22 - 28 February 2001

Investing in people

Franco Valletta, newly appointed CEO and Chairman of Dhalia Group, speaks to Blanche Gatt about his plans for the company’s future

Property is a lucrative business – with a total annual turnover of sales of 178 million Maltese liri in 1999 and around 950 million in the last 10 years, there is no doubt that it is a healthy and regular performer that between 1998 and 1999 posted a 21 per cent growth in the number of sales, and a 35 per cent increase in value of those sales.
Surely a couple of facts to take into consideration if you are contemplating a career move into this direction. Franco Valletta, an organisational psychologist, with a background that includes both academic and corporate experience, has recently joined the Dhalia Group as Chairman and chief executive officer.
A Human Resources specialist, who has offered consultancy and research to leading companies and organisations not only in Malta, but also in the UK, where he was a visiting lecturer at the University of Kent, Mr Valletta offers an interesting perspective on the role he has just taken up. I recently went to meet him to learn more about what he plans to do while at the helm of the Dhalia Group.
“In my role as CEO,” he began, “I am responsible for ensuring that all board policies and strategies are implemented. I also chair the board of directors, at which level policies are discussed and decided upon, and again my role is to make sure that we have a clear mission, a vision and a strategy, as well as to see that all the right resources are in place to achieve this and meet our customers’ expectations. It also includes an enforcement role, which I fulfil together with the general manager, Mark Grech, while overseeing that the right practices and behaviour are being disseminated.”
With 10 branches around Malta and Gozo, 65 property negotiators and 10 managers, as well as 15 permanent staff at their corporate office providing support to the network of negotiators and branch managers, Dhalia’s claim to the leadership of the estate agency business is strongly supported. Plans for expansion already in motion include the opening of a new branch in Fgura within the year, and the enlargement or move to larger premises of the Msida, Balzan and Valletta branches. The number of negotiators on their books is exp-ected to rise to 90, while manage-ment and support will also increase
proportionately.
The advent of Mr Valletta is sure to add an interesting dimension to the dynamics within this burgeoning team.
“Well,” he replied. “First of all, there is no doubt that Dhalia is the acknowledged market leader. And, of course, our main aim is to remain at the forefront of this business. Fortunately, Dhalia has many strengths that will help us to do so. Apart from the widespread presence of our branches around the island, we have an extensive database of over 15,000 properties on record.
“We can boast a wealth of
management experience, with a
collective sum of the 10 branch managers’ experience alone mounting to over 200 years. Our negotiators are based in strategically located branches around Malta and Gozo, each one with its own individual design and décor. Mr Grech has several decades of hands-on experience in the property business, and when it comes to operational management and you are dealing with rules, enforcement
and vision, you need this gelling experience.
“So my first focus is to introduce ways of developing strategic planning processes to enable us to formalise all these years of experience, standards and quality assurance. Mark and I work very closely on this; he provides the experience, I create the systems.”
The systems he is referring to include bringing an element of organisational expertise to Dhalia, that, he says, the company has needed for some time.
“We will be working on a three- year business plan over the next two to three months,” he added, “which will provide us with a strategic plan for the next few years. All the different branches will contribute to this process, so that it is a comprehensive and implementable plan for the future.”
One of the things the business plan will be looking into, Franco said, is the creation of specialist services.
“So far,” he continued, “Dhalia is known more as a generalist estate agent. However, there is substantial competition that specialises in different areas of property and Dhalia has the know-how, the skill and the resources to challenge that competition. So one of our aims is to develop specialist schemes specifically to address this area of niche markets. Though Dhalia does do this to some extent, it is not doing it aggressively enough. It is also a question of economies of scale.
“Dhalia has a head office that offers IT, HR, accounts and support services to all the branches, which leaves the branch manager free to focus on managing his branch. We have a common database of over 15,000 properties that is accessible to all negotiators, directly on their desktop in their branch office. This gives our people an advantage, in that they are able to concentrate on what they are doing, and not worry about administrative concerns.
“Of course, there are others who do not have this system, yet are still successful. However, our system definitely gives us a more professional approach to managing the organisation, and allows a great deal of scope for growth.”
Deciding in which direction Dhalia is to grow will be part of the business planning process the company is about to embark upon. “Indeed, Dhalia wants to go further and grow,” he said. “But what we have to decide is how. Do we want to vertically integrate, form strategic partnerships – in order to be able to understand this we have to have our planning in place. These decisions will evolve out of the planning process.”
Considering his deep-rooted background in psychology and HR, it is not surprising that Franco also plans to contribute a significant amount of his energy towards enhancing Dhalia’s investment in the development of their staff.
“Training and personal development, from the negotiators to the management, through programmes designed to enrich jobs and skills can be of immeasurable benefit to an organisation. So many organisations say that they believe in people, yet they invest absolutely nothing of their profits in people. In the prop-
erty business it is as important as in any other to provide this training.
“One thing that has struck me enormously is the richness of backgrounds of the property negotiators. They come from academia, from the civil service, from the military, from corporate careers – but they receive no personal training when they move careers. I want to give Dhalia property negotiators the opportunity to get that training. We have good people, and we want to keep them.”
Integrity is a valuable quality in the estate agency business. But is it possible for an organisation to dictate standards and principles of behaviour to their negotiators out in the field and operating with an almost totally free hand?
“Well,” replied Franco, “this is one of the reasons I think personal training for our staff is so important. Competence is easy to get – if they don’t already have it, they can be taught it. But integrity is something innate. You either have it or you don’t. So I would also like to delve deeper into our HR systems, examine how we get people on board.
“We are looking for people with high skills, strong integrity and able to operate in a very tough environment. A negotiator is there to sell. He operates on a commission basis, so if his sales are low, his earnings are low. Dhalia does give them a great deal of support, as well as enough tools to be in a position to out-perform themselves, but there is no denying it is a tough environment. A deep-rooted sense of integrity is an essential quality in these conditions.”
Franco believes that enhancing the training and development opportunities for the negotiators, creating a three-year business plan to map out the direction Dhalia should take in its next stage of growth, and targeting their focus to the needs of the customer will keep Dhalia steadily ahead of the competition.
“The leader,” he commented,” is always perceived as a giant, and that can be detrimental. But our aim is to remain in front of this market and to do this by continuing to treat our customers as individuals. On that basis we can grow in whichever direction we deem best, and still retain our position as market leaders.”