10 minute read
York Towers' New CEO Khaled Osama talks innovation and creating market demand
from Issue #1335
FEBRUARY 18 - 24, 2022 BUSINESS
9 The Innovative Leadership of Khaled Osama, York Towers' New CEO
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Despite the elevated risks associated with the Covid19 pandemic crisis, the real estate market is showing an upward trend of late. Demand for real estate is increasing as economic activity resumes. Simultaneously, as demand grows and market uncertainty diminishes, real estate prices remain stable. In response to these trends, York Towers is undergoing substantial transformations, both technical and structural, ideological and brand development-related. By concentrating on the demands of multinational clientele, the fi rm has established a global presence. As a result of 5 years of successful operation in the Georgian market, "York Towers" has evolved into a holding company.
The asset management and brokerage arm of York Holding Group – York Towers is now headed by Khaled Osama, a highly analytical and data driven professional who has allowed the group to successfully acquire and sell the whole catalogue of York assets over the years. York Towers has been successful in creating value for clients with a view to maximizing returns. Market research and the ability to predict emerging trends gives them an edge over any other local or international brokers on the market.
Property Georgia spoke to Mr. Osama about this news and the company’s activities under his management.
CONGRATULATIONS ON THE NEW ROLE! LET’S START WITH YOUR PLANS AS YORK TOWERS CEO. WHAT IS YOUR STRATEGY FOR SUCCESS ON TODAY’S VERY COMPETITIVE RESIDENTIAL MARKET?
Our strategy is our high level of service, as well as diversifi cation and speed. We sell projects that are built on our (York Holding Group) own lands and projects that we buy from construction companies. That’s an important part of the strategy that ensures that we have a diverse portfolio of properties on offer for our clients, including land, apartments, villas, etc. Acquisitions are the important part of our angle. If and when we fi nd something suitable within our parameters, we are able to move fast and buy. This gives us a huge supply of properties, but demand is always there because of York Towers attentive approach to customer care and relations. Even though we have been quite successful, we are still hungry for more.
Also vital are our employees, and in particular, that they understand where the company is going. I make sure everybody working in York Towers actually knows the strategy and what it means in our day-to-day operations. Everybody needs to really understand their role in the strategy and how they are adding value to it.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR MANAGEMENT STYLE AND OBJECTIVES?
First of all, I spend a lot of his time attending meetings at all levels of the company so that I can understand what’s going on throughout the organization, and answer any questions that may arise. It’s like combining all the capabilities from the company and all the best ideas.
I’m in favor of such a keyword as “transparency”. I believe it is crucial for any business today to be transparent to its clients, partners, and employees alike. I will do my best to preserve and maintain all the best that York Towers has achieved during the past 5 years, and focus on further step-by-step development. We’ve already launched a number of initiatives focusing on internal effectiveness and customer experience, aiming at making every interaction within the company and with our clients quicker and more effective. We’ve upgraded and fi ne-tuned our CRM system, making sure it constantly improves and learns based on feedback loops. I believe that the main objective of the CEO is the synchronization between every unit of the company to make it act as a single living being.
IS THE COMPANY’S APPROACH DIFFERENT WHEN IT COMES TO COMMUNICATION WITH CUSTOMERS?
When you get around four hundred new customers a year, it is easier to reach out to every one of them. However, when you get one hundred new customers each month in addition to the existing residents, integrating new technology and adopting a systemic approach becomes a priority. We constantly implement new standards and maintain communication with our clients to identify their needs and expectations. We also try to keep an individual approach to maintain an emotional connection with our customers.
YOUR DIRECTORSHIP ALSO COINCIDED WITH THE MOST ACUTE PHASE OF THE PANDEMIC. WHAT SIGNALS DID YOU GET FROM THE MARKET?
We are constantly one step ahead of the game in the real estate industry since we do much more than sell homes: we build a lifestyle. For instance, we were among the fi rst to offer turnkey apartments, energy-effi cient construction, and fi re safety standards. Our buildings are accessible to disabled individuals. Our customer and hospitality services (for international clients) are always available, ensuring our clients' safety, security, and complete comfort. When the time came to offer something new, we sat together and discussed how we might elevate our performance and provide our clients with greater value. This is how we came up with the idea for the gated communities of York Town and Lisi View, launched the projects a couple years ago, and successfully completed the early phases of land development and construction. Here, rather than selling square meters, we are selling space. We are selling the environment and a way of life.
DO YOU USUALLY MEET THE EXISTING DEMAND ON THE MARKET, OR DO YOU INDUCE NEW DEMAND?
The number of residents per apartment in Tbilisi is considerably higher than the European average, and, moreover, there’s international demand both for living and investment purposes. Therefore, demand has not yet been met. Additionally, our company’s advantage is our innovative approach that also creates demand. When you are conducting such an extensive urban development initiative and creating a new center of attraction, demand tends to shift towards that center and other construction projects start to develop around it.
AND WHAT YOU ARE DOING HAS BECOME A TREND?
Indeed, we are striving to create new market trends and launch novel products. Naturally, others will follow suit: we are developing a neighborhood, selling turnkey apartments, and developing energy-effi cient structures, among other things. Innovation is risky, but also extremely benefi cial; all of this has already become a trend.
SOCIETY New Study of Attitudes to Diversity in Georgia: People Increasingly Positive about Minorities
The Council of Europe Offi ce in Georgia presented the results of the project “Fight against Discrimination, Hate Speech and Hate Crimes in Georgia” carried out in 2018-2021 and the main fi ndings of the study “Hate Speech, Hate Crimes and Discrimination in Georgia: Attitudes and Awareness in 2021” conducted under the project and comparing the change in the public attitudes to diversity over the past three years.
The project was implemented under the Council of Europe’s Action Plan for Georgia 2020-2023 with the support of the Danish Neighborhood Program in Georgia (DANEP).
The study focused on the awareness, understanding and appreciation of diversity in the Georgian society; the protection of minorities and vulnerable groups; occurrence of discrimination, hate crime and hate speech in the Georgian society and who it affects; public attitude to and knowledge of Georgian legislation against discrimination, hate crime, and hate speech; existing redress mechanisms and their effectiveness; and different actors’ work in this fi eld.
The study demonstrates that knowledge and appreciation of diversity in Georgian society increased between 2018 and 2021. Positive attitudes towards diversity in general increased from 56% to 70%, a 14 percentage point increase. People are more capable of naming a minority group and the public has signifi cantly more positive attitudes towards diversity in general, and ethnic and religious diversity, in particular. For ethnic diversity, the data show a 12-point increase in positive attitudes, from 56% to 68%. a greater extent the importance of minority rights and their protection compared to 2018. The number of persons thinking protecting the LGBTI rights is important rose from 33% in 2018 to 47% in 2021. At the same time, the number of persons that thought the protection of LGBT rights was unimportant decreased from 44% in 2018 to 29% in 2021.
While the public’s attitudes have become increasingly positive about diversity, there has been little if any change in terms of awareness of Georgian legislation against discrimination, hate crime, and hate speech. Knowledge of and appreciation of existing redress mechanisms and their effectiveness also remain unchanged.
Torch Time: Etseri, Svaneti
BLOG BY TONY HANMER
Once again the annual cycle of events brings us back to Lamproba, the Festival of Torches in Upper Svaneti, centered on Etseri. It’s connected with the changing date of Orthodox Easter, so it too changes within a range; but it’s always “in the bleak midwinter”.
Despite asking many people, I have not found a confi dently asserted date, or even century or foe, as details of the battle won near Etseri by men carrying burning torches. However, this time, visiting my neighbor and best friend in the village, I did glean some more intriguing details about the festival itself.
The torches are always made of straight birch boughs, one per male family member, the largest belonging to St. George as an extra. Why birch? Here’s why: the legend is that Jesus Christ was running from some persecutors, and in a forest he asked an evergreen tree to hide him among its branches. It refused, putting them up instead of down to cover him. Another tree, of indefi nite species, did the same. But the birch, which he asked third, obliged, and put its branches down to hide him. So, in honor of this protection, birches are always used as these particular torches, and revered for other purposes too!
Each branch is cut and, while still very fresh and green, split many times at one end with an adze, making that end spread out a bit like a broom. The greenness ensures that these splits will not break off. Cedar chips (and, more modernly, diesel) are added to the cuts to make it burn better.
The morning of Lamproba, ideally while it’s still dark, the men and boys of each family light the torches and carry them burning through the deeply snowladen village paths to where the bonfi re of them will be started; usually one location per hamlet, just outside a church. (Our place features a large old pagan holy tree just outside the church, a walnut I think, visibly vying with it for pride of religious place in people’s hearts and lives.) They make the fi re right on the snow, and it burns strongly enough that over the next few hours it will melt through half a meter or more of snow down to the ground, without putting itself out.
We greet and congratulate each other for the Day. Then, a while later, the women and other family members will start to arrive, with bags of little round bread loaves and bottles of either moonshine or wine. Three at a time, the men take three loaves each and pray out loud and together (ideally in Svan) for each family in turn. Toasts are drunk, because, Georgia. Later (which The Virus makes us miss as we are currently doing with all feasts), there will be a traditional Georgian feast in each hamlet, hosted by a different family each year in turn.
This year was the fi rst time that I was invited and requested to join in the prayers for each family, which I gladly did, in English but with no-one objecting. It felt like I really was being shown that I belong to the community, which gladdened my heart much.
I had two male guests with me, from Chile and Canada, and they were fascinated with the proceedings, and privileged to be there for the timing of the whole event, which in their eyes was a marvelous medieval-era thing preserved to now. The details lost, it still unites Svans in their own province, elsewhere in Georgia and indeed wherever they are in the world.
Tony Hanmer has lived in Georgia since 1999, in Svaneti since 2007, and been a weekly writer and photographer for GT since early 2011. He runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with nearly 2000 members, at www.facebook.com/ groups/SvanetiRenaissance/ He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri: www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti
