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Press Release Sample |
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Empire East Prexy at CREBA-HUDCC National Convention: written by JB Lazarte |
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Speaking at the Chamber of Real
Estate & Builders’ Associations, Inc. – Housing and Urban Development
Coordinating Council’s (CREBA-HUDCC) national convention held at the Bacolod
Convention Plaza Hotel in Bacolod City, Atty. Yu emphasized the extraordinary methods the
company employed just to survive the crisis. “The crisis provided us with our
proverbial looking glass,” Yu said. “We believe that adversity gives us
opportunities to grow. And truly, we do learn from failure. Besides, we always tell people
that the crisis should never be an excuse for failure to achieve targets. The history of
our country is composed of one crisis after another, and it would be unrealistic for us to
say that the instability and the crisis should be given as an excuse.” Yu particularly pointed out that the company’s best decisions have been made during the crisis, which has begun in late 1997. Empire East, according to him, undertook seemingly irrational strategies to survive the slump, such as embarking on an aggressive full-page, full-color print ad campaign when the rest of the industry shied away from advertising, stepping up marketing and research methods, creating an in-house construction group and retaining all of the company’s people—decisions that later proved to be beneficial in the long term. “And perhaps the greatest of
those decisions was keeping our people,” Yu said. “We kept talent; we told them
not a single one of you will be fired. Now we realize its fruits with the fact that Empire
East stands on firm ground, manned by people who really take care of the company, people
who will be with us through thick and thin. People who know from their guts what Empire
East really is about, who accomplish their daily work with an inner passion that is
homegrown, and therefore, sincerely felt.” Yu also stressed that crisis is a
given in every planning. “It should be assumed that there will always be a crisis, in
whatever form. But to an organization buttressed by strong values and talented people,
crisis presents a fresh inroad on a journey of discipline, work and the pursuit of an ever
higher standard.” The Empire East president also refuses to be affected by the national and global situation, which seem to worsen by the day. He believes that the company’s internal strength will propel it further to its goals. “Since we don’t have a handle on the national and global situation, we just have to have a handle of ourselves regardless of what the trend is outside,” he said during a separate interview. “That’s a better way of looking at things, and not looking at the industry and, seeing it going down, adopting a moribund attitude while saying ‘I’m going down with the industry.’ I don’t know the future but I would like to hope that the worst is over.” Finally, Yu said that on the upside, the crisis presents both the industry and consumers better opportunities. “In times of crisis, it’s when the prices, terms and options are better, so it’s actually a better deal for consumers. It’s also up to the company to be market-oriented. There’s the opportunity for the consumers, but we have to match the opportunities, and if we match the opportunities then sales will be very good. And that’s what happened in the last two years.” The CREBA-HUDCC convention, which ran
from October 18 to 20 and attended by representatives from the real estate industry and
the government, focused on industry trends and opportunities, innovations and crisis
management. - END -
Copyright (c) 2004 by Joe Bert G. Lazarte
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