The story of real estate mogul Niranjan Hiranandani, 71, is the story of Mumbai. A little bit of the maximum city’s chequered history, its evolution, and its challenges, can be pieced together in the choices that Niranjan, the son of Mumbai’s well-known ENT surgeon Dr Lakhumal Hiranand Hiranandani, made.

In a free-wheeling chat with AKADialog, Dr Niranjan, ranked by Forbes among the 100 richest Indians, shares his entrepreneurial journey, his leadership mantra, and his love for the city of Mumbai.

What is your leadership mantra? Any tips for aspiring leaders?

Focus on the customer. Proper understanding of what the consumer wants, and how to best provide the same at an attractive price-point is the Magic Mantra that never fails, in any endeavor. Map the different consumer segments; understand that the product specifications each requires will be different – and will need to be provided.
Don’t do what everyone else is doing; instead, provide what the consumer wants – and plan ahead, ensuring you tap trends before the overall market does. From ‘Customer Delight’ to ‘Conscious Consumerism’, ensure that your business process is geared up to fulfilling the spectrum these two terms span.
To be able to do this, one needs to have the vision as also create the eco-system to implement the same.
To my mind, the most important aspect is building the right team. Once you have the team in place, ensure that they have the required support system to face challenges successfully. Achievements must be rewarded; errors be given opportunities to course-correct. Communication channels must exist and remain open.
Empowerment of the business in terms of ensuring human resources are re-skilled and upskilled as also adopting new technology advances in one’s industry. Keeping a global perspective, ensuring that quality of work done compares with the best.
Think ‘out of the box’, explore new paths and new avenues. The market is constantly evolving amidst customer demand changes, one has to adapt to the changes.
Eco-friendly, green and sustainable are not just smart sounding words for brochures; make them part of your work ethic. We are custodians of planet earth for future generations.