Best-laid plans useless without execution

Jack Ng Jr.

Extraordinary Enclaves, a member of the Joy-Nostalg Group, is developing a 30-hectare socialized housing project in Naic, Cavite.

Such a large undertaking requires meticulous planning to ensure successful implementation.

Joy-Nostalg Group CEO Jack Ng Jr. shares here his thoughts on the importance of executing strategies.

Q: The government requires 20 percent of property developers’ sales to come from socialized housing. Your Extraordinary Exclaves is doing 50 percent, with the other half coming from your mid-range brand, Elanvital Enclaves. Why the greater focus on socialized housing?

A: I became interested in architecture and development when I was about 13 years old, inspired by my father’s low-cost housing development then in Novaliches. With age and deeper insights into the housing industry and its 5-million backlog, my interest in social housing matured, evolving into a personal mission. Values from my parents and our immigrant heritage, including those from my teachers, and values from Xavier School and UP Arki have molded and driven my passion to address the desperate housing need, mainly from the low-income segment of our society. Thus, I have made it my company’s mission develop as much social and economic housing as we can to help others have their own homes.

Q: You require buyers of your socialized housing units to attend a half-day seminar before selling to them, but about half of the attendees postponed their purchase after the seminar. What do you tell them?

A: The purpose of our seminar, conducted by our Joy-Nostalg Foundation, entitled “Home Empowerment Learning Program” , is to help all our would-be homebuyers be sure and serious about committing long-term for their family and home investment. When they purchase a unit and take a loan from HDMF PagIbig, they can have as long as a 30-year amortization. Thus, we tell our customers that they cannot be excited for just 30 days; they need to be excited for 30 years.

We teach and counsel subjects beyond the benefits of having their own home and elaborate on their obligations and responsibilities. We emphasize their need for conscious savings, a disciplined family budget, work perseverance and professionalism for income stability, and most of all, we advocate a deep love and commitment for family and God. Eventually, we require them to make an informed and intentional decision with their home investment; and we openly advise them to better postpone their intent if they are not prepared. We would rather view their success as not necessarily having a house but having peace and “home” within the family as a whole.

Q: You assembled 15 SME contractors, shortlisted from 70 applicants, to undertake socialized housing. What are your criteria for shortlisting them? How do you make them committed to your vision?

A: The criteria for accrediting contractors are quite ordinary and similar I suppose to what other development companies follow. They should have the technical competence, the manpower resource, the financial resource, and more importantly, the passion and the leadership for their enterprise. We definitely prioritize those that would join us beyond the business rationale and sincerely share our housing mission.

To keep our contractors committed to our vision requires an approach beyond the contractor-client relationship. We assure them of a constant stream of contracts to sustain their operations and improve their productivity and profits, including the employability of their workforce.

We regularly collaborate with them in jointly improving our methodologies and processes to lessen costly delays and defects. We celebrate our construction accomplishments together, emphasizing their equal contribution to housing the homeless.

And with them being SMEs, they very much appreciate how we collectively help the “small guy” have his own home, wealth and dignity.

Q: Your socialized housing units are priced exactly at the P450,000 government limit. Many so-called socialized housings are priced over P450,000. How do you ensure you have lower costs while maintaining a standard of quality?

A: It’s all about efficiency, efficiency, efficiency. We constantly challenge the norm in all aspects of the business model from design to development, from methodologies to management, from operations to organization, to extract productivity that allows for lowered cost and increased quality and value. I must disclose immediately too that margins are not as high compared to that for most property projects, but nonetheless, we are comfortable where we are. Yet more importantly, we define ourselves as a social business and strive to nurture a culture of compassion and mission that embolden us to work harder and work differently for the best interest of our fellow hardworking Filipino working masses.