We’re In This Together
Yeng Tupaz recounts how Ayala Malls has always valued and nurtured its relationship with its merchants—enough to become the first malls to waive rent during the lockdown
Words by ALYA B. HONASAN
“It was a painful decision we had to make, but we also knew it was the right thing to do.”
Jennylle “Yeng” Tupaz, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Ayala Malls, succinctly describes how, at the very onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines, one of the country’s biggest retail developers informed their thousands of tenant merchants nationwide that they didn’t have to worry about rent—the first malls in the country to do so during the global health crisis.
As businesses ground to a halt, merchants in the company’s 32 malls breathed sighs of relief heard across the archipelago, Tupaz says. “We were receiving heartening messages of sincere appreciation.”
The rent reprieve was just one area where Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) opted to put people first in the face of the crisis, and managers were on top of the decision. Yeng cites her bosses, Junie Jalandoni, head of ALI’s Commercial Business Group, and ALI president and CEO Bobby Dy. “The three of us, we have a group chat, and we were constantly exchanging thoughts. Bobby of course also sought direction and guidance from our principals.”
Management already knew that the closure of malls after the March 16 lockdown was imminent, and Ayala was committed to comply. “We were glued to the TV, waiting for all the government announcements,” recalls Yeng. “We had to talk to local government units, implementing bodies. It was a challenging weekend. Every minute counted, for us and for all the other developers, as we’re friends in the business.”
““People will lose their jobs. That was the biggest worry. Hunger is more potent than COVID.””
Before the announcement of the Ayala lockdown on Saturday, March 14, frenetic exchanges were happening behind the scenes, and there was naturally a lot of apprehension. “People will lose their jobs. That was the biggest worry. Hunger is more potent than COVID.”
In other parts of the Ayala Group, similar decisions were being made to look after partners in business. Globe provided free and unlimited WIFI in hospitals, airports, and supermarkets. Plus, they waived call charges on COVID-related hotlines. BPI gave a 30-day extension for credit card payments and waived late payment fees (16 March to 15 April). The Group offered a basket load of payment extensions from Globe, Manila Water, and BPI.
Grand (re)Opening. Aside from following GCQ measures, Ayala Malls invested in state-of-the-art thermal contactless scanners with 99% accuracy, installed UV disinfection devices on escalators. APMC teams also prepared the malls for re-opening, down to details like checking gas pipes, making sure vents and pipes were free of dust and bacteria, and guaranteeing indoor air quality.
ALI management also had to think of its own people, even as the company’s targets for the year “were thrown out the window.”
Yeng recounts how, pre-COVID, Ayala Malls had a contingent of some 7,000 personnel consisting mostly of security and housekeeping, a number that was whittled down to 1,700 during the expanded community quarantine (ECQ). “It was painful for many — especially for our service providers.”
While the company provided financial assistance to help contingent personnel, its employees personally contributed as well through ALI’s Pay It Forward campaign, where P4.6 million was raised. But this was clearly not going to be sustainable for the long run. For example, because cinemas were closed, Ayala Malls had to temporarily let go of close to 200 people, among them ticket sellers and snack bar attendants.
Its Human Resources department ensured that people did not find out only through an email or a memo. “First, we have to talk. There always has to be a conversation. Of course, there were individual concerns, so HR had to be available, and they played a very crucial role in taking care of the organization.” There were tears on all sides, “but at the end of the day you need to be able to step back so you can make decisions in your head, very objective ones, while at the same time keeping your heart.”
The solid corporate culture made it easier for people to think beyond themselves, however. “I like how people stepped up, going beyond the call of duty,” Tupaz says. “We have a lot of heroes in the organization. People go the extra mile to help out in various ways, and that really makes a difference, because we’ve not encountered anything of this magnitude and complexity.
““A mall is like a living, breathing thing. You have to take care of it every day.””
Faceless heroes. This security guard is just one visible part of Ayala Malls massive effort to protect all customers and vendors. Not as visible are the APMC teams who monitor the property, management policies like COVID-19 testing for frontliners, and behind-the-scenes, round-the-clock disinfection of all mall areas.
“In a nutshell, there is no magic formula,” Yeng concludes. “We lost. Our merchants lost because businesses were restricted. It is about survival; and the big part of that is collaborating with our merchants. That brings me the greatest fulfillment—that you have to make some tough calls for the business, but you know you're doing it because you want to keep things afloat. It’s really a partnership.”
Yeng has had a lot of practice in collaboration and mentorship within the corporation she has come to view as a second family. She joined ALI in 1997 as a project development assistant in LPHI (now Avida), when the company was still focused on horizontal developments, like subdivisions. After nine years, she moved to ALI’s Leisure and Lifestyle Communities Group, and then to Alveo, formerly called Community Innovations Inc. (CII) before it was rebranded in 2008.
Working her way up to president of Alveo over 11 years, she expanded her own portfolio to handle condominium and office developments and estate planning during the building boom, establishing brand new communities.
Yeng, who enjoys teaching and advocates continuous learning, has also been active in in-house training programs.
She was part of the team that implemented Systems Applications and Products (SAP) in ALI in 2001, and is a member of the faculty for the ALI Professionals-in-Development (PID) program, providing the overview of the Project Development Process. In Alveo, she launched the Alveo Center for Excellence (ACE). “My background is really project development—I’m very fortunate to experience all stages of the process, from land acquisition and negotiation, to visioning, conceptualization and design, to execution and delivery. So you train your team, but more importantly you want to be able to share the learnings with the entire organization, and get to tell everyone, ‘Hey, you are part of this process and you are all important, but you have to understand the bigger picture so that you know your role in that picture.’”
Awaken Amazing. Yeng delivers a lecture for Alveo University, a training program she set up while she was its president. She established a similar learning culture in Ayala Malls, through the Awaken Amazing Campaign. She explains: “Not to say, ‘Hey, I am amazing already’ but to actually ask that question, ‘Am I doing an amazing job?’” They had e-learning platforms and Ripple sessions (similar to Ted Talks), which helped employees feel engaged, inspired and productive.
““You have to understand the bigger picture so that you know your role in that picture.””
She was midway through her eMBA program from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business when it was announced that she was moving to Ayala Malls in 2018.
“I definitely did not expect it,” says Yeng of the reassignment. “It was good and scary at the same time because I never really dreamed of handling this portfolio.” It’s a totally different experience, she says. “The Malls is like a living, breathing thing you have to take care of every day. The reassignment provided an opportunity to get to know a bigger family, a much bigger organization.”
At Ayala Malls, Yeng heads a group of over 620 organic people running all malls nationwide. “That’s like 32 sub-cultures, 32 small companies,” she explains. Taking care of all of them has meant internalizing a sense of malasakit, the Filipino word that means going out of one’s way to help or think of the other, “to see the overall picture for the community versus just looking at one’s own space. Hindi pwedeng kanya-kanya.”
Yeng took the reins at an interesting time, when mall culture was rapidly changing all over the world—especially in the Philippines, where malling is a way of life for many Filipinos. “We have been asked in the past, will brick and mortar continue to be relevant? And the answer is yes. In the Philippines or in Asia, the culture is different. The mall is no longer just a transactional space; it is experiential, it is social. People will continue to be in the malls to celebrate, to transact. But we also recognize that the digital age has come upon us, and we need to embrace it.”
Drive Buy Shopping. In May, Ayala Malls offered a contactless, convenient shopping service: customers call merchants, who bring the products to designated curbside pick-up points.
This digital dimension has helped keep the Ayala Malls community connected and relevant during the quarantine period, through platforms like the digital loyalty app Z!ng, for example, and the click-and-mortar initiative DriveBuy. “We launched DriveBuy, a convenient curbside pick-up facility that promotes contactless payment and convenience. We rolled out Z!ng, our Ayala Malls loyalty app that's so handy it's like having a concierge at your fingertips,” she explains. “You can easily check which stores are open in your favorite mall for a quick and purposeful mall visit, Imagine Wazing your way through the mall! You can even shop in Zalora thru Z!ng.”
The Ayala Z!ng loyalty app has features like store guides, P2P bus schedules, e-reservation, and e-gifts.
Most recently, technology has enabled the team to not miss a beat in the time of quarantine. “There was a quick adjustment from face-to-face meetings to virtual meetings. We needed to move fast on a lot of things, and we just had to find a way to get in touch.”
Yeng, who also heads HR in Ayala Malls, shepherded the Learning and Development team in rolling out eLearning platforms to keep people connected and engaged . “Apart from our Management Townhalls, eChats with the Bosses, and online training modules, we launched our “Ripple Sessions” in the early months of the lockdown, and these were like Ted xTalks, you have 30 minutes to an hour to talk about a certain topic, relate that to your job, and get the conversation going with your audience. A lot of self-expression here, but insightful and instructive.”
She prioritized merchant listening conversations, which had already been going on before the lockdown, when she, along with her heads of Strategic Leasing, Operations and Marketing would hold meetings with key accounts. “Before the lockdown, we needed to schedule them, as there were a lot of things happening in the mall and it was a challenge to synch calendars. We actually have more of these conversations now, and they are even more important and relevant as we need to understand what merchants are going through and the kind of support that they need. It’s faster now, versus ‘Can we schedule a meeting?’ Now it’s, ‘Hey, can we talk for an hour?’ The talk is more crucial today. And they say, ‘Thank you for listening to us.’”
With the National Capital Region on modified community quarantine and businesses reopening as of this writing, “We are reopening with guarded optimism and a lot of caution,” Yeng says. “The enforcement of all our safety and health measures—we monitor that everyday.” The behavior is not quite instilled in people yet, she notes. “It’s very simple—wear your mask, wash your hands, keep your distance. Compliance is very important, but we want to ensure that what we're saying is what’s actually happening on the ground. That we walk the talk as all eyes are on us.”
It’s essential to continue to build customer trust as businesses reopen, Yeng says. “I want to hear the ‘Welcome to Ayala Malls’ again. I check every time; I ask the guard, ‘Kuya, bakit wala ang greeting mo?’ In the absence of a vaccine, there will always be that fear. You want to help people conquer that fear, but at the same time you do not want to be complacent.”
““People sometimes ask, ‘How do you deal with stress?’ You just eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert—otherwise it will eat you up.””
How Yeng has managed to keep calm and soldier on during this debacle is a testament to her own leadership style, honed over 23 years with Ayala Land, Inc. “FZA (Fernando Zobel de Ayala, president and chief operating officer of Ayala Corporation) asked that question one time, when we hosted dinner for key merchant partners: ‘How do you balance things between work and family?’” Yeng is a wife and mother to two daughters aged 20 and 15; she was wrapping up her eMBA and her mother was ill at the time of her new assignment. “There really is no magic formula. I think if you love what you do and have that sense of purpose in life, you just keep going, and it takes away the stress. People sometimes ask, ‘How do you deal with stress?’ You just eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert—otherwise it will eat you up.”
Safety check. Ayala Malls complied with all DTI guidelines, including: No ID/No Face Mask/No entry policy, pick-up points for purchases, turning off Wi-Fi, and limiting capacity to one person per two square meters.
“It’s an extraordinary opportunity to be in this position today, where you can make decisions that make an impact on a lot of people. You have to be very careful in terms of wielding that kind of influence.”
Taking a proactive stance is an excellent first step. “On my team, we have this rule: Dapat may hatid, sundo, salo. If there is an issue that needs to be resolved, ihatid mo na kaysa hintayin mo pa. If you need something done and no one seems to be acting promptly on it, sunduin mo na. Always hand-hold, laging may salo. Walang iwanan, walang laglagan.”
That the work has unnerved her at times is something Yeng readily admits. “It can get overwhelming. You’re hit by the thought that you are in charge of so much. On one hand, you are exhilarated and you want to do the right thing, to be an inspiration to others. You cannot let people down. On the other hand, though, you ask yourself, ‘Can I walk away from this?’ Sometimes I don’t want to be an adult! But you know it’s not a choice. My advice to myself, and to my guys, is, if you feel so overwhelmed, just go to one corner, cry for two minutes, then come back fighting.’
Yes, she has taken her own advice often enough. “I am so grateful for waterproof mascara. You never know when you’re going to cry!”
For Yeng Tupaz, it is also a choice to simply be thankful for wherever she is today, despite the unprecedented trials of COVID-19. “I look at it every time from the point of view of gratitude, because it's good to be alive today. That's the greatest gift you could have: You are alive, solving all of these problems, you have a job where others have been laid off.
“You recognize the fear, but despite this fear, you act. Gratitude, boldness, and faith. This is a very rare opportunity, because it doesn't happen in every lifetime—to tackle something so big that has never been experienced. To actually be part of a group that moves toward something positive and impactful. I want people to look at it that way— an opportunity to make a difference, in whatever way you can.” #
This story is part of a series on how Ayala citizens sought to protect the financial well-being of not only our employees, but also our partners and communities. Want more? Check our related stories: A Girl Scout's Pledge, and Paying It Forward.
PUBLISHED JULY 31, 2020
