Caspar van Abbe

Project Manager (Netherlands)

I joined Modern Space as a Project Manager here in Europe in 2021, bringing 10 years of retail experience to coordinate a field services project to begin with. There’s always a lot of other things going on, so I soon got involved in other projects. 

As a Project Manager, my day typically starts with a dive in the emails from the night before. Working for an international organisation, with colleagues in China and clients as far as the USA, there’s always something going on even when you’re offline and you must take the time to catch up with that.

The rest of the day is usually very versatile. It can range from communicating with the project managers in Shanghai on production and shipping to preparing quotes and having online meetings with the clients one day. While another day you maybe spend on export requirements or handover protocols.

Like many others, I rolled into this industry by accident. The previous company I was with, was really set in its ways, while a big strength of Modern Space is our agility and transformational approach. This presents a lot of challenges but at the same time, opportunities to develop your own skills. For example, for a new field services project, we have come up with an idea to largely automate the process, from notifying our partners until the final handover. Modern Space are really open to everybody’s input and really provide an environment in which you can further explore these initiatives. With our constant upwards trend, I see there will be plenty of opportunities to grow with the company.

Looking ahead, I don’t see the total demise of brick & mortar store in favour of online happening in the next decade, but we do see of course a shift where high streets and malls are more and more populated by the same big brands across Europe. While this might take some of the fun out of shopping for me personally, it does present tremendous opportunities for Modern Space, as these are exactly the clients that benefit from Modern Space and we are growing with!