Michael Malak

With his Egyptian heritage combined with the military precision honed during his time in the armed forces, it’s no wonder Michael Malak runs every building project as though he’s constructing the Great Pyramid of Cheops. His attention to detail is hawk-like, and his passion for ensuring the optimum result for his community is exemplary.

Your best laid plans can often seem like they were put together by mice rather than men, and that’s how it felt when Michael Malak came up with the plan for the name of his company.

JAPM is a development and project management company for the construction and property industry. JAPM stands for Jacquel Australia Project Management, a name registered by Michael and his then fiancee, now wife, back in 1992.

“I wanted a name that would represent both of us so, after trying dozens of combinations we decided to use part of her name and part of mine. So we combined the first part of her name and the last part of mine and came up with Jacquel.

“We were about to get married, so it made sense to have a company name that was personal, and something unique to us.”

The agreement was to use ‘Jacqu’ from his wife’s name, Jacqueline, and the ‘el’ from Michael. A sound idea! That is until it appeared on the business cards and Michael could actually see what he’d created.

Ironically, it wasn’t until after the name was registered that Michael realised there wasn’t really any part of his name in it at all; it was just Jacquie’s, with the last few letters dropped. As he wryly notes, “I think Jacquie knew all along and just kept quiet.”

Michael’s excuse for not realising this soon enough, was the amount of pressure he’d been under at the time. He was doing a lot of building and fit-out work and there were also the preparations for the wedding. A stressful period for any man!

The plan to get into project management wasn’t any more laid out than the plan for the company name although Michael did at least have more control over the process.

There was the plan to be a pilot, followed by the plan to be a soldier, then came the architect plan before finally realising the action which excited him most was on the construction site.

“I realised pretty soon it was going to be an expensive process to become a pilot. It was going to take a lot more than a part-time job in a petrol station to cover the fees.”

Michael then followed a mate, a bit of a gung-ho crazy type of guy, into the Army Reserves. As he recalls, “initially I just went along for the ride, but it became something I really enjoyed.

“I was a gunner in the infantry platoon, and the first year was full-time, then two years part-time. After three years I had to make a choice, either sign on for a full-time gig in the army or do something else.”

During those part-time years in the Reserves, Michael undertook the draftsman’s course at TAFE and managed to get a job with a firm of architects, so he eventually turned his back on the army and the rest, as they says, is history.

Again though, there was not a lot of planning as he headed towards creating his own business. It was more about seizing opportunities that presented themselves.

“Doing the drafting work with the architects led me into the building side of the business and that led to an opportunity to work as a contractor, rather than employee.

“In hindsight that proved invaluable. It gave me a taste of what it was like to work for myself, in terms of managing time and money.”

Contracting on a per project basis gave Michael more flexibility, and through that he also learnt some great lessons in how to manage himself.

Now the plans became more focused and the men began to take over from the mice.

Michael returned to studying, received his building diploma and followed that up with some post-grad courses. For the first time, he could see where he was going, he was clear about what direction his future would take and it was clearly aligned to the building industry.

As soon as Michael got on-site he knew this is where he was meant to be.

“After all that time in an office, preparing plans and drawings and putting ink to paper, I saw everything in a completely different light. It became 3D for me. It became a completely open, sort of mind adventure where everything I had on paper I could actually see, feel, touch and that just got me.

“It was like: this is where I want to be, I don’t want to be behind a desk drawing, I want to actually build it, I want to actually be part of it. I want to see it come out of the ground and walk away saying I’ve made something.”

Michael’s background in drafting and working with architects gave him a unique perspective on the building site. He could see the project from both sides of the fence, the architects and the builders.

From that moment, his involvement meant “that the animosity you often see between builders and architects became irrelevant. I could understand where the designs and how they were formed, could come into play.

“Knowing how to read plans, and how to draw plans made it easier when incorporating other types of plans, like structural plans and mechanical services. It gave me a leg up in terms of understanding predominantly what you were going to build. So, yes, that assisted greatly.”

Of all the phases in Michael’s journey, the move into project management was arguably the most natural. His understanding of what the architects wanted and what the builder could deliver made the transition into project management a relatively smooth one.

“It’s about managing people’s expectations, managing outcomes, managing the deliverables that you’ve got to provide for your client.

“It’s also managing different types of people, so it’s personalities as well.

“As well as all of those, there are also other different disciplines to work with, including working with the client and the client’s team, dealing with financiers and often liaising with Government bodies as well.”

In short, he says, “there are a number of people and areas that you need to actually manage and work through.”

While Michael had the knowledge to satisfy all those involved in the process, there was one more aspect that required some work. That was the ability to manage people.

Plans, numbers, drawings, all the technical aspects relating to the project are pretty much black and white, however by adding personalities to the equation, suddenly there are a million shades of grey.

“Mastering that side of the business has really been a continual process of learning. Experience is a great teacher and has helped build my confidence in that area.”

But probably the greatest learning curve came from working with Ron Frankel. “Basically he said ‘follow me’ as he was setting up his company and I relished that opportunity.”

Being taken under Ron’s wing and learning from his experience gave Michael a massive boost. Michael quickly asserts that “the experience of being able to manage different parts of projects until I was able to actually take on projects on my own, put me on the right path.

“Ron’s support gave me the confidence and skill to be able to do what I do today.”

It’s been an extremely satisfying journey for Michael and he’s built a business which has gained tremendous respect in the industry.

While residential projects are the main focus at the moment, JAPM has also worked on retail projects and some industrial and commercial ventures.

“The Washington Park projects we’re working on at the moment are typical of the work we do. This one in particular will have a massive impact on the local community and I’m particularly proud of it.”

This project in Sydney’s Riverwood area, began in 2011 and there have been several stages to date. The final stage, Trinity, is unique in that it combines sixty-eight private apartments, a council library, a community centre, a cafe and twenty-seven social housing units, all on the one site.

That final stage alone is a thirty-four million dollar project.

Staying on budget and within the allocated time frames is a key part of Michael’s success with JAPM, but he’s the first to admit not everything is always going to run smoothly. He believes the difference between success and failure is how you handle the setbacks that will invariably come.

“Of course there have been situations that have been difficult; you get what we call projects that have bad karma, that’s when everything comes down on you.

“You feel the burden of everybody and everything around you, so you have to rise above that in any way you can. You learn from it and take that experience with you to your next project.

“It’s a bit of cliché, but it’s character building, and the next time you’re faced with a similar situation you are better equipped to handle it.”

Michael finds overcoming ‘bad karma’ moments is easier for him because of the size of his company.

“We’re happy being a smallish company. There are nine of us on the full-time team.”

With scaling to a larger operation, Michael feels the control factor may be lost. “Not that I’m overly controlling, in fact I give a lot of autonomy to the guys in the team, but it can become more about keeping the business running than servicing the clients you already have.”

Losing one-on-one time with his clients is the critical issue here. “I’d rather have something that’s a little bit unique and that uniqueness is really about me making sure that my clients are serviced and they’re happy and we’re doing the right thing by them.”

Picking the right people is another area Michael feels has led to the success of his business and that’s easier if he keeps the company smaller. There are too many chances for the wrong people to get involved if JAPM moves to be a larger organisation.

He’s done good job of that to date, and he’s insulated from that happening to a degree now because two of his children are now employed in the business.

Mixing family and business can be tough. Michael has twin boys aged twenty-two, and an eighteen year old daughter who is studying construction management.

“The boys are totally different to each other, and only one expressed any interest in the business. So, for their work experience during Year 11, I brought them along to the office. They hated it and I thought ‘that’s okay’. I’ve never wanted to push my children into the business.”

As often happens with children, one son wanted a part-time job while studying at uni and asked to work at JAPM. He did that for a year, then out of the blue he came to Michael saying, ‘I actually like this and I want to do more of this’.

Michael and his son then struck a deal. “I made the terms quite clear. He would work as an employee, under a normal employee contract. I told him he’d be starting at the bottom and would have to prove himself.”

Now that son works for one of the Project Managers, and she’s teaching him a lot of the detail of the business.

Michael proudly comments that “he’s loving it and he wants to finish his course as well. Business is a great course anyway and you can certainly learn the construction and project management from what we do here. So, he can go on and do more studies if he needs to. It’s working well.”

Michael’s daughter showed an interest in becoming involved with his business, and now works there part-time, but Michael knows her well. “She’s only eighteen,” as he points out and like her father, her plans may change many times!

ADVICE

There are plenty of lessons to learn for Michael’s own journey in creating a business, but one he’d like young entrepreneurs to master is patience.

“Patience is the biggest thing. I wish I had more when I was starting out. You’ve got to be patient in this game.

“I was always pushing to get things done, almost too pushy when I was trying to sign clients in the early days. So you’ve got to have a sense of patience. You still have to be tenacious and you still need to have your wits about you – it’s a fine line – so just be aware.”

The next stage is once the clients are signed, “be prepared to serve them. All the success books talk about the importance of having a service mentality, so do it.”

Michael also loves to read, including personal development and reading which “gives you more of an ability with situations, people, circumstances. I’ve always relished that opportunity to read.”

It also helps if you love what you do. Michael believes he’s one of the fortunate ones; because he loves what he does, and having a balanced life is a lot easier.

Like many self-employed people, Michael feels “a bit on edge when I’m not busy. I need to have a lot to do otherwise I become very lazy.”

Michael comments that there are different times of the year when that balance is too much work and not enough play, but at the moment he feels in a position where he can say it’s pretty balanced.

In summary, Michael’s story centres around the idea that, “if you can get the right mix of patience, a service attitude and love what you do, then you’re on the road to success.”