Empire East rises above a crisis

He is no stranger to a crisis.

And by this time, Empire East Land Holdings president and CEO Atty. Anthony Charlemagne Yu knew all too well that it would take a certain level of innovation, flexibility and preparedness to help them ride out the complex challenges brought about by this deadly COVID-19 pandemic.

Fortunately, Yu is facing this health crisis with the benefit of experience, invaluable insights and practical knowledge, having gone through major regional and global economic downturns in the past, while already at the helm of Empire East. Surviving these previous economic upheavals and emerging even stronger as a company as evident in its expanding portfolio would mean that Empire East may just have what it takes to weather and overcome this latest crisis.

“The fact that we have faced previous crises is a very big factor in helping us meet this particular crisis. Why? Because the previous crises made us very frugal—in every aspect, we remained cost conscious,” Yu said in an interview with Inquirer.  “It has become an institutional habit. For us, everything has a value… We know that we need to work hard, to squeeze as much as we can in every situation in order for us to produce at the optimum level.”

Critical groundwork

This, however, doesn’t mean that it has become easier for them to face this crisis. Like every company, Empire East also had to bear the brunt of this pandemic and the ensuing lockdown, meant to help curb the spread of the new coronavirus. The difference was that Yu’s experience of the past crises allowed him to lay down the critical groundwork that could help cushion the brutal blow of COVID-19 on the company.

“Every crisis is a crisis and would never be a walk in the park. (But) we’re happy that there’s a certain level of preparedness because we have had experience in previous crises. We don’t know how this will unfold… but so far, there is also greater confidence among our people in meeting a crisis like this. More or less, we know what to do and how to prepare for it,” Yu explained.

It can be recalled that at the height of the Asian financial crisis in the late ’90s, touted as one of the most turbulent times in the region’s economic history, Yu had decided to innovate. Empire East back then had started to offer new financing terms, including a no-downpayment scheme, to lure back buyers and investors during such a precarious period.

In democratizing the real estate industry then, Empire East was able to cement a strong foothold in the market, while completing the most number of towers during this regional crisis. More importantly, it took stock of the lessons learned from the past.

“In Empire East, whether there’s a crisis or not, we are market responsive. We are adaptive to the different market situations and that helped us a lot in coping, from one crisis to another,” he said.

Catalyst

Although the current situation is different since it’s a health crisis by nature, the COVID-19 pandemic had far-reaching economic implications—bringing many economies to its knees, shaking foundations, while causing massive job losses and sweeping disruptions in businesses.

Yu, however, believes that one crisis is no different from the other, noting that “it’s really the way we perceive the crisis. It’s the perspective that dictates whether or not a company is able to meet the crisis head on.”

“Instead of looking at them as a crisis, we always look at them as a catalyst for opportunities. It gave us fantastic opportunities such as selling using the internet. This is something that everybody talks about but no one big corporation has done it in a big way in real estate,” he said.

Empire East, for example, was able to adapt quickly after the lockdown was implemented in March, with its sales force turning immediately to online selling in lieu of face-to-face meetings and showroom visits. In fact, Empire East was able to book P2.4 billion in reservation sales—equivalent to about 600 units—in a little over two months’ time during the lockdown.

“We were prepared to do e-marketing but the crisis just hastened the process,” Yu added.

Besides the adaptability of the people inside the company, it also helped that Empire East projects are “saleable” given the exceptional value proposition it offers the market. Add to that the growing demand as housing, with or without a crisis, remains a basic necessity.

Way forward

Yu believes that after this crisis, businesses can no longer go back to the old ways. This catalyst for change, he added, opened up a lot of new opportunities and has leveled the playing field.

He added that this crisis has given the company the opportunity to do its own transmutation, which was “not just computerization but transformation from one state to another.” This transmutation process included permanently implementing work-from-home arrangements on certain days for about 70 percent of its workforce and instilling a paradigm shift throughout the entire organization through constant communication.

“From Empire East, the one thing we can promise you is this: it’s a company that has grown in size but it’s a company that will continue to think that it is small and nimble because we need to continue change,” he explained.

“In Empire East, we have been able to change ourselves internally and respond to the market because we’ve always come up with this notion that we are small and we must be nimble, and so any decision that we make today, we can change it tomorrow if the decision is wrong. If it is not correct, regardless of who says it, we’re willing to change it. This is the kind of mindset we continue to have since 1997 even when we became so much stronger and bigger. That is the kind of mindset that would bring us to a better future—the kind that prepared us for the projects we are launching,” Yu concluded.

Originally published on INQ Mobile