People Are Our Core Strength: Xanadu's Anurag Singhvi

Headquartered in Mumbai, Xanadu was founded in 2015 as a human capital powerhouse with a rich accumulation of talent in the real estate industry. In just three years, it has grown to 200-plus members and delivered a business of over Rs 2,000 crore across residential and commercial real estate. Managing Director Anurag Singhvi talks to BW Businessworld about his company and its vision. Excerpts of the interaction:

On the importance of people and profits
At Xanadu, we believe that the prime reason of our existence is ‘Our People’. With ‘people’ being our core strength, Xanadu is home to the crème de la crème of management professionals from diverse backgrounds with a strong interest in the real estate industry. We take pride in ourselves as a human capital powerhouse promoting extremely high level of motivation, teamwork and confidence to own challenging assignments. The people focus approach reflects in our collaborative culture where bonds matter more than bureaucracy, fusing our diverse talents together to provide the best to our clients.  What gives us further confidence in our organisational approach is that in just the third year of our existence we are not only strongly positioned in the industry but have also broken even as a company.

On what makes xanadu a great place to work
Xanadu as a new-age company believes in a very innovative approach towards work, business and culture. What sets us apart as an organisation is our unique values, culture and our business model. Our innovative appraisal process is one of the many practices, which exemplifies the above. Our annual increment and appraisal is de-linked. Annual increments have been made equitable across levels in the organisation and is only linked to organisational performance. However, the appraisals focus on overall professional and personal development of the individual to help propel his/her growth.

On the company’s evolution 
 Xanadu has evolved from a core of five-member team to over a 250-professional team in the last three years. We operate out of a 15,000 sq. ft, beautifully designed office in South Mumbai, which fully resonates with our core values and open culture. We encourage people to grow within the organisation and some of the key leadership roles today at Xanadu are helmed by people who have grown into those roles from within.

We have introduced hobby/interest clubs within the organisation which help associates to bond and connect with each other beyond work. The leadership of these clubs is natural and not hierarchical.

On people philosophy
Since our foundational belief is “Be good, do good,” we look at goodness as a virtue in the individual above anything else. We believe skills can be developed as long as the individual has the right attitude and the willingness to learn. We recruit talented people from across all industries. We like happy, passionate and positive people and our philosophy encourages emphasis on EQ over IQ. We value people with an entrepreneurial drive who are innovative by nature and are always working to create new approaches, products, services, and technologies. People come first for us as they are our only asset. We exist because of our people and not vice a versa.

On the company’s road map
Xanadu is a human capital powerhouse with the richest accumulation of talent providing strategic direction and delivering business transformation to clients in the real estate space. Our only strategic weapon is ‘Our People’ and the most important strategic tool which drives us is ‘Our Knowledge’ and that is what we would want to be known for.