Ho Hon Sang

“In life, you meet many people, so inevitably, you are inspired by some of them. I don’t think strengths only come from successful people. Those from the working class also have their strengths, so I capture the strengths and try to see if I can apply them to my life,” Mah Sing Group Bhd’s newly appointed CEO and executive director Ho Hon Sang tells City & Country in a recent interview.

The chatty engineer believes that anyone can be his mentor and inspire him, with the first being his parents.

He was appointed to his current role at Mah Sing in August this year. Previously, he was the CEO of Sunsuria Bhd and managing director of the property development division of Sunway Bhd.

Future plans

Ho says he is looking to take Mah Sing to the next level, with emphasis on delivering a structured organisation and improving operational efficiency.

Currently, Mah Sing Group uses a matrix management system — a practice in both vertical and horizontal dimensions and managing cross-functional, cross-business-group and other forms of working.

“In the vertical dimension, there are a couple matrices, based on the geographical areas of our projects, such as the northern region, three divisions in the central region and the southern region. Each matrix has a leader,” he explains.

In the horizontal dimension, meanwhile, there are supports, what Ho calls the C-suites, who work with the matrix. The C-suites are specialists in their fields, such as projects and marketing.

“We are at the initial stage of implementing this system,” Ho says. “The staff need to adjust and be convinced that it works and that it is more effective.”

While his role is to ensure a smooth implementation of Mah Sing’s operations and new system, Ho hopes to meet or even exceed customers’ expectations, and do it profitably.

Mah Sing

He also sees the future of digital platforms — that they will replace some of the traditional methods. He is in fact advocating the use of digital platforms, especially digital sales and marketing, and trying to get the right resources to handle the digital aspect.

He believes the conventional way of doing things will be phased out gradually. For example, he expects to see lower car ownership due to the surging digital trends like ride-hailing services that may change property designs. He also foresees the possibility of 3D printing for buildings in the future.

“In China, 3D printing has been done in buildings, even though it is not on a very big scale,” he says. “It also means a lot of study on the material itself, so, material science is a big thing globally.”

Ho’s management style is transparent and open. He prefers an interactive approach, seeking opinions from staff rather than just “one-way-traffic”.

“I want to be inclusive, especially with the young people who know more about the digital stuff. I need feedback and opinions from them,” he says. “Also, I want to adopt leadership by example. It means that when you ask your staff to do something, it is more effective if you can tell them that you have done it before.”

Humble beginnings

Born in Kampar, Perak, the 56-year-old graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering from Universiti Malaya. Upon graduation, he joined Esa Jurutera Perunding Sdn Bhd as an engineer in the late 1980s. He was involved in the building of the North-South Expressway (NSE).

“In the late 1970s, Malaysia’s economy was small and going overseas was just a hope because it was expensive,” he recalls. “At the time, Malaysia was in the developmental phase and infrastructure was being built. So, civil engineering was important then. Back then, men who were good in maths wanted to get into civil engineering.

He was also interested in studying medicine, but he neglected biology as he focused on his favourite subject — mathematics.

Mah Sing

“Civil engineering was growing in tandem with the country’s development and I never regretted that decision,” he says. “When I started, I was involved in all aspects of engineering, including design, site visits and supervision.”

The first seven years of his career were spent with the engineering consultancy firm where he was involved in constructing highways — mainly the NSE. This was before United Engineer Group of Companies privatised the highway.

After the privatisation of the highway, he quit the consultancy firm to join United Engineer Group of Companies and remained with it until the completion of the highway in 1994. At that point, he decided to leave the infrastructure and construction industry for good.

“I left because I believed I had had enough exposure in that industry. Also, building infrastructure works means you are always away from home and move around a lot. I wanted to spend more time with my family and that was why I decided to quit.”

And since it seemed a natural progression for an engineer to go into the property development industry, he joined Sunway Bhd in 1995 and he has not looked back since.

“Property development is a business and at that time I could only contribute to the engineering part of the business,” he says. “The development of Bandar Sunway had just started and along the way I picked up skills in architectural works, planning, landscaping, supply and contracts and, of course, sales and marketing and finance, which are very important. A business must earn revenue that is converted into profit.”

Ho was also involved in the total quality management of Sunway Bhd, following the trend around 2000 for certification by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).

ISO is a developer of voluntary international standards and facilitates world trade by providing common standards to ensure that products and services are safe, reliable and of good quality.

Mah Sing

Eventually, Ho became involved in other parts of the business, networking with business associates and government officials, scouting for land and doing feasibility studies to decide whether or not to acquire a piece of land.

“There are a series of requirements involved in property development,” he says. “The transition [from construction to property development] is not so challenging because engineering knowledge is an enabler for property development. With my training, I felt comfortable with the technical side of the business. Of course, it also meant I needed to pick up a lot of the soft skills, such as marketing and networking.”

Almost two decades of exposure to various aspects of property development has taught Ho the competencies he needs for his current position in Mah Sing.

His career highlights, he says, include making Bandar Sunway the first Green Building Index (GBI) silver-certified township. GBI is a green rating tool for buildings to promote sustainability in the built environment.

Another highlight was when a project achieved double the profit that had been initially projected.

“That was very memorable to me because it is not just about the market but it also means a lot of planning and forethought about what the customers want, how to make use of the place and the terrain to create something valuable,” Ho says. “The value creation of the project 10 years later is almost three times the launch price.”

Future launches

Ho believes next year will continue to be challenging, saying the market would improve if Bank Negara Malaysia relaxed the conditions of lending.

“Based on our experience, it is difficult to get a loan now,” he says. “The rejection rate is 60% and the applicants are mostly first-time homebuyers. The lending requirements are strict now because the household debt to GDP ratio is rising and is now 90%, though many debts are not property-related.”

Moving forward, Mah Sing Group is planning two launches — all in the Klang Valley — by the end of this year. They are Phase 2 of Caspia at M Residence 2 in Rawang, which offers 140 two-storey semi-detached homes with built-ups starting at 2,205 sq ft and an indicative price starting at RM743,800 onwards; and Cerrado Residential Suites Tower C and Tower D in Southville City @ KL South, which will have 404 units in each tower with built-ups starting at 656 sq ft.

The final block of D’Sara Sentral in Sungai Buloh, meanwhile, will be launched next year with a total of 197 units with built-ups starting at 781 sq ft.

This article first appeared in City & Country, a pullout of The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on Oct 31, 2016. Subscribe here for your personal copy.

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