Saurabh Talwar: A Forward-Thinking Manager & Strategist With A Proven Track Record Of Assembling Highperforming Teams
Saurabh Talwar
Chief Sales Officer
Saurabh has 20+ years of work experience in a variety of industries and organizations. Saurabh's skills and organizational leadership with a focus on the development of subordinates have earned him widespread acclaim. Saurabh, on the other hand, is adept at guiding bottom-line prosperity, Short & Long Term Strategic Planning and has extensive experience across the complete spectrum of real estate and competence in operating real estate businesses of all sizes. When it comes to establishing a high performance team, Saurabh’s management and planning skills are unmatched. Below is an excerpt of Saurabh’s exclusive interaction with the team of CEO Insights magazine.
" “Virtual reality has a big role to play in helping us interact with our consumers and convey a value proposition to them”
How are you leveraging your professional expertise to craft outcome-driven solutions at present?
Over more than two decades, I've worked in a variety of industries including FMCG, Telecom, Internet Service Providers, and Real Estate. This broadens my horizons and helps me become a well rounded professional in a variety of fields. As a result, I'm in a position where I'm able to see through the problems and analyze them much more thoroughly since my reflective thinking is a lot more efficient in comparison to those who have been only in the same field for a long period of time. My professional experience began with Coca-Cola, one of the most dynamic companies I've ever worked for. I subsequently moved on to Hindustan Unilever(a university of systems & processes)then to telecommunications sector with Vodafone & Aircel (Telecommunication being an extensive data driven business inculcates strong foundation of data reading, interpretation and analysis) and finally I started my journey into real estate domain with Lodha Group.
For my part, I have acquired considerable expertise in the real estate sector, spanning the comp
lete spectrum of properties real estate from complete mass market up to ultra-luxury properties. Now that I've gained valuable understanding and grip, I'm better prepared to face any scenario front-on and devise an effective plan for overcoming adversity.
How will technology alter real estate operations while optimizing client databases and ensuring compliance with the most recent technologies?
Those days of thinking about real estate as only a brick-and-mortar business or an unstructured sector with unplanned method of working are long gone. Real estate is now expanding at a rapid pace, and technology has a lot to do with it. A consumer doesn't have to be confined to a certain micro market; rather, the limits of the globe are eroding, making it possible for your product to reach a broader audience. In today's world, a consumer might come from anywhere, and we must ensure that they should be completely satisfied with the products, services and experience provided and this is where technology steps in.
Virtual reality has a big role to play in helping us interact with our consumers and convey a the value proposition offered clearly to them. Using this technology, a customer while sitting in the comfort of his home from a remote location will still be able to have a sense of being walking through the project & sample flat and experiencing it, and this has turned out as a game-changer for the whole entire real estate industry.
Reflect on some of the major challenges you have experienced in your journey so far? How did you overcome them and what did you learn from them?
In my 20+ years of professional journey my learning had been immense as I had the opportunities to manage various leadership roles across different industries, opportunities ranging from managing large size teams to managing a core group of senior leaders. I consider myself fortunate that I had exposure to these challenging roles throughout my leadership path. I believe being a leader requires a person to deal with newer challenges & obstacles at every single step, however one common challenge across the industries and organizations which I've seen is that of 'Resistance to change'.
This is a common problem observed by me wherever I've gone in my professional life, I've noticed that people react in a similar way across
Artificial intelligence & Virtual reality not only plays a big role in helping us reach out to the correct set of audience but also to interact better with our consumers, convey the value proposition elegantly and to make the overall customer experience not only pleasurable but a sheer delight
How will technology alter real estate operations while optimizing client databases and ensuring compliance with the most recent technologies?
Those days of thinking about real estate as only a brick-and-mortar business or an unstructured sector with unplanned method of working are long gone. Real estate is now expanding at a rapid pace, and technology has a lot to do with it. A consumer doesn't have to be confined to a certain micro market; rather, the limits of the globe are eroding, making it possible for your product to reach a broader audience. In today's world, a consumer might come from anywhere, and we must ensure that they should be completely satisfied with the products, services and experience provided and this is where technology steps in.
Virtual reality has a big role to play in helping us interact with our consumers and convey a the value proposition offered clearly to them. Using this technology, a customer while sitting in the comfort of his home from a remote location will still be able to have a sense of being walking through the project & sample flat and experiencing it, and this has turned out as a game-changer for the whole entire real estate industry.
Reflect on some of the major challenges you have experienced in your journey so far? How did you overcome them and what did you learn from them?
In my 20+ years of professional journey my learning had been immense as I had the opportunities to manage various leadership roles across different industries, opportunities ranging from managing large size teams to managing a core group of senior leaders. I consider myself fortunate that I had exposure to these challenging roles throughout my leadership path. I believe being a leader requires a person to deal with newer challenges & obstacles at every single step, however one common challenge across the industries and organizations which I've seen is that of 'Resistance to change'.
This is a common problem observed by me wherever I've gone in my professional life, I've noticed that people react in a similar way across
a variety of industries towards this.Now, this resistance to change is a refusal to adjust to new conditions or ways of doing things, but what's truly occurring is that they are unable to connect with the new leader or newer processes in the company. Even people in leadership positions often reject change because they see it as a threat to their authority and not as an opportunity for growth. And what's the point of it all? People at all levels and age groups do this out of concern that the changes brought would badly affect their performance reports, job security, or pay grades. Anxiety and misunderstanding are the root causes of this problem.
As a leader, I would suggest to the management team that an open dialogue with the workforce should be a mandatory practice and with even the smallest team member. You'll get such meaningful insights through this activity that even the smartest of boardroom executives won't be able provide you by comprehending excel sheets, numbers and data. To conclude, 'Resistance to Change' or lack of flexibility is the major concern that I have seen in every business for which I have worked.
As an experienced industry leader, what advice would you give to the budding professionals in this domain?
You must be willing to learn & study a lot if you want to advance in real estate and build a name for yourself in the industry. When I say be 'open to learning', I'm referring to each of the verticals that make up this sector. One cannot become a subject matter expert without first grasping the connection of the domain with other functions. In other words, if you want to be good in sales, you have to know everything there is to know about it, from the smallest subsets of every sales vertical to their interrelationships with other fields as diverse as Marketing, Finance, Strategy and even Designing. Eventually, everything will come together to form you as a marvelous finished product. As a result, the only piece of advice I can provide to aspiring professionals in this subject is that it's a vast field with plenty of prospects to come. However, have an open mind, avoid stereotypes, and don't limit yourself only based on your degree of comfort.
Saurabh Talwar, Chief Sales Officer, Puranik Builders
Saurabh is an alumni of IIM Lucknow, wherein he successfully completed Advance Course in Strategic Business Management, prior to it he has completed his MBA in Business Management from Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya Indore. With over 20+ years of experience in various industries, Saurabh is a well-rounded professional who has worked with some of world's most prestigious companies including Vodafone, CocaCola and HLL. He has also worked with companies like Vodafone, Sify, Aircel, Lodha Group, Sheth Creators, and Rustomjee Developers. Currently, Saurabh is the Chief Sales Officer at Puranik Builders.
As a leader, I would suggest to the management team that an open dialogue with the workforce should be a mandatory practice and with even the smallest team member. You'll get such meaningful insights through this activity that even the smartest of boardroom executives won't be able provide you by comprehending excel sheets, numbers and data. To conclude, 'Resistance to Change' or lack of flexibility is the major concern that I have seen in every business for which I have worked.
As an experienced industry leader, what advice would you give to the budding professionals in this domain?
You must be willing to learn & study a lot if you want to advance in real estate and build a name for yourself in the industry. When I say be 'open to learning', I'm referring to each of the verticals that make up this sector. One cannot become a subject matter expert without first grasping the connection of the domain with other functions. In other words, if you want to be good in sales, you have to know everything there is to know about it, from the smallest subsets of every sales vertical to their interrelationships with other fields as diverse as Marketing, Finance, Strategy and even Designing. Eventually, everything will come together to form you as a marvelous finished product. As a result, the only piece of advice I can provide to aspiring professionals in this subject is that it's a vast field with plenty of prospects to come. However, have an open mind, avoid stereotypes, and don't limit yourself only based on your degree of comfort.
Saurabh Talwar, Chief Sales Officer, Puranik Builders
Saurabh is an alumni of IIM Lucknow, wherein he successfully completed Advance Course in Strategic Business Management, prior to it he has completed his MBA in Business Management from Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya Indore. With over 20+ years of experience in various industries, Saurabh is a well-rounded professional who has worked with some of world's most prestigious companies including Vodafone, CocaCola and HLL. He has also worked with companies like Vodafone, Sify, Aircel, Lodha Group, Sheth Creators, and Rustomjee Developers. Currently, Saurabh is the Chief Sales Officer at Puranik Builders.