Suchet Malik is so much more than Intrapac Property’s Financial Controller. As one of our first employees, he has been a key part of our growth and success. With a touch of good humour and an all-encompassing knowledge of our business, he embodies the passion and dedication of our legacy in all that he does. Suchet is like a wise uncle within the Intrapac family, providing an approachable source of knowledge and guidance to the team whilst ensuring that our projects maintain a steady course in alignment with our business goals. 

In the article below, we talk to Suchet about how it all began and his current role, encouraging him to share deep insights from his 30+ year tenure at Intrapac. 

How did you come to work at Intrapac? 

When I qualified as a chartered accountant, I worked in the finance industry in India. I was practising as an internal auditor for a financial services company, managing multiple clients, but I was looking for a new challenge. So, I decided to follow my passion for cricket and move to Melbourne—I’d always wanted to see the MCG! 

Within a month of my arrival in Australia, I secured a part-time accounting role with Intrapac, which was in its infancy as a development company. This was when I met David. He was running everything single-handedly, including all of the cash flows, but I proved that I was good with spreadsheets and soon took on this responsibility, rapidly shifting into a full-time capacity. 

In the beginning, the company was just David and me. So, beyond accounting and cash flows, I had to double up in every section of the business, including setting procedures, coordinating consultants, and everything else. There was a real macro-micro distinction with our roles—David looked after the forest, whilst I looked after the trees.

Suchet with David Payes in the late 1990’s 

As a financial controller, what are some key responsibilities that you handle on a day-to-day basis?

My main focus is developing cash flows and ensuring our financial processes support the full gamut of operations across all of our projects. This requires a great deal of coordination between the finance team, project managers, consultants, JV partners, marketing team, etc. Maintaining strong working relationships and keeping open lines of communication is critical, as the detailed information provided by consultants, other departments and joint venture parties allows us to coordinate payment schedules, ensure timely payment of invoices, and respond quickly to unforeseen circumstances to avoid potential holdups.  

My average day is extremely fluid. It usually starts with gossip! This might sound trivial, but it’s actually essential to doing my job well. It’s a way to build relationships and informally collect critical information from consultants, project managers, joint venture partners, and the finance team. It lets me get a pulse on what is happening in the day. Then my day-to-day work spans things like reviewing weekly sales reports and touching base with salespeople, keeping track of invoices as they come in, and updating cash flows at the beginning of every month.  

 What are some of the unique financial challenges that property developers face compared to other industries? 

Financially, property development is really one of the most risky businesses! Time is a key factor and a key challenge. We estimate the duration of a project at commencement and carefully track what we expect to happen month by month, but this can so easily be thrown out by things beyond our control. There is so much dictated by the government, the authorities, and the market, that this industry is all about uncertainty management – which brings about new challenges every day! And every challenge is tracked in the cash flow… 

What collaborations with other departments does your role entail in order to align financial objectives with overall business goals?  

Regarding business goals, the main thing in this business is producing lots and houses for people to build homes. And we take this very seriously—we believe that every lot is equally important.  

In order to achieve the best outcome for the business and the future residents, co-ordination is key. All departments need to work together, communicate with one another and take equal pride and responsibility for their part in delivering peoples’ dreams and creating quality places where people will choose to live over and above the competition. So it’s all about communicating clearly and responsively to avoid surprises within our development network and building trust with the Joint Venture partner, the consultants, the customers, and most importantly, our team. 

What do you enjoy most about your role?  

I am always grateful for the extremely talented team I work with. When I started out, it was just myself and David, and David was the teacher. But now, everyone here is a teacher. The more you chat and gossip, the more you learn. Since I’ve known David, I’ve tried to learn from whatever he was doing in his life, and if I can even do a percentage of it, that’s enough for me! 

 Suchet with the finance team: Natalie Xu, Suchet Malik, Carolina Calderon and Chief Financial Officer Alan Hayden. 

You’ve had an incredibly long tenure at Intrapac, what has kept you with the company for so long? 

It’s the relationships. With David, it is very personal because when I came to Australia, I was looking for a job. David met me and said he’d take care of me, and he’s treated me like family ever since. Max has continued the same tradition.  

It’s also about the strong focus on quality. In the beginning, David would always strive to make sure every project was better than the previous one. Then Max joined the business, and we decided that every stage in a project had to be better than the previous stage. Now, the drive is about making sure every process in the company is better than the process that came before. This approach instils a sense of pride in the team and challenges everyone to refine, innovate, and achieve.