12 success tips from office developers Charlie Rufino and Jacques Dupasquier

What success tips can we businesspeople and professionals learn from two dynamic office tower developers in the Philippines’ fastest-growing new central business district (CBD), Bonifacio Global City in Taguig?

I recently had an exclusive interview with two scions of prominent business families who are carving out their own names in realty business via The Net Group: Carlos “Charlie” Sunico Rufino and Jacques Aguirre Dupasquier (pronounced “du-pa-shieh”).

Rufino, 66, is from the family that used to own movie houses in pre-war Manila. He was senior vice president of Fort Bonifacio Development Corp. until in 1998, he used one personal lot in the Fort — then barren and deserted — to go into office development. His parents didn’t spoil him and used to make him work summers at their old movie theaters; his salary was only four pieces of delicious siomai from Hen Wah Chinese Restaurant on Rizal Avenue, Manila, “which was among the best in the 1960s.” He learned “that’s there’s no sense of self-worth if you live off your parents only.”

His 50-percent-equity business partner Dupasquier, 53, is the grandson of the late pawnshop businessman Apolonio Aguirre, and his mom, Remedios Aguirre, is part owner of the Aguirre banking and realty businesses. But he’s quick to clarify, “There’s nothing Aguirre about me and my businesses except for my maternal surname and bloodline.”  Dupasquier is also an investor in Valkyrie Nightclub, Asia’s largest club located in Andrew Tan’s Uptown Bonifacio project in the Fort, Taguig City.

Here are some of their success tips:

1. Take care of your reputation. Charlie Rufino said that his father, Vicente Rufino, was his role model in the old-school way of doing business, when people kept their promises: “Their word was their bond.”

2. Go for the high-end market, talk to fewer people. Jacques Dupasquier said his first realty venture was the Bonair project of 335 small homes in Molino, Bacoor, Cavite, where each house was 36 square meters. He wasn’t used to this mass-market business, so he decided he would go for the high-end market, “in order to deal with and talk to fewer people.”

3. Simplify management for speed. In their business, Dupasquier said, “We have only one-layer management.” It’s just him and Charlie as equal partners making fast decisions. He is the “marketing specialist, the strategic visionary and focused on brand building,” while he describes Rufino as “a locomotive; he’s a diesel engine to keep the thing going.”

4. You are only as good as your last project. Rufino said one secret to success is to keep innovating and working hard to maintain excellence, because “in real estate, you’re only as good as your last building.” I recall advertising agency executive and writer Sarge Lacuesta also saying the same thing before my mass communication students at La Consolacion College Manila: “In advertising and even in other fields, you are only as good as your last project.”

5. Be passionate. Dupasquier and Rufino said that they’re both passionate about their business, that’s why they’re “so personalized in approach” and meticulous.

6. Innovation is essential. They try to innovate, from new technologies to project management styles. For example, they pioneered use of VRF or variable refrigerant volume for air-conditioning, so each office tenant in their building has their own electric meter. They also pioneered the “boutique information technology building,” with hotel-like concierge staff wearing elegant uniforms by top designer Rajo Laurel and DJ music by Anton Ramos from Tower Records. Their office tower lobbies prominently display artworks such as the photography of Ayala Group patriarch Jaime Zobel de Ayala in Net One.

7. Learn from the leaders. Rufino said that he admires American realty developer Gerald Hines: “This office developer has defined a whole generation of architects and how to make developments economical.” In the past, all big companies wanted to own “trophy buildings,” but Hines offered to put up the buildings and then leased them to the big firms with the tenants’ company names on the towers. This is what Net Group has done in the Fort, for example, for multinationals like Deutsche Bank and J. P. Morgan. These two tenants lease the same building but their separate entrances are 180 degrees apart with their own elegant lobbies. Award-winning artist Juan Sajid Imao won the competition to do the sculpture outside the Deutsche Bank lobby.

Both developers admire Megaworld founder Andrew Tan for his vision. “Tan hasn’t made a bad move yet in his fast expansion,” they say. “He has a fantastic ability to make deals and to beat his bigger rivals.” Tan also “has made many right moves, his execution in projects can still be improved… his companies are impressive, they’re growing bigger and bigger and getting better people.”

They also admire the Zobels of the Ayala Group:  “They have built a lot of good projects, they have vision and their execution is very good. Ayala slowed down before, they had their moment of weakness because they thought before that they could sell anything just by using the Ayala brand name. But now they’re competing, too. They’re even now hiring Megaworld people.”

1. Real estate is a cycle; timing is thus very important. The two developers are very conscious about the cyclical nature of real estate in their operations, both in their schedule of doing only one project a year and in the way they treat their tenants very well so they won’t have rental vacancies during bad times. In hard times, they’re flexible with their tenants in terms of rental.

2. Never borrow what you don’t own. This is a key rule for them. “A lot of people grew faster in business by leveraging; we also leverage, but you’ve got to have your other assets like houses, etc.”

3. It’s what you inspect, not what you expect, that happens. Rufino always tells his son, The Net Group’s executive vice president Ramon Rufino, “At the end of the day, the building must be built, so it’s what you inspect, and not what you expect, that happens. We spend a lot of our lives in meetings and on the jobsite. Do not rely on promises or even the body language of people, because the bad news about Filipinos is they don’t tell you the bad news.”

4. Have a policy of give and take. One secret to the enduring success of their 50-50 business partnership is their “give and take” policy when it comes to decision-making. They call it the “gentleman’s call,” meaning if Rufino wants to decide on a certain deal or project now, the assumption is that the next decision will be made by Jacques Dupasquier. They’ve done this harmoniously for the past 15 years, laughing that their business partnership “is like a marriage” built on healthy give and take, on sincere mutual respect.

5. You need to have healthy worry. Dupasquier said that he admires Lindsay Owen-Jones, chairman of cosmetics giant L’Oreal for over 20 years, when the business had an over 20 percent annual growth rate. This CEO advised: “You need to have healthy worry.” Dupasquier added that the real estate industry is affected by two main factors: supply and demand, and confidence, which is paramount.

I heard this “healthy worry” principle also from the Moldex Group’s self-made founder Jacinto Uy. I agree that optimism is essential for success, but even in good times, we should think of possible worst-case scenarios and always be prepared!

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