Managing a crossroad: Where business meets ‘bayanihan’

MANILA, Philippines — It’s crazy how something invisible to the naked eye can cause global pause. It’s no longer a question of whether or not the pandemic has changed us, it’s a question of how. Businesses have to get creative in order to survive. Today’s evolution requires being compassionate and humane.

For Golden Bay Land Holdings COO, Jardin Wong, it’s bayanihan all over again. Work-from-home setups, financial assistance, flexible working hours, food security, and medical care programs are just some of the things he’s implemented following the enhanced community quarantine.

“These measures were designed to adhere to the government’s stay-at-home policy. But more than that, the management wants employees’ peace of mind amid the crisis. We don’t want them to panic,” he shared. 

Being a hands-on leader, he considers the best for his employees, those who’ve made the company become the booming success it is today.

As a workaholic who loves to brainstorm with his employees over lunch meetings, working from home is a big change, but he’s making it work to the company’s advantage. If anything, the crisis has led to questions in management style and service improvement.

“It challenged the way we think as a company, how we transact business with clients, how we provide for our employees and impact the society through our developments. And lastly, it challenged the way we respond to the changing societal demands.”

Wong points out that extending benefits and implementing flexible work scheme are only the first steps. The end game is to institutionalize 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, ones that clients who surely look for even after the pandemic.

The company has started internal reforms for current and future procedures. Quick-response solutions are just as important as long term reforms.

“What’s important here is continuity. We need to have a sustained and evolving response to pandemics like this,” Wong said.

“Having a holistic plan for the business is the key to surviving anything, with or without a global crisis. We have to think globally and act locally by institutionalizing short, medium and long term plans to ensure the company’s success,” he added.

Aside from taking care of their company community, the company also extended help to local communities of their projects (Aspire Corporate Plaza in Pasay City, Garden City in Bacoor City). Wong cites that Golden Bay’s moral obligation to give back as these communities have been integral to their growth.

Sacks of rice, essential food items, and other urgent necessities, were donated to LGUs in Bacoor City, Pasay City, and Naic, Cavite. More will be donated upon demand.

As a young leader, Wong admits that the crisis has been teaching a lot about being 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 intelligence, emotional, and spiritual quotients. Being away from work made me understand the importance of outside factors and their impact on your success as a leader," he said.

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. He and the rest of his team are rekindling that spirit in their own way in the Golden Bay community.