In a world where busy people want nutritious meals without needing to cook , companies like Grain are in high demand. A meal delivery and catering business based in Singapore and Thailand, Grain feeds hungry bellies with food that’s wholesome, thoughtful, and unexpected. Meals are inspired by a variety of cuisines, catering to different tastes and dietary preferences. Examples of popular dishes include Caramelised Beef Char Siew and Oven Baked Quorn Fillet.
When Shawn Liam, Director of Digital Products, started at Grain it was a small and ambitious startup. The team worked fast and projects were managed across spreadsheets and emails. As the company started to scale, small inconveniences mounted into bigger problems. Aligning the company around key priorities was difficult and tracking tasks became time-consuming—something many global businesses struggle with. For example, the Anatomy of Work Index found that 60% of employee time is spent on work coordination. Shawn knew if Grain was going to beat the statistics, the team had to work smarter and standardise their processes.
Grain needed a centralised work management system to help streamline project management.
The right solution had to be:
The team chose Asana because it hit all of the above points and had a beautiful, easy-to-use interface.
“Asana is robust and flexible enough to be used for different functions across the company. It combines all the views we need to manage work including boards, lists, timelines, and calendars.”
Shawn first trialled Asana with his product team. He then introduced Asana to Grain’s CEO, Yong Yi Sung, who loved the platform and advocated for company-wide implementation. Sung used the Asana Guide to learn best practices and outline how Grain would use the platform. This endorsement and support helped drive the transition to Asana and ensured adoption across the company.
Project management at Grain has been transformed. Here’s how Asana is helping every department grow:
Overall, the entire company has benefited from Asana by reducing strategic meetings from hours to less than 45 minutes. Templates are used to structure essential meeting tasks like agendas, notes, and follow-up actions which saves time and directs focus to more important things like coming up with new ways to surprise and delight customers.
“As a startup, we run into new problems all the time. Asana prevents us from making the same mistake twice by capturing knowledge and improvements into our repeatable processes and templates.”
The team at Grain will continue to digitise and refine their operations and kitchen procedures. They also plan to diversify their business by creating new brands that cater to different audiences, like one focused on fine dining delivery. No matter the agenda, Asana will continue to help the team at Grain innovate, grow, and prosper.