Manish Shah, MD & CEO of Godrej Capital, outlines his focus areas today and in the future:
Ravi Lalwani: What are the top 3 areas where you will personally focus upon?
Manish Shah: We are very bullish about the growth of MSMEs over the next few years, and that is the reason behind we have also launched Nirmaan, an online platform that provides a holistic suite of services to MSMEs. It is not just lending, we have also tied up with third party providers to help with growing their business, incorporation, insurance, marketplaces, etc.
For housing finance, I am focused on improving customer delight in an efficient manner. Buying a home is an emotional and overwhelming process for most of us, so I am constantly thinking about how we at Godrej Capital can make it more stress-free for customers. Flexibility in lending plays a big part in making that happen.
I have immense respect for hardworking, talented individuals who are willing to dive into their work. Our culture of ability and high performance has been acknowledged through the Great Place to Work award, and we are looking forward to making Godrej Capital a rewarding place for growth and success.
Name 3 areas in which you confidently consider yourself as an expert. How did you gain that expertise?
I am confident that I have mastered the art of saying ‘I don’t know but I’m willing to learn,’ and am striving to impart this attitude to my co-workers. Business often requires decisions that necessitate an answer one way or another; hesitation or sitting on the sidelines is not an option. You must select a course of action and stick with it.
I picked up some of these traits when I worked at a start-up, where the learning curve was quite steep. And I always like to say that Godrej Capital is like a start-up within the Godrej group. We have been building Godrej Capital from the ground-up, and there is a feeling in the company that all of us are in this together.
What 3 areas would you be looking to develop yourself in the years ahead?
One area is leadership, undoubtedly. We are going to be in a phase of scale and growth for the next many years, so it is important that I keep polishing my leadership skills – what got you through one phase is not necessarily good enough for the next.
I want to contribute to the company’s goal of achieving industry-best Net Promoter Scores from our customers. I think we, as the financial services industry, are lagging a little when it comes to improving customer delight, especially when we compare ourselves to sectors like e-commerce and technology. So learning more about customer-centric practices, about improving the customer experience – that’s high on the agenda.
I also want to develop as a coach and mentor, especially for our emerging leaders at Godrej Capital. We have a bunch of extremely capable and hungry leaders, and I want to do as much as I can to catalyze their growth. While I consider this an area of strength, I will have to work on it actively to take it to the next level.
Name some of the business leaders, non-business leaders and leadership gurus who you really admire.
The author Eric Ries is someone I follow closely. His ideas about the ‘lean startup’ have got me to think deeply about how technology and processes can create value and reduce waste.
Ajay Banga is very inspiring. Some of my years at the Citigroup overlapped with his. You look at him leading the World Bank now, and there’s a sense of pride that one of our own has made it to that position.
Aditya Puri is another leader I admire in the financial services space, for the way he never rested on his laurels and found ways to constantly innovate at a giant company like HDFC Bank.
Then there’s also Piyush Gupta, another person with a Citi connection, now CEO of DBS Bank. It’s amazing the way Piyush has infused technology thinking into financial services. He felt that DBS had to stop thinking like other banks and start thinking like Big Tech – and that approach transformed the bank into one of the best globally.
And finally, of course, there’s Jeff Bezos of Amazon. What’s there to say, really! The vision, the insistence on excellence, the razor-sharp focus on execution.
As a leader, what business milestones would you like to achieve in the next 1-2 years?
Overall, and quite simply, I want to create one of India’s finest financial services businesses for one of India’s finest business groups. That’s what drives me every day. If we are talking specifics, our aim is to hit Rs120 billion in assets under management by the end of this financial year and Rs500 billion over the next 5. We want a large chunk of that business to come from the MSME sector. It’s an exciting time to be in the NBFC space, and we are enjoying every bit of the challenge.
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