One of the perks of being chosen as a mentor for creative, young and driven entrepreneurs in the fifth season of The Final Pitch is the opportunity to work with my brilliant friends in the real-estate industry.
The Final Pitch, the country’s first and only business reality show, sets the stage for young entrepreneur contestants to pitch their businesses to an esteemed panel of investor-judges who are looking to invest in their proposed ventures.
In its fifth and latest season, The Final Pitch will have the theme “Real Estate and Livable Cities.” As a mentor in the show, I am tasked with guiding the young finalists when they prepare their “final” pitches of the season which they will, in turn, present to the investor-judges who are looking to invest in the best proposal they find.
The investor-judges are themselves a group of brilliant minds in business. And one such brilliant star featured in the show is the overachieving Victor Consunji, the CEO of Victor Consunji Development Corp.
A sterling name
Pedigree and purpose run in Victor’s veins. As grandson of a sterling name in the country’s real-estate construction industry, Victor even in his early days as an engineering student already had a yearning to make a name for himself and make things happen on his own.
Building his own company was not without its challenges and setbacks but Victor plodded on and in his own distinctive way created a niche previously not available to home buyers—the ability to craft their own home with preset blueprints that are customizable to fit the customer’s needs and specifications. It was a brilliant idea whose time has come.
While he concurrently holds a top-level designation at his grandfather’s esteemed enterprise, he is happy he struck out on his own with his forward-thinking approach to construction and development. “I am happy to work with my family. As a director of the family company, I feel like I can credibly bring my experiences and points of view in a way that I couldn’t have if I’d never launched my own business,” he says.
His business has produced several projects, one of which is the posh M Residences, which earned a reputation among smart and stylish home buyers for being an exclusive address of excellently made dwellings set in a safe and tasteful community. As it continues to build strength, the company sees replicating its success with M Residences to other choice locations in the Metro, carrying with it its tried and tested philosophy of expert craftsmanship and engineered designs.
Leading the way
Helming a growing organization made up of different individuals with different personalities and skills, Victor reflects, “I believe in giving people a chance to show me what they can do. I try to give them authority and accountability, and trust. I hired them because I believed that they can do a job. It defeats the purpose for me to micromanage their efforts.”
The chief goes on further, “In that sense I’m very much a delegator. My job is to provide general direction and resources so that they can do their job. My pet peeve is when someone fails to accomplish something in accordance to my standards, not because it was difficult, but because they didn’t have the initiative to try.”
He stresses, “My company is built on initiative, teamwork, and thinking outside the box. The fastest way to get reprimanded is to not try. And the fastest way to be praised is to have done everything in your power to do so, successful or not.”
Building institutions, not just enterprises
Victor’s appointment as an investor-judge in The Final Pitch owes much to his rich experience in business, particularly in real-estate development. Victor will be sitting on a panel of equally respected and successful business figures for the popular TV series, all tasked to coach and groom contestants for success, such as—Cary Lagdameo, first vice president of Davao-based Damosa Land Inc.; Jet Yu, founder and managing director of Prime Philippines; Cesar Wee Jr., president of Wee Community Developers Inc.; and George Royeca, chief transport advocate of pioneering app-based motorcycle-hailing service, Angkas.
For this brilliant business mind, this maverick in the industry, this dynamo of a leader with a forward-thinking, unconventional philosophy, one sees a rebel, a renegade, a risk taker who chose to carve his own path and blazed a trail where no one had gone before.
Victor reflects, “I believe that the industry and its activities are vital to economic development and national progress. I believe that construction is a noble profession, that the ultimate objectives are to serve not only man but mankind and to build not only an enterprise but an institution.” Spoken like a real rogue, a true visionary.
The Final Pitch is produced by Streetpark Productions and airs every Sunday at 8 p.m., with replays every Monday at 9:30 p.m. and Saturdays 1 p.m., on CNN Philippines.