Pole Position

Ceo And Managing Director Shrikant Joshi Explains Why Customers Have So Much Trust In L&T Realty.

Jodie Darlington

Under the leadership of Shrikant Joshi, L&T Realty has won an impressive 90-plus awards. What’s even more incredible is that he has been CEO and Managing Director of the real estate arm of Indian engineering giant Larsen & Toubro for eight years, and prior to joining L&T Realty he had only worked for one other real estate company. However, Shrikant insists that the same business and leadership skills are required regardless of the industry you’re working in. He believes the fact that he hasn’t always worked in real estate has helped rather than hindered him.

“Actually, it’s an advantage to have experiences in other industries, because it gives me a different perspective,” he says. “And, of course, people management is a continuous arc that is pretty much the same in all industries.”

Over the past three decades, Shrikant has held senior management positions in a wide range of companies, including Wipro, Heinz, Philips and Sify. “I have worked for Indian national and multinational companies, and none of them took any short-term views,” he says. “It’s so important to have a long-term view and look at the big picture, which is what we do at L&T Realty as well. All of these businesses are also leaders in their space, like L&T Realty.

“To be a great leader, what are the attributes you require?,” he continues. “Training and development of employees, setting benchmarks, and implementing innovative and breakthrough processes. This is what each of these companies has helped me to learn, and I have put these skills to good use here at L&T Realty.

“As human beings, we learn from our surroundings and what we do, and each of the roles I’ve had has taught me something different. For example, Wipro is just as ethical as L&T and it also has great business processes. At that time, we were one of the largest computer and software businesses in the country, which helps me to understand digitisation. Philips has some of the best business processes in the world. And at Sify, also a technology company, we launched new services and offerings extremely fast. In all of these businesses, we worked very, very hard on quality and service excellence, which is equally important in real estate.”

Founded in 2010, L&T Realty is the real estate arm of Larsen & Toubro (L&T), a major Indian conglomerate with a global presence. Over the past eight decades, L&T has built up a reputation for delivering a high level of service to customers in more than 30 countries, as well as delivering worldclass quality and expertise in technology, engineering, construction, manufacturing and financial services.