2025. Most recently, I worked on the submission that earned the company the SGBC-BCA Leadership in Sustainability Awards 2026 for Professional Leadership in Sustainability.

Beyond showcasing CBM's Facilities Management capabilities, I also worked to increase visibility of the company's commitment to giving back to the community and the world, driving its sustainability narrative. This helped CBM be recognised as a Company of Good by the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC). This recognition has since expanded my role beyond communications: I have become a key point of contact for CSR-driven organisations such as NVPC and the Singapore Business Federation (SBF), as well as various charitable organisations exploring potential partnerships with CBM.

What began as CSR outreach has also developed into a wider professional network. Through introductions and networking opportunities facilitated by these organisations, I have represented CBM in meetings with prospective business partners and explored potential collaborations that could translate into new business opportunities. It has been particularly rewarding to see communications and CSR work open doors into areas of the business I would not traditionally have been involved in.

My creative work has taken a similar path from concept to execution. I have conceptualised several logos, including the company's 55th Anniversary logo and the logo for its backend digiBASE system. Rather than stopping at the creative stage, I also handled trademark filing with the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), taking these identities from initial concept through to formal registration.

And, in many ways, video production has brought me back to my roots. Drawing on my video production experience, I produced several key videos for the company, including a new corporate video with updated motion graphics and newly filmed shots of employees in their new uniforms. The video was designed to do more than refresh our corporate image — it became a practical business tool used to introduce CBM and its services during B2B tender interviews.

Corporate Collaterals

Much of my cyclical work involves creating and being the custodian of CBM's various corporate collateral materials, including (but not limited to):

Official document designs for tenders and letterheads

Apparels

Corporate Gifts

Email Signatures

Festive E-Greetings

HR Recruitment and Internal EDMs

Management and Organisation Charts

Name Cards

Online Meeting Backgrounds

Presentation Decks and Templates

Quarterly Newsletters AKA CBM Link

Signages

Vehicle Decals

Annual Client Survey

Preparation

Dissemination

Analysis

Report

Awards

FMES 2023 and 2025

SGBC-BCA Leadership in Sustainability Award 2026

Branding

CBM 55th Anniversary

digiBASE

CBM Taiwan Parking Logo

ECC Connect

Crisis Communications

CSRs

Beach Cleanup

Assisi Fun Day

Home Refresh Programme

Prospecting for CSR and Business Opportunities

Event Photography

Festive Seasons

Vendors Day

Learning Day

Media Relations and Collaborations

CNA

MediaCorp

CBM was featured on MediaCorp's Channel 8 to discuss the growing demand for manpower in industries like Facilities Management. I was given the opportunity to advise CBM's former Head of HR on what should be said or discussed - An exercise in spokesperson management for an organisation.

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MINDEF

Singapore Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF)

Singapore Press Holdings

The Smart Local

Social Media Management

Video Production

Although producing videos took a back seat when I was a Marketing and Communications Manager at CBM, I still had opportunities to hone my craft as a video producer from time to time.

While working at CBM, I built my own camera setup. This means I get to use my personal camera and lenses for future work.

Award Submissions

Empire City Consultants' Cube 8 team submitted this video for an FMES award.

The award submission required us to focus on the following:

1) [Award Question]

2)

3)

The challenge in producing this video was figuring out how to translate pages of paragraphs into a more understandable, compelling on-screen narrative. Bringing the residents of Cube 8 as a key stakeholder driving the achievements stated in the submission was paramount to addressing this challenge.

Unfortunately, we did not win the award, but the video still serves as a testament to ECC's commitment to ensuring Cube 8 residents enjoy their lives within the condominium.

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CBM Home

Although CBM is a B2B company, it also has a B2C brand, CBM Home, which serves residential customers with handyman services. This work includes the servicing of air conditioning units, bulk item removal, painting, laundry, and even furniture assembly.

Producing this video draws on my work experience at FirstCom Solutions and highlights an aspect of the service. Here, I focus on a problem-solution narrative, using CBM staff as talent, and showing the cause and effect of using the bulky item removal service before showing viewers where to download the mobile application.

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Corporate Video

I had the privilege of producing a revised 2026 version of CBM's corporate video, a project that took at least a year to finish because several other important tasks had to be completed before production began.

First, you will notice that most staff in the new 2026 corporate video are wearing standardised uniforms based on their subsidiaries' colours. The uniforms, a project delegated to one team member (for which I advised the necessary actions), went through multiple design and colour iterations and required upper-management approval. Liaising with 10 different stakeholders, revising 10 different uniform variations, sourcing affordable vendors who could print the right colours, and managing timelines such as distribution was not easy.

Nevertheless, with much patience, we completed the new uniform designs and proceeded with production of the new corporate video.

Another requirement for the new corporate video was the voiceover. CBM's CEO wanted the voiceover to sound more tenacious, natural, and, possibly, less 'gentle'. To keep costs low and to streamline production processes - which means minimising manpower required to produce the video - I turned to ElevenLabs, which was a platform that was able to produce an AI-generated voiceover for the video. ElevenLabs also generated a voiceover that sounded more 'local', which was a plus.

The AI-generated voiceover was also appropriate, as the video debuted on CBM's 55th Anniversary, and the celebration was themed around embracing AI to improve workflows.

Nevertheless, I also took the liberty of revising the video's animations, focusing on communicating the company's commitment to the ESG's three pillars more elaborately and on showing the synergistic nature of the company's IFM capabilities.

Producing this video gave me a unique experience and a glimpse of CBM's operations across all 10 business units. Reaching out to different divisions brought me to construction sites, the company's central laundry plant, and even gave me a closer look at car park management, security operations, and more.

Creating this video has shown me that to be an effective Communications Specialist for a company, you must not only be well-versed in the requirements of a Communications and Public Relations staff, but also understand the nuances of the products and services provided. Only then could I translate a deeper understanding of the business for its target audience.

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digiHUB

The digiHUB dashboard is a proprietary software developed in-house at CBM. The dashboard gives facility managers a bird's-eye view of the complexes they manage.

As the digiHUB dashboard's technology (mainly the UI) changes, the visuals must be updated to reflect the dashboard's accuracy.

As this is a proprietary system that the company strives to sell, it's imperative that the video be updated for their use during business pitches - No updated visuals, no greater promise of profit.

I captured the screen recordings using OBS Studio, and I updated the animations in the video.

I felt the L3S were blase, so I made sure the new L3S looked cleaner. The digiHUB logo also underwent an improvement, integrating a more 'digitised' entrance. Lastly, I rearranged the icons on the screen detailing the 'digiHUB Connectivity Ecosystem' to outline Singapore's topography, suggesting the dashboard can be used anywhere in the country as long as it's part of the Facility Management ecosystem.

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Technological Showcase for CDL

This video was produced to show CDL stakeholders the effectiveness of CBM's technologies for CDL properties.

Most shots in this video were taken by a previous staff member, except for the robot scrubber.

Regardless, it was my first experience in fully understanding the technologies CBM offers its clients at the time.

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Reflection

Looking back, it made sense for me to choose a 9 AM-6 PM lifestyle after leaving FirstCom Solutions. Being here let me shape my identity and move away from work as a defining part of who I am.

I never expected to make an impact at a Facilities Management company after leaving advertising.

Still, I was glad to pursue Communications and Public Relations full-time, even though I had experience in branding, comms, and PR in my previous roles.

Looking across these projects, the common thread is ownership. Whether I am managing the daily communications function, building the company's presence online, coordinating CSR initiatives, writing an award submission, improving an internal process, developing a visual identity, or producing a video for a tender, I have consistently taken projects from an initial requirement or idea through to execution.

What makes this role particularly meaningful to me is its breadth. Alongside these achievements and larger projects, I continue to manage the company's daily communications and public relations operations, as well as those of its seven subsidiaries, while leading a small team of two executives. It is a role that has required me to be both strategic and hands-on — to think about the bigger picture while still being willing to get into the details and make things happen.

Finding 'manageable' means making room for my life to happen fruitfully. On top of leading people in a corporate setting, I graduated from university, became a parent of two kids, earned a proper accreditation in Communications and Public Relations, bought a professional camera, and improved my skills overall.

People say Facilities Management is a sunset industry: It's a place where people go to retire. I disagree. In fact, Facilities Management is an evergreen industry that lets driven individuals thrive: As long as society moves up and on and keeps building new structures, they will need to be managed and maintained, and those capable of doing so can do so while dreaming of being better people.

It's a safe industry to be in, and you will always find work in it.

It's an oasis, and if people are adamant it's a sunset industry, then it's a watering hole for those who stay and watch the sunset.

Still, I will leave this industry for greener pastures. As the demands of my life grow, so do my capabilities, appetite for greater challenges and opportunities to meet them, and search for deeper meaning in my work.

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