In an extraordinary step taken by the House Building Finance Company Ltd (HBFCL) management, the HBFCL held its first annual all staff general meeting with a twofold agenda to celebrate the success of the organisation's first year of profit since its corporatisation in 2007, and to communicate the companywide the overall strategy being implemented within HBFCL.
For the first time and after 3 years of continuous losses, HBFCL achieved a financial turnaround with a Rs 113 million profit in the current financial year. The MD and CEO of HBFCL, Azhar A. Jaffri delivered a wholehearted and sincere address to the employees, in which he lauded their valuable efforts of last year and spoke of the transformation strategy the company was enacting in order to drive HBFCL towards an efficient, customer-focused and profitable entity.
Most importantly, Jaffri shared with the employees the overall strategic direction the company was taking. This knowledge was enthusiastically welcomed by staff of every cadre, who previously had been exceedingly anxious and apprehensive due to drastic and unfamiliar changes happening around them. Upon clearing concerns and most importantly, sharing the strategic direction of the company, when the MD asked the team of 350 Karachi based employees if they would commit to the strategy and future success of the HBFCL, in a most unprecedented show of support the entire audience raised their hands.
Speaking on the occasion, the MD HBFCL said: "Employees of any organisation must be seen as its most important asset; at HBFCL we are fully cognisant of this and our present success would not have been possible without our employees dedication and support to the management to bring about major changes for the betterment of the company, its clients, its employees and other stakeholders." Overwhelming positive feedback of the employees showed clearly how essential the annual all staff general meeting and how valuable it was to the employees that they too understood the direction the organisation is heading and their important role in that change.
The transformation strategy under process at HBFCL is designed to aggressively bring about far-reaching reforms in every section of the organisation and in every sphere of operation. These include credit & recoveries, internal audit, legal, financial administration, human resources, business development & customer services, strategy, marketing/PR, corporate affairs and risk management. The House Building Company Limited is now an unlisted Public Limited Company. Its Vision is "to be the prime housing finance institution of the country, providing affordable housing solutions to low and middle income groups of population by encouraging new constructions in small & medium housing (SMH) sector." Since its inception it has provided a range of housing finance products and financing of nearly half a million housing units.-PR