"You have to be thick skinned"

As told to Shreyasi Singh

Photograph by Subhojit Paul

“I never walked into the company and became the director. That’s typical of family businesses in India. We’re against this. In fact, I am on the board now. Other than on the company website, I don’t use that designation on my card or anywhere else. In the system we’ve set up, respect in the company comes by doing and not by being.

The last seven years, since I joined Interarch, have been challenging, even frustrating at times. I’ve never been stopped from doing anything but sometimes that plays out badly. My father and Mr Nanda told me the world was open for me, and I could decide what I wanted to do. People think that second-generation entrepreneurs are blessed to have such leverage. But this isn’t really always such a happy-go-lucky situation. It’s very easy to stray when you don’t have boundaries. You have to discipline yourself. The amount I have had to learn in these years is equal to 15-20 years of functional experience. In a job, people only have a set of expectations from you. You are given some responsibilities, told how to fulfil them, and you can focus on doing that. You can’t do that here. The learning curve is very steep.

Yet people in the organisation have respect for you only if you can demonstrate to them that you are capable. I was lucky to be thrown into the fire when we got the Delhi airport project. After we won that contract, GMR wanted a company representative at the site 24x7. It was a massive project. We had 25-30 sub-contractors, and more than 7,000 labourers working with us for 20 months. I was there full time—from seven in the morning to late at night. Basically, I lived in a container for one and a half years. It was like running a plant actually—we had more than 150 staff members there. That was great for me, it exposed me to so much since I was at the front-end, the one taking the kicks.

Over those two years, the way our employees viewed me begun to change. I was probably the youngest project head at that particular site. Initially, the GMR and L&T guys laughed—they probably thought I was too young to be any good. But today if I walk into their offices, they know I managed to deliver that project. I learnt from them and they learnt from us. I was there taking the pressure—many times I had my back up but I was leading. That experience, the pressure, the energy, was super intense. Beyond changing perceptions of those around me, I realised for myself that I could take on so much. My entire outlook for business has changed since.

In fact, that’s something I think second-generation entrepreneurs should try to do. When a big change or a big project is happening around you, don’t throw somebody else into it, jump in yourself. It’s your chance to do something new in an environment that is not preset or benchmarked. You can build from scratch. It’s very difficult to change something that is not broken, but you have no limits when you build something that doesn’t exist. The airport project was an unprecedented assignment for Interarch. But it’s not like I got appreciation letters or bonuses—in your own company, one has to be extremely thick-skinned. No one’s going to applaud you.

Also, I have not one but two bosses, and two fathers. My father and Mr Nanda are very professional, and our families have been friends for a long time. But it is a partnership. That makes the dynamics interesting. There are times when I feel that this is my company, and at other times I feel less so. But that is great. It keeps me in line. In fact, it provides me a great balance—of being both a professional and an owner. Although my father and Mr Nanda give me a lot of freedom, they’re both tough taskmasters. If I falter anywhere, I’ll get a blunt one-line e-mail from one of them. That really stings. My eventual goal is not that I must be sitting in the high chair. I see my role right now to be what my designation is—head of corporate marketing and business processes. Yes, when my involvement is required in something else as a promoter, I give it my share of attention. But I prefer to first be accountable for what I am supposed to do. That’s my actual job. I may be a shareholder but I get a salary. That’s very important. Ajai Chowdhary, chairman of HCL Infosystems, told me once that he might be the chairman but he’s the functional head of marketing in his company. I’ve learnt that from him. It’s not about being a CEO. In fact, 10 years down the line, I may just be the head of marketing. You don’t have to be the boss just because you own the company. My ultimate aim isn’t to run the company, it’s to be a good promoter.

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