It’s crazy how something invisible to the naked eye can cause a global pause. Skies are blue, markets are red, streets are empty, and digital meeting rooms are full. It’s no longer a question of if the Coronavirus pandemic has changed us, it’s a matter of how. Businesses have to get creative in order to survive this pandemic. Evolution is mandatory but so is being compassionate and humane, the keys for long term continuity.
For Golden Bay Land Holdings COO, Jardin Wong, it’s bayanihan over business in the time of the Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19. Work from home set-ups, financial assistance, flexible working hours, food security, and medical care programs are just some of the things Wong has implemented instantly when the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) was set into play. “All these measures were designed for them to adhere to the government’s stay at home policy. The management wants to give them peace of mind amidst this crisis, we don’t want them to panic,” Wong shares. Being a hands-on type of leader, he wants what’s best for his employees, all of whom have helped make Golden Bay Land Holdings the booming success it is today.
As a self-proclaimed workaholic that loves to brainstorm with his employees in meetings and meet his clients over lunches, working from home is a big change for the COO’s hands-on leadership style but he’s making it work to their company’s best advantage. If anything, COVID-19 has led them to question how their management style and service can be improved. “It challenged the way we think as a company, how we transact business with our clients, how we provide for our employees, how we impact a society through our developments, and lastly how we respond to the changing societal demands after such a profound crisis.”
Wong points out that extending benefits and providing a flexible work scheme is only the first step. The end game is to institutionalize short, medium, and long term reforms to create a better company culture. The management is now creating a crisis fund for employees and investing in tech products and software that can boost productivity wherever the employees are based. Wong and his team have also started revising their existing project designs to promote greener and health focused developments. Development features we’re sure clients will look for even if the pandemic has died down.
Golden Bay Land Holdings has started initiating internal reforms and viable solutions for the current and future procedures. Quick response solutions are just as important as the long term reforms. “The key word here is continuity. We need to have a sustained and evolving response to pandemics like this,” Wong shares.
“Having a holistic plan for the business is really the key to survive anything, with or without a global crisis. We have to think global and act local by institutionalizing short, medium and long term plans to ensure the company’s success,” he adds.
Aside from taking care of their company community, Golden Bay Land Holdings also extended help to the local communities of their projects (Aspire Corporate Plaza in Pasay City, Garden City in Bacoor City). Wong cites that “it’s Golden Bay’s moral obligation to give back to these communities, they have been an integral partners to our growth story.” They’ve donated sacks of rice, essential food items, and other urgent necessities, needed by the local government units in Bacoor City, Pasay City, and Naic, Cavite, and will be donating more items based on each community’s demands. “They’ve provided so much support and dedication to fulfill our vision and we want to give back that support and dedication to them.”
Every leader, be it in the private or public sector, is in a pressure cooker to serve their communities better. As a young leader, Wong admits that the pandemic and ECQ has taught him a lot in the span of three weeks — as a COO and a person. “ I understand now that in order to be successful you have to adapt the right kind of balance. Being a leader requires balancing your IQ, EQ, and SQ (Intelligence, Emotional, and Spiritual Quotient). Being away from work made me understand the importance of outside factors and their impact to your success as a leader.”
Wong says that he has watched the spirit of bayanihan live on through this whole quarantine. He and the rest of his team express their thanks to the unsung heroes and frontliners. Wong and the rest of his team are rekindling that spirit in their own way in the Golden Bay community.
