Excerpts of interview of Dr. Naseer Homoud, Chairman & CEO of The Wall Holdings

Feb. 9, 2010 - PRLog -- Founded in January 2002, The Wall for Investment & Real Estate Development garnered major attention both in the real estate development & management and in the business community at large. Their unparalleled growth due to facilities infrastructure has allowed them to offer the good clientage base , and has won them numerous contracts and awards for high-security, mission-critical projects, particularly in the real estate development and management sectors. What has earned them so much respect, though, both locally and nationally, is their ability to completely defy the real estate downturn, showing continuous growth quarter after quarter.

Question
Dr. Naseer, how did you start in the real estate business?

Answer

It was by mere chance. I finished my dental education and was a practicing dentist. When I came to Qatar for opening a specialized dental centre, I realized the potential this country was having in real estate sector and thus I decided to try my luck.  And a trick of faith made me start some works in Qatar So I started making these works for basically in field of real estate management. That was very interesting for me. It turned into an opportunity to learn something new, see the work, the expansion of the industrial market at that time. Therefore, I started working in the real estate marketing and management area, and that gave me a broad perspective of the business and, well, I ended to be real estate businessman.

Question
What were the most interesting things in those first years?

Answer
One of the most interesting experiences has been to witness the changes in the industry along these years. On the one hand, the real estate sector was on boom. When I started, and that was 9 years ago, the main areas of Doha were the strong points. At that time, Qatar successfully bid for Doha Asian Games-2006 and I realized that real estate sector would give us new dimensions in my life and professional career. At beginning, there were many hurdles since I was new to Qatar but due to my dedicated efforts and straight aim I was firm that I will achieve something. Also I tender my thanks to my colleagues who supported me immensely during those years of my struggle.

Question
Dr. Naseer, what do you see as the first and foremost reason Wall has been able to not only survive, but thrive, when so many others in this industry are failing?

Answer
Despite the down market, Wall has seen continuous growth because we continue to maintain a strict focus on what matters in business and to us: our customers and their needs. We understand that customer needs to real estate be it investment or management is imperative. We don’t just provide our clients with superior services; we focus on providing them with solutions that enhance the performance and efficiency of the investment they have undertaken and we ensure that our client’s interests are not jeopardized. To do that, you have to spend time talking with customers to help identify their problems and understand what their issues are. We believe we do that well than anyone. We listen, learn and create ideas and solutions to meet the needs of our clients for reliability, availability, accessibility and power.

Question
How do you see Qatar prospects in real estate sector?

Answer
I think Qatar has done a fair amount on price correction, realistic pricing or aggressive pricing as it may be called under visionary leadership of His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Kahalifa Al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar. It was his vision that Qatar witnessed such a massive real estate boom providing multi dimensional growth to the country and region at large
I think all citizens and residents of Qatar have imposed their faith to very immediate economic revival, rather than long term. So it would stand to reason that yes, when asked whether I expected the housing market had bottomed out. Despite of financial turmoil, Qatar economy is on right track- thanks to policy of government. To avoid any nervousness in the sector huge amount was invested by government in real estate and this managed to continue the pace of growth notwithstanding financial crunch.

Question
So far, that sounds like something that most of your competition might try to claim, too. How do you differentiate yourself?

Answer
In this tough economy amid global turndown wherein real estate and banking sectors are widely affected, we have also seen consolidations and exits from companies with similar services, so it has been important to differentiate our offering from our remaining competitors. There is a handful that we could identify, but the most significant continue to be our people, our facility, the level of customization available and our reliability.

Question
Let’s take those one at a time. Tell us about your people.

Answer
Many of our prospects and customers consistently communicate that Wall is more flexible, creative, and responsive than their previous real estate provider. From the top down, we are customer focused and our customers recognize this. The professionalism and experience of our team has also resulted in numerous invitations by real estate leadership associations, professional firms, and government organizations to present to the real estate community on topics surrounding, real estate investment, property management, security, customer satisfactions and business continuity, availability, etc. While the importance of people and experience is perhaps difficult to quantify, it is easily one of the most valuable differentiators to our clients because we are an extension of their business for their critical needs that is real estate and no one would deny that real estate is that line of business where risks are always pertinent.

Question
How do you find such top-notch people to work for your company? What do you differently in your recruiting, hiring, and training?

Answer
Wall is able to identify and secure top-notch people to work for our company as a result of our patience. Our customers rely and trust in our expertise to safeguard their real estate interests. We take that trust seriously and have a specific and disciplined process in place that involves several layers before we extend an offer to join our team.
As a member of our team, our engineers and managers are encouraged and even required to cross-train on various projects and to pursue ongoing education at all times. Our technical and administrative staff pays close attention to the projects undertaken by us on behalf of our customers to determine if there is a need for additional certifications and continued education.

Question
Now, about your facilities – I know that they’re somewhat unique in the industry.

Answer
Yes, that’s true. This is the most important mantra for our success. We pride ourselves in providing unique and centralized services to our clients and we have specially catered solutions for our valued clients to suit their specific needs. When it comes to property management- Wall strive its best to serve our clients and we have an internal motto of service…. We undertake the principle that let our clients feel the sense of being at home. I would not like to go in details like what we services for obvious reasons of terseness we offer ,but in nutshell I would prefer to say that we serve best in industry and at par excellence.

Question
With claims like that, you really put your reputation on the line.

Answer
Wall’s steady growth can largely be attributed to our ability to deliver to our customers what we promise as well as doing our best to assist them with their special requests when we can. The end result has been an opportunity for us to enjoy a high reference-ability and build a solid reputation which is important in this industry especially due to the emphasis placed on trust. Keeping our customer base happy has had a large effect on our reputation and our growth in this economic downtime.