Why human cloning is a great way to improve Indian real estate
Human cloning at the onset sounds like a scary thought. Yes, we know that. Human cloning to help improve India's real estate scene sounds even scarier. Some of you might simply be repelled by the idea of this post but there is reality in what we say. And by the time you are at the end of this article, you will somewhat agree to that heading up there.
The Indian real estate visionary
Before we get into the cloning bit and start drawing conclusions about the photocopy stuff, let us understand what makes the Indian real estate scene so exciting? Entrepreneurship has never been a problem with India. We are the famous jugaad people. We can make vehicles out of iron pipes and prehistoric engines. We are the guys who started powering homes with cow poop. And among us are a few who are dreaming very big in terms of property development.
"I have 100 acres of land acquired and ready for development. I want to build a great satellite town with an additional 100 acre acquisition. This is my dream project and I am going to make it happen", says Jatin bhai from Odisha, proudly sharing his master plan with us at a discussion.
"Once completed, this jewel in Odisha's crown is going to be a Rupees 1500 crore juggernaut. The whole country is going to be proud of what we created in the middle of nowhere", he beams, smiling with confidence.
"I want to create homes that are technology loaded. In fact I am looking at building a residential project where we would not consume any external electricity for certain functions. All the common area lights and services would be powered by cells that use solar energy to charge themselves during the day!" says Dipti Ranjan, another young and visionary builder from Odisha.
However, the alarming thing here is not the outrageous size of the vision and task ahead. It is the complete absence of a proper team and thus, the technical know how of how to go about starting, building and delivering a project of that magnitude. Jatin bhai has all of 5 blokes in his team and Dipti Ranjan has a dozen dudes running the entire real estate operation for him.
What's even more alarming is that both these gentlemen here have actually travelled the world studying similar projects, understanding how new technology has been deployed, who are the vendors and consultants associated with the project and how have these unique developments travelled from the drawing boards to where they stand today.
Their development visions are therefore substantial and have precedence, albeit in some other part of the country or the world!
The Indian real estate consultants
Let us face a fact dear brokers and consultants. If DLF and Unitech need consultants to help them conceive, plan and deliver a 100 acre township, they are not going to be knocking at our doors. They would approach the best in the real estate consulting fraternity. The best would mostly mean an international property consultant. These international property consultants with their immense financial capabilities set up swanky offices, pay handsome salaries and drain away the best home grown minds from smaller consultancy and brokerage setups in India everyday.
The visionary entrepreneur who starts a consulting and agency setup to cater to Indian builders is left with a team of inexperienced manpower that is simply incapable of delivering any meaningful consultancy to a visionary builder like Jatin bhai. Typically the business development is handled by the directors and owners of such consultancies who are capable of bagging the account but incapable of reproducing their delivery capabilities at multiple locations and in multiple projects. Slowly a back log starts appearing in the system. Manpower hired is quickly found to be under performing and unskilled for such large deliveries. The system begins to fail and the consultancy slowly dies an inevitable death.
The real estate schools of India
"Bro, so you are looking at a commercial leasing guy eh? This is how it is done. You hire 5 guys you like and start with them. In due course 4 of them would crap all over the place and leave. One guy would remain who you think you can work with and that is the guy you have to invest on and develop for your organisation. And once he or she is good enough, some other company will poach him away or he will simply think of starting on his own, taking away all your hard work and maybe, some of your clients too." said Abhijit Das of Lemongrass Advisors while giving us some very genuine and friendly advice. Months later, we at Pillars Consultancy found that to be the truest thing we heard in all of 2012!
Take the example of MMG Realty of Kolkata, a company that was one of the first and most successful real estate consultancy setups in India. Today some of the best known names in the real estate industry of India have started their real estate careers in this company. Personal visions, poaching and a lack of specialised manpower in real estate ensured that MMG turned into this big real estate school that burnt itself out but gave India some of her best real estate professionals.
Let's start cloning then folks
Everything begins with a dream. And some wise men have said that if folks have not laughed at your dreams, then you need to understand that your dreams are not big enough. Dreaming big is not a problem in our country. Planning, designing and building these mammoth real estate dreams is. What Jatin bhai and Dipti Ranjan need are people down the line who can understand and execute their organisation's grand dreams. People who have had the opportunity to see such dreams being turned into brick, mortar, glass and landscapes. People who know their way around such complex developments. Where do you get these people from? Will the suave Rohit Saxena from an IPC leave his plush air conditioned office and slog it out for Mohit Realtek Enterprises? We have our doubts. Will a Srinivasan from K Raheja Corp leave his comfortable take home and perks and slog it out on the site for Jatin Bhai's Gloryana Estates? We doubt that as well.
Will an experienced consultant from an EnY come over at Pillars? You must be frigging dreaming. Even if we could match the pay, how could we match the brand and the immense security EnY offers?
Jatin needs to clone himself. Ditto Dipti Ranjan and ditto some of us at Pillars and the other upcoming real estate consultancies in India. Good manpower is a myth. At least for the real estate industry in India. The planning and marketing teams at the builder companies could give you a headache and a heartburn at the same time after a mere 15 minute interaction.
The Indian real estate visionary
Before we get into the cloning bit and start drawing conclusions about the photocopy stuff, let us understand what makes the Indian real estate scene so exciting? Entrepreneurship has never been a problem with India. We are the famous jugaad people. We can make vehicles out of iron pipes and prehistoric engines. We are the guys who started powering homes with cow poop. And among us are a few who are dreaming very big in terms of property development.
"I have 100 acres of land acquired and ready for development. I want to build a great satellite town with an additional 100 acre acquisition. This is my dream project and I am going to make it happen", says Jatin bhai from Odisha, proudly sharing his master plan with us at a discussion.
"Once completed, this jewel in Odisha's crown is going to be a Rupees 1500 crore juggernaut. The whole country is going to be proud of what we created in the middle of nowhere", he beams, smiling with confidence.
"I want to create homes that are technology loaded. In fact I am looking at building a residential project where we would not consume any external electricity for certain functions. All the common area lights and services would be powered by cells that use solar energy to charge themselves during the day!" says Dipti Ranjan, another young and visionary builder from Odisha.
However, the alarming thing here is not the outrageous size of the vision and task ahead. It is the complete absence of a proper team and thus, the technical know how of how to go about starting, building and delivering a project of that magnitude. Jatin bhai has all of 5 blokes in his team and Dipti Ranjan has a dozen dudes running the entire real estate operation for him.
What's even more alarming is that both these gentlemen here have actually travelled the world studying similar projects, understanding how new technology has been deployed, who are the vendors and consultants associated with the project and how have these unique developments travelled from the drawing boards to where they stand today.
Their development visions are therefore substantial and have precedence, albeit in some other part of the country or the world!
The Indian real estate consultants
Let us face a fact dear brokers and consultants. If DLF and Unitech need consultants to help them conceive, plan and deliver a 100 acre township, they are not going to be knocking at our doors. They would approach the best in the real estate consulting fraternity. The best would mostly mean an international property consultant. These international property consultants with their immense financial capabilities set up swanky offices, pay handsome salaries and drain away the best home grown minds from smaller consultancy and brokerage setups in India everyday.
The visionary entrepreneur who starts a consulting and agency setup to cater to Indian builders is left with a team of inexperienced manpower that is simply incapable of delivering any meaningful consultancy to a visionary builder like Jatin bhai. Typically the business development is handled by the directors and owners of such consultancies who are capable of bagging the account but incapable of reproducing their delivery capabilities at multiple locations and in multiple projects. Slowly a back log starts appearing in the system. Manpower hired is quickly found to be under performing and unskilled for such large deliveries. The system begins to fail and the consultancy slowly dies an inevitable death.
The real estate schools of India
"Bro, so you are looking at a commercial leasing guy eh? This is how it is done. You hire 5 guys you like and start with them. In due course 4 of them would crap all over the place and leave. One guy would remain who you think you can work with and that is the guy you have to invest on and develop for your organisation. And once he or she is good enough, some other company will poach him away or he will simply think of starting on his own, taking away all your hard work and maybe, some of your clients too." said Abhijit Das of Lemongrass Advisors while giving us some very genuine and friendly advice. Months later, we at Pillars Consultancy found that to be the truest thing we heard in all of 2012!
Take the example of MMG Realty of Kolkata, a company that was one of the first and most successful real estate consultancy setups in India. Today some of the best known names in the real estate industry of India have started their real estate careers in this company. Personal visions, poaching and a lack of specialised manpower in real estate ensured that MMG turned into this big real estate school that burnt itself out but gave India some of her best real estate professionals.
Let's start cloning then folks
Everything begins with a dream. And some wise men have said that if folks have not laughed at your dreams, then you need to understand that your dreams are not big enough. Dreaming big is not a problem in our country. Planning, designing and building these mammoth real estate dreams is. What Jatin bhai and Dipti Ranjan need are people down the line who can understand and execute their organisation's grand dreams. People who have had the opportunity to see such dreams being turned into brick, mortar, glass and landscapes. People who know their way around such complex developments. Where do you get these people from? Will the suave Rohit Saxena from an IPC leave his plush air conditioned office and slog it out for Mohit Realtek Enterprises? We have our doubts. Will a Srinivasan from K Raheja Corp leave his comfortable take home and perks and slog it out on the site for Jatin Bhai's Gloryana Estates? We doubt that as well.
Will an experienced consultant from an EnY come over at Pillars? You must be frigging dreaming. Even if we could match the pay, how could we match the brand and the immense security EnY offers?
Jatin needs to clone himself. Ditto Dipti Ranjan and ditto some of us at Pillars and the other upcoming real estate consultancies in India. Good manpower is a myth. At least for the real estate industry in India. The planning and marketing teams at the builder companies could give you a headache and a heartburn at the same time after a mere 15 minute interaction.
Most of the good architects we meet in small towns are great guys but they have taken up more work than their team can deliver. Getting out simple design alterations and leasing diagrams can give you a pain in the wrong place for days!
All of these visionaries need to start cloning themselves and the best manpower in their organizations before the real men and women leave and start their own or flash an EnY or a JLL name card! We say this in awe of these great organizations and we respect their work and contribution to the Indian real estate scene today. But this very hurdle of team building is what so many entrepreneurs face in the industry each day. Top of the line real estate developments will only come from top of the line teams which sadly do not exist. So. Clone away. Else, visions will start blurring and frustration will mostly take over. The very F word that plagues the Indian real estate industry today.
QED.
I'm not sure how this will work out for real estate in India though. But I'm sure these signature club apartments ann arbor homes do not need hard core marketing to sell.
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