The best things in life are done when you are hungry for more business...
All Kushal Pal Singh Teotia, hailing from a Jat family of the erstwhile
United Provinces (India) with a history of military and public service
by its members, wanted to do when it was time to make a career decision
was to become an aeronautical engineer. If he had pursued his original
aspiration, his would have been just another story of a retired life
after years of service in the aviation sector.
But destiny had scripted
something else for him. Or should we say, destiny just forced him onto a
different path altogether from which he scripted a story of success
like India, as indeed most of the developing world, had never heard of
or seen before.
After his initial discomfiture as a cavalry man in the British-led
Indian Army (before India's independence), followed by a period of
struggle coinciding with his joining DLF in 1960 which forced DLF to
take up manufacturing of electric motors and automotive batteries. After
battling for years against the impediments to land acquisition owing to
the regulations (under the Land Ceiling Act), his perseverance in
getting through an infamous bureaucracy and braving the omni-present
political fire, his people skills - immense powers of pursuasion and
dealing ability- and, above all, a chance meeting with the son of the
then prime minister of the nation who would, not long after this
incident, himself become prime minister, created a real-estate hotspot
out of a dry, barren, scrubby plain in the state of Haryana, just across
the border from New Delhi, which would go onto be known as not only the
birth-place of India's BPO industry but also, significantly, lead to
the birth of the entire urban-development policy of India today.
Along the way Singh master-minded the creation of a real estate
behemoth (market capitalization of around USD 7 Bn) which is today the
world's largest real estate company in terms of revenues, earnings,
market capitalization, and developable area!
Early days
Singh
was born (August 15, 1931) into a Jat family of Bulandshahar in
present-day Uttar Pradesh state of India. His father, Chaudhary Mukhtar
Singh was an advocate by profession, so it was only natural that K.P.
Singh was driven toward academics and, hence, the aim to make an
appropriate career after completion of his studies. He graduated
(Bachelors) in Science from the Meerut College (U.P.), and left for the
UK to pursue aeronautical engineering. While in the UK, it so happened
that he was selected to the prestigious Indian Army, by the British
Officers Services Selection Board, UK - as a result he joined the Indian
Military Academy at Dehradun (India).
His initial army days were restless as the engineer in him kept
surfacing every now and then and he was constantly contemplating his
exit from the army until the issue was settled by a Senior Army officer,
Col. Baljit Singh. The seniors in the army had got wind of KP Singh's
plan of quitting the Army and resuming his aeronautical engineering in
London. Col. Singh summoned him and reminded him of the family history
of serving the military as well as the stigma that haunts someone who
had quit the army mid-way through his training. The meeting with this
amiable senior army officer left an indelible mark on the young KP
Singh, in that although the meeting was expected to bring at the least a
reprimand - for Singh had also planned to run away from the military
academy by boarding a train from the nearby railway station, in which
case he would be violating the basic norms of the academy- but instead
of cashiering the young man for his indiscretion, Col. Singh very
politely, and articulately, brought forth the ideals of the services and
their value to the nation as indeed the consequences if KP Singh had
run-away, and impressed upon him to stay back. This is where KP Singh
learnt his first lessons of man-management and the discipline that he
said have helped him in business years later. Singh stayed back and
served in the military, and was later on commissioned into The Deccan
Horse -a renowned cavalry regiment of The Indian Army.
The Spark
Sometime later, KP Singh married Indira, the daughter of Chaudhary
Raghvendra Singh, a former civil servant who had the vision in 1946
itself to foresee that the impending partition of the nation into India
and Pakistan which would result in mass migration of refugees who would
need housing, and thus, had founded DLF (Originally Delhi Land &
Finance) in the same year. He(Raghvendra Singh) had done this by
convincing farmers around New Delhi to hand over their land on the
promise of future payment, and borrowing money to develop residential
neighborhoods and then selling houses at considerable profit to the
influx of new-comers.
Although KP Singh joined DLF only in 1960, the company had completed
its dream-run upto 1957 and was on a downward trend as business had
slowed down considerably since the state government had granted itself
sole development rights for the city, forcing private firms out of the
business. There was also another aspect that proved to be a big hurdle
for the company. In all the years since its founding, the company had
only been able to acquire 40 acres of land, which was infinitesimal
compared to the land required for the scale of housing needed to meet
the demands of the influx of peoples.
Neither of the Singhs (father-in-law & the son-in-law) gave-in to
the adversity brought about by state policy. That real estate would be
their prime area of business they had no doubt and would never let go
off it. They chose to explore other areas in the interim until the
situation became once again favourable to resume the business of their
choice. The company ventured into manufacturing of electric motors and
automotive batteries following a tie-up with two American companies.
Although the venture eventually dithered away, the experience helped KP
Singh get acquainted with management techniques in practice at the time
in America. Ultimately, the joint venture was merged into DLF Universal
in 1979, and KP Singh assumed office as the Managing Director.
Digressing a bit from this period, an incident in 1975 deserves special
mention here as it showed KP Singh the light that would illuminate his
thinking as well as his thoughts and plans forever after that day. As
discussed earlier, the state had taken control of the housing
development sector throwing many real estate companies out businesses
through an Act which put a ceiling on the extent of land acquisition.
This plus the unwillingness of the farmer community in Gurgaon to sell
their lands come what might dealt a huge blow to the plan of Singh to
revive DLFs real estate business.
Disappointed and disheartened, and at the advice of his father-in-law,
Raghvendra Singh, KP Singh had decided to sell his stake in DLF in 1975.
His rendezvous with Col. Baljit Singh decades ago had also taught him
yet another very important lesson of his life - that one should never
run away from challenges in life. So, when friends and well-wishers from
outside the family had him rethink about his plan to sell his shares,
it was easy for him make the decision that was a life-changer for Singh
himself along with hundreds of thousands of many others. One of the
well-wishers, KP Singh says, was Y.S. Tayal, the company's then
financial advisor, who was well aware of what lay in store for DLF with
the advent of rapid industrialization and an ever-increasing population,
as also the implications of KP Singh divesting his DLF share-holding.
This brief piece of advice from Tayal had its impact on KP Singh, as his
thoughts shot back to that nervous meeting with the senior Army officer
and his precious words of wisdom of never letting go off your goal in
the face of any adversity whatsoever. He quickly realized what a blunder
of unimaginable proportions it would have been if he had given-in to
his father-in-law's suggestion. Thus clearing his cluttered mind of any
misgiving, he held onto his shares and stayed with DLF and kept working
at convincing the farmers, helping them in times of need with both
advice and other kinds like getting their children admissions in schools
and generally being there for them as a family-friend. This
modus-operandi of connecting with the lives of the farmers and behaving
as one of them had a measurable impact on the future of DLF, as farmers
ultimately came forward to sell their unproductive lands to DLF.
KP Singh had found his way out of the immense obstacle of making the
farmers, who owned much of the barren lands in and around Gurgaon, see
the light in selling their lands, but the other concern - that of
acquiring land in the face of regulations- still remained.
As luck would have it, a chance encounter with Rajiv Gandhi, who was
then the General Secretary of the ruling Congress Party (his mother,
Indira Gandhi, was the Prime Minister of the country), and the two-hour
conversation with him (Rajiv Gandhi) was the turning point in the
fortunes of DLF and KP Singh. The young Gandhi was impressed by KP Singh
vision of transforming Gurgaon, a village with acres and acres of
barren land, into a mega-town of high-rise towers, fancy apartments, and
malls. The friendship thus formed was to help KP Singh and DLF in the
very near future, as Rajiv Gandhi went on to become the Prime Minister
of India in late 1984 and helped ease the regulations for land
acquisition for commercial constructions, something which he had already
facilitated, as General Secretary, by talking the authorities into
believing in the vision of Singh for Gurgaon.
Much of the inspiration for dreaming of a city that would
pioneer a revolution in the real estate sector of the country by
becoming the India hub for a host of multinational corporations came
from KP Singh's fascination with Jantar-Mantar, the famous historic
observatory situated in the heart of New Delhi. Singh says, "The Jantar
Mantar gave me the inspiration that if the guy who conceived and made
the Jantar Mantar centuries ago could be a forward-looking man, why is
it that we can't be forward looking in our development and start to do
something ahead of the time?"
Thus, his almost prophetic vision, a shrewd strategy, and a stroke of
luck -as we have seen- turned DLF into the property powerhouse that it
is today.
The Journey
DLF's exponential growth story from a mere 40 acres of land-bank in the
1960s to 3,500 acres in Gurgaon transforming it into a dream city that
comprises some of India's first modern commercial structures, including
offices for General Electric and, more recently, for Swedish cell-phone
maker Ericsson and Swiss food giant Nestlé, had its share of pain and
agony.
Convincing farmers to sell their barren lands in Gurgaon required him
to go out of the way to make a place for himself in their hearts -he
attended weddings, even mediated family disputes, and helped out during
illnesses to win their trust. Ultimately, he could make them feel he is
one amongst them and it would only benefit them immensely if they
aligned with DLF and sold their ‘non-agricultural' land to it. Problems
relating to regulatory aspects eased to a great extent in the 1990s when
the economy was liberalized. But there still remained some problems
that DLF had to grapple with. These emanated from a couple state
ministers (State of Haryana) who tried to make life difficult for DLF
all through the two decades of DLF's humongous growth. Singh says it was
more to do with some personal prejudice than anything else. The
ministers did everything they could to crush DLF - numerous false
allegations, court cases and punitive actions which they indulged in to
checkmate DLF.
But under the resolute KP Singh, the company stood firm in the face of
such unlikely adversity and went about its endeavour of creating world
class real estate facilities for Indians as well the scores of MNCs who
had thronged to the country post the opening up of the economy to set-up
their back-office operations initially, and who were to later see the
business potential that lay unlocked in India. This was also one of the
early instances of FDI coming to India, and General Electric was the
first company to invest in the country -courtesy KP Singh and his
introduction of corporate India to Jack Welch. Soon many others took a
leaf out of GE's book, set-up facilities and started operations in
India, first at Gurgaon and later on expanding to other cities like
Bangalore, Hyderabad and the rest of the country.
By 2006, the company had embarked on an ambitious and multi-pronged
mission of expanding beyond its existing horizon of Gurgaon and the
National Capital Region (NCR) Delhi, to other parts of India while
continuing to add to its Gurgaon glory. It tied up with a host of
foreign companies to develop airports (in partnership with Fraport AG,
owner and operator of Frankfurt Airport), hotels (Hilton), and
industrial estates and urban hubs (Dubai-based developers Nakheel).
Another feather in its cap was the ‘Mall of India' in Gurgaon. Work on
the 1.8 million square feet (msf) project began in 2006 and it is set
for an August 2013 launch. All this meant that DLF had to raise
additional capital. It floated an IPO for 10% of the company's shares to
serve this end.
DLF went for an initial public offering in 2007 and made about $2.24
billion. It was one of the largest IPOs in India at the time and was
soon followed by an upsurge in the market capitalization of the company
to a level of $24.5 billion, making Singh and his family one of the
richest clans in the world. So much so, that in 2008, he was briefly the
world's richest real estate tycoon.
That can only be expected if one looks at the milestones the company
has achieved over the years under the leadership of KP Singh. From the
time DLF started to build the 3,000 acre DLF City in 1985 to this day,
its progression reflects the work of a genius. DLF has kept on besting
its efforts by venturing into group housing projects, Grade ‘A' office
spaces in Gurgaon, organized retail complexes, the DLF Cyber City in
2003, the launching of premium residential complexes with Golf Links in
2004 (18-hole golf course designed by golfing legend Arnold Palmer),
followed by focus on IT parks and next generation malls, hotels and
large townships, topped it all up with joint ventures with Prudential
for providing life insurance and asset management services, and getting
listed on the stock exchanges in 2007, developing India's first luxury
mall - DLF Emporio and the largest private-sector residential project in
New Delhi - Capital Greens, Automated car-parks, ultimately making an
entry into the infrastructure sector with the launch of an 8.3 Km
expressway in Gurgaon in 2012.
Presently, DLF has about 100 msf under development and about 400 msf of
planned projects encompassing residential, commercial, and retail
projects all over the country. The value that KP Singh has created is
nothing short of astounding. The land that cost Singh as little as $2000
an acre (at current exchange rates), today sells for about $4 million
an acre.
Apart from the fact that he is one of the leading visionaries of the
Indian corporate world, his vast experience, business acumen, and
people-skills have meant that many other important business as well
education bodies have sought his advice and involvement. As a result, he
presently holds several positions at various institutions and bodies,
some of which are listed below:
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Philanthropy
K.P. Singh had run DLF with the belief that Corporate Social
Responsibility is not just an add-on; rather its business and social
commitment were mutually reinforcing and neither can be sustainable
without the other. Therefore, he has ensured that DLF constantly
endeavours to create sustainable economies to transform stagnant lives
of the less fortunate people in the areas where DLF operates into active
partnerships through synergized pro-active handholding in areas of
infrastructure, education, training, health, and environment.
Thus, we can see that DLF has not lost sight of its social
responsibilities as a change agent for accelerating social and economic
transformation of the under-privileged segments, and complements the
efforts of the state in this regard.
DLF Foundation was established in 2008 as the philanthropic arm of DLF
Limited with the express mission of empowering communities and creating
opportunities for the underprivileged in areas of education, training
and health. A number of Rural Education, Training, Health and
Environment initiatives have been taken by the Foundation since its
incorporation to ensure sustainable and inclusive growth, which is both
environment-friendly and socially uplifting.
The Swapna Sarthak School -an informal school for the children of
construction labour was started by DLF way back when work on the first
DLF Township had begun and is manned by trained volunteers- conducts
classes for children who are ill-equipped to join regular school or
those who cannot afford to do so.
DLF's CSR wing continued its efforts on the education front by
setting-up DLF Centers of Excellence in 25 villages, partnering with
Pratham (an NGO) in 2007. The initiative introduced innovative learning
material to the teachers of government schools and community leaders who
were involved in the effort. Another initiative was the DLF Labour
Hutment scheme that aimed at improving the living conditions of the
construction labourers of all their projects by providing them all the
basic necessities at the site itself through efficient and effective
space management. Instead of constructing makeshift or temporary
accommodation for the labourers, DLF sanctioned hefty budgets to build a
mix of cemented hutments and dormitories.
Some of the other CSR initiatives that demonstrate what KP Singh
believes to be corporate social responsibility include setting-up of
Rural Primary Health Care Centres that would provide free medical
consultancy, health checkups and subsidized medicines to the villagers.
Helping the rural craftsmen, setting-up vocational training centre,
facilitating rural mobile libraries, running scholarship programs, and
undertaking environmental programs, to name a few.
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