The Mammoth of Real Estate Industry: Lodha Group

Our clean title land, world-class design, excellent execution, differentiated branding and marketing together with energetic on-ground sales have worked well to create the best value for customers. 

Lodha Group is the country’s leading multinational real estate developer with presence in India and the United Kingdom. Lodha is one of the most profitable companies in the real estate sector of our country. A privately held company, it is located in London, Mumbai, Pune, and Hyderabad. One of the largest corporate entities in Mumbai and employers in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Lodha has over 3,700 direct associates and over 25,000 workmen at its sites. In the real estate sector, it has the largest technical manpower with over 2000 professionals from Construction Management, Design, Procurement and Engineering working round the clock to deliver world class living to customers in India.

Lodha: Building a Better Life

Lodha was founded in 1980, by MangalPrabhat Lodha who inspired the company to its current height as India’s largest real estate developer. In November 2013, the Group extended its international footprint with the acquisition of the landmark MacDonald House at 1 Grosvenor Square in Prime Central London from the Canadian Government for a consideration of over GBP 300 million (INR 3,100 Cr). Lodha Group has the largest land reserves in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and has 26 on-going projects.It has several landmark developments to its credit including World One – the world’s tallest residential tower, and Palava City – the first Greenfield smart city in the country. The group has brought some of the top global names including Armani/Casa, Trump, Philippe Starck, Jade Jagger, Kelly Hoppen, Greg Norman and Pei Cobb Freed to India.

Pioneering new trends in the market, the Group introduced CASA by Lodha, offering the mid-income consumer luxury homes within easy reach. The Group also introduced the concept of branded office spaces, with offerings at every level, from world-class corporate offices and large-scale office campuses to signature boutique offices for growing businesses.

Lodha Group’s vision of ‘Building a Better Life’ extends to its commitment to society. The Group makes significant efforts for the improvement and upliftment of the areas and communities that it works in, with over 2% of the group’s annual profits dedicated to social programs. The group is on target to deliver over 1,000 homes each year from 2017 and is planning a further £3 billion worth of investment in the UK by 2018. With offices in London, Dubai and Shanghai and planned openings in the USA and Singapore, the Group is on the road to substantial international presence.

In Colloquy with Samujjwal Ghosh, CEO – Pune, Lodha Group

What are the greatest attributes of Lodha? 

We have five core values of strength for what we stand:

• Product: There is tremendous amount of focus within the organisation to deliver very high quality product. It becomes very critical that the back-end is managed exceedingly well; we are very clear about the product that we need to offer at a particular price for a particular consumer. Our objective is to deliver a product in the market which suites to the 80% population of the market. Product excellence is a core value as far as we are concerned.

• Customer Service: We have a strong focus on the customers and on customer service. I think this is one area where over a period of time we have done quite well and have understood what it will take to give a superlative customer experience during the entire journey, right from the time a customer expresses interest in buying a product to the end process.

• Working Ethically: We have a strong belief in working honestly with moral principles not just with the customers but with the stakeholders as well. The high level of ethical engagement and moral engagement between the organisation and all stakeholders - be it people who are working with us, the vendors, the consumer, or the community house.

• Serving the Community: When you are a developer it becomes important that you are able to serve the community that you are in. A certain percentage of our profit goes to the Lodha Foundation which is responsible for doing various community services across various platforms like education, women empowerment, so on. We specifically work with various organisations that take care of education from the perspective of helping the individual to earn a livelihood.

• Working with the best people: We are always focused on the fact that we need to work with the best people. People who are exceptional, people who have the ability to give tremendous amount of focus on the consumer. In fact, every employee of the organisation is trained and taught that at the end of the day we are here to serve the customer.

Can you talk about customers’ trust on your brand?

I think the greatest metric of our customer belief and customer confidence in our brand is essentially reflected in the sale volumes. Since Last five to six years, we have been the largest developers in the country by sales. For the last three years we have been a developer that has delivered the most residential units in a singular year. When we are able to deliver large volumes as per the stipulated timelines, it essentially means that more people are buying, we are constructing more and we are delivering in time.

That is a testimony for the fact that people believe in our brand, people believe in buying our brand because they have confidence on what the brand has to offer, their confidence in how the development will satisfy their living requirements.

What is the roadmap ahead for the company?

Real estate requires a high level of service as far as the customer is concerned. In Real estate, the customer is not ready to compromise on the unit purchased. If you look at the US in the late 90s or China in early 2000s, one of the critical reasons that they grew to that stature where their GDP is today is largely because of the significant growth in the housing sector. Our honourable Prime Minister has a certain vision for the country and as a developer we believe that we have a significant role to play in the growth of the overall economy as well as in the vision which the Prime Minister has ruled out. Furthermore, we want to be focused on specific markets and opportunistically go-to markets where we have to grow. There will be a significant growth in the real estate industry and we aim grow exponentially by 2025. We are currently evaluating some markets with an opportunistic manner where we believe that we have the appetite to grow and expand in that market and offer incredible services. Finally, we have a significant pipeline of products in the market, we have an extremely credible land bank that can fuel our growth for the next two decades; & we want to use the land assets that we have now in a very judicious manner.

Meet Samujjwal Ghosh, CEO – Pune, Lodha Group

Samujjwal has over 17 years of experience in Marketing, Product and diverse businesses across intensively competitive & consumer facing categories. Over time and after creating multiple successes in sales and marketing roles at Lodha; he took on the charge of leading a P&L role and transitioned into a CEO role. With its complexities and navigation across multiple stakeholders; it demands foresight, acumen and adaptability to take strategic calls. He manages cross functional operations spanning the entire value chain. He is a career fast tracker and is an extremely able communicator and inspiring leader. Since 2012, Samujjwal has regularly featured in the list of CMO Council’s 50 most talented CMOs.

He has done his MBA from NITIE, Mumbai post his BE in Electronics Engineering. He has done multiple management development programs internationally encompassing areas of leadership, strategy, brand, digital transformation, innovation and customer centricity.

“We believe that size is important but the priority is the quality of work that we are delivering. Our job is not just doing a lot of work but to do a great work. Our aim is to be create the best product in every micro-market we operate in across consumer segments”