Recession could be a golden opportunity!

Mr. Venu Bhagawan,
Business Success Coach
Marketing Mentor

Markets crashed and sales slowdown – a similar negative environment prevails in the real estate sector of the city. However, builders say the market is good. Politicians are presenting statistics and trying to revive the sentiment by stating that the market will surge further. The national and international realty research institutes are going farther and are competing with each other in releasing latest survey reports. Since they rely on realty companies for business and survival, they claim that this quarter is better than the previous quarters, even if the market is not great. Last few years some realtors have sold huge number of flats in the form of pre-launches. But, only time will tell whether they will collapse like Noida builders, or continue building flats in the next few years. It will soon be known how many buyers will lodge complaints with the police and approach the courts. Apart from all these factors, the cancellation of GO 111 in the city has brought new challenges to those involved in land sales and layout developers.

Although the sales have been good in recent past, the fact that a possible recession in the near future, is making the realty giants nervous. One can hoodwink buyers by making them believe that the market is good even if it is not great. But unless they conduct a reality check, the construction companies as well as the entire construction sector will have to face more challenges soon. However, for those who take this recession positively rather than negatively, it is a golden opportunity. To know why, one should understand the real estate sector which comprises both builders and developers.

A builder is considered as someone who builds buildings or funds them, but it is neither as there are people who does this work for him/her. Because customer or bank funds and contractor or mason will build.
The real task of the builder is to build their organisation with good work culture and develop teams with leadership skills. Similarly, the developers’ job is not restricted to buy farmlands and flatten them with JCB in the name of developing infrastructure, but he/she should focus on developing their organisation. Those who ignore their primary responsibilities and fail to work with a vision suffer when market slows down. But the recession provides a golden opportunity to those builders/developers who built strong organisations.

Recession is a problem for:

• Those that do business in a stereotyped way without any innovation
• Those doing business under individual ownership like a boss without building an organizational structure or inspiring culture.
• Those who make huge promises to their customers, but limit them to brochures.
• Those constructing with mediocre / poor quality.
• Those who do not respect their employees, sales teams, suppliers, vendors along with customers
• Those who are greedy and cheaters.
• Those who build houses without proper permissions, planning, and competence and capacity to deliver
• Those that make useless ventures.
• Those that lack financial discipline and dedication in life and business.

Recession is a golden opportunity for

• Those who build teams with good intentions and leadership skills with core values to deliver on the promises made,
• Built trust (goodwill) with customers, suppliers, and employees.
• Creative in design, marketing strategy and execution.
• Those that know the needs and pain points of the people and provide them solutions with the best product at an affordable price with their intelligence and innovation.
• Those who spend every rupee (fund) received from a customer responsibly by considering it as a bank loan

Opportunity for business expansion

•  Prime lands will be available at unbelievable price.
• Get enough time to make payments.
• Hoardings useful for marketing can be found at a discount price in the right locations
• Can get talented and experienced people to build a strong team for better salaries
•  Due to less rush, one can interact more with customers and know what they really want
•  Get ideas required for construction of a building to developing a wonderful community (right customers) who further help the company grow.
•  Know what is happening in the country / world. Opportunity to visit innovative projects and learn from newcomers.
•  More time for innovation means less competition or making competition irrelevant.
•  When a great project idea is launched with a blue ocean strategy, sales teams grow from being busy salespersons striving to push sales to being sales coordinators who help customers buy.

To gain the trust of its employees, suppliers, and customers, an organisation should imbibe the Greek philosophy of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos into the organization’s work culture. Ethos means credibility and values; Pathos means emotions and feelings; and Logos means logic and wisdom. However, all these cannot be developed overnight. Construction companies can last long only when they have the right leadership that works strategically.

The deeper the roots are, the stronger the trees will grow. In case of an organization, the roots are synonymous with its values. A tree with strong roots dances to the breezes, and also can withstand strong winds. Further, it will also yield good results.

If the tree is an organization, its branches are the various departments. The shadow of a tree is the company’s reputation, the birds on it are team leaders and stack holders, and those who rest under that shade are the buyers. So, if any organization has a social purpose, a mission, the board/team meetings will be full of new ideas. If the ideas are contributed by the team members, there will be renewed enthusiasm to implement them. Whether they work on a mission or work like a machine, depends on the leadership abilities and motives of the top management. To summarize, the fruits are tasty only if the roots of the tree/institution are strong. Isn’t it true?