‘You need integrity to build your business’ – developer

There’s more to setting up one’s own construction company than adding buildings to the landscape.

“As you walk through a piece of raw land and see nothing there,” said Harrison S. Pow,“you work your imagination to develop something else that will improve the place, create new jobs and ultimately contribute to economic development.”

Pow said this was how he stays inspired to carry on his 27-year-old company, H.S. POW Construction and Development Corp..

His firm is the developer of the J Center Mall in A.S. Fortuna Street in Mandaue City, a five-year, three-hectare project that will include a hotel, apartelle and offices for outsourcing companies.

Pow was born in Surigao, the youngest son of a businessman and a teacher.

His family moved to Cebu where he attended the Cebu Christian School.

In college, he took up a degree in Physics, thinking he wanted to be a doctor then shifted to electrical engineering in his second year at the University of San Carlos where he graduated in 1974.

“I realized that I wanted to go into business eventually,” he said.

Pow was supposed to work in a manufacturing company in Manila after college but ended up working for the insurance company Malayan and later became an agent for Philam Life.

“The income from selling insurance policies was good. In fact, it was much better than working as an engineer. At that time, an engineer earned P600 a month but I was earning about P5,000 a month,” he said.

Pow was drawn into the construction business when classmates invited him to join their company as the treasurer and marketing man in 1980.
The experience showed him there were bigger opportunities in construction.

The business went well until the 1983 assassination of former senator Benigno Ninoy Aquino Jr. brought on a crisis with unstable prices of goods including construction materials and a slowdown in the construction business.

“The inflation rate was really bad. Soon my colleagues started to migrate to other countries and I was left to decide to just create my own company,” he said.

He registered H.S. POW Construction and Development Corp., with the Department of Trade and Industry in 1984 and started doing projects in 1986 with 10 engineer staff members to assist him.

His first project was a school building for College of Fisheries in Davao del Norte.

CHALLENGE

The early years were a big challenge to get projects, said Pow.

One had to participate in as many biddings as possible and win contracts in order to earn.

However, he didn’t want to limit himself to the role of a contractor. A friend in another company inspired him.

“He had a different way of doing things and getting projects. He was what we call a development manager who tried to be a one-stop-shop center for his clients.”

Pow said this wider role involves pooling all one’s resources to come up with a development project and deliver it within a certain period of time.

“It’s about getting the right people under your wing, managing them, encouraging them and working together with them with their different moods and ideas,” he said.

Today Pow’s company has 500 employees. It has handled major projects of San Miguel Corp. in Manila and was the foundation contractor of Shangri-La’s Mactan Island Resort and Spa.

INTEGRITY

Looking back, Pow said the key success factor in doing business and taking on many challenges is integrity.

“The most important thing in a person is his integrity,” he said.

“You have to do what you promise, deliver it on time and be fair to people. This has always been a key for me because when you have integrity, people will trust you and have faith that you will deliver your end of the bargain.”