G, gee

How Pirojsha Godrej keeps his 129-year-old family business relevant and credible will be keenly watched

- BY MAIJO ABRAHAM

There is a revealing footnote in the bio of Pirojsha Adi Godrej. Before the boardrooms and the big IPOs, he was curious about how the world was governed. After his Master's from Columbia University, he lingered in the corridors of public life—serving as an intern in the New York Senate office of Hillary Clinton and as an additional private secretary in a Union minister's office in Delhi. That detour was no youthful dalliance. It helped him understand systems and weigh policy consequences. When Pirojsha eventually returned to the family fold, he brought those instincts with him.

When he joined Godrej Properties in 2004, the real estate arm of Godrej group was a modest operation with a presence in just Mumbai and Thane. His brief was expansion, and he delivered it with the methodical thoroughness of a policy architect. By 2008, the company had planted its flag in ten cities. He took a brief break for an MBA at Columbia Business School, and returned as executive director to lead Godrej Properties through its initial public offering, raising around ₹470 crore. It gave the company the fuel to compete on a national stage. By 2012, at 32, he was appointed CEO.

What followed was one of the most spectacular growth stories of the Indian real estate sector. The secret weapon, of course, was the Godrej family's staggering 3,400-acre land bank in Mumbai—one of the largest privately held parcels in any megacity, acquired quietly in the 1940s. A thousand acres of this expanse have been preserved as mangrove forest.