Jogy Paradiyil Thomas, Kore Communities: India’s Inspirational Leaders 2020

Selected as an Inspirational Leader 2020, Jogy Paradiyil Thomas of Kore Communities is driving some real new age developments in real estate. Refreshing and inspiring the industry.

 Years of working in the industry, your contribution reflects versatility and volubility. What has influenced

your decision making process at various stages?

I believe in trying to maximize the shareholders wealth without compromising the interest of other stakeholders, be it lenders, customers or vendor. My decisions and actions are guided by this.

A project or an accomplishment that you consider to be the most significant in your career?

One project that stands out is the delivering of quality expandable independent housing project in a tier 3 city at a unit price of Rs.10K. The challenges include non-availability of basic infrastructure like sewage treatment plant or disposal system, quality electricity supply infrastructure, drainage system or even water supply provision by the Government in 5 Km radius of the project. Overcoming these challenges and delivering the project within the budget, timeline and ensuring that the experience of the residents is good was a big challenge. Success of this project motivated others to take up similar projects.

How do you integrate corporate philanthropy or corporate social responsibility as a part of your business strategies?

In my view, the corporate social responsibility starts not with spending part of your profit for social causes, but it starts with designing and delivering projects/ product with focus on reduction of its negative social/environmental impact, even at the cost of profit. In other words, spending extra to negate adverse social/ environment impact of your project, even though such expenditure is not mandated under statute. On mandatory corporate social responsibility spending, my choice of area is working for social upliftment of underprivileged of the society by supporting education and health care.

What has been your driving force or philosophy in life?

Change is inevitable and be prepared to adapt to change. Challenge yourself every day to do better.

What are the other philanthropic works you are involved in?

I am actively supporting a charitable trust, which is focused on providing medicine to poor patience (mostly cancer) and also supporting the family of such patience in the absence of other bread earning members in the family. The support includes, food and basic needs to the family members, educational assistance to their kids etc. The idea is to support them as they are battling the illness, ensure that the family is taken care of (in terms of its basic needs) and ensure that they are able to stand on their own feet over a period of time. If the patient didn’t survive or recover fully, different plans are put in place to take care of the needs of the family.

How do you define success and how do you measure up to your own definition?

A business leader is expected to provide sustainable growth to the organization and ensure high levels of employee and customer satisfaction. Investors put their money in your organization to earn profit and there is an implied promise from the leader to deliver that. Success to me is achieving the above objective consistently. I challenge myself time and   again to achieve this objective and I do believe that I am consistently successful in this regard.

We are constantly making things better, faster, smarter or less expensive. In other words, we strive to do more with less. Tell us about a recent project or solution to a problem that you have made better, faster, smarter or less expensive?

Listed below are some of the innovative strategies adopted for the Kore Tech Park development:

• Integrated design approach towards Sustainable Architecture and Design.

• Efficient building envelope design to optimise energy consumption by providing energy-efficient DGU

glazing and roof with insulation and reflective properties.

• Savings of over 14% over base building by using efficient building envelope, lighting and HVAC systems.

• Implementation of Hybrid Structural system in the Structural design to expedite speed of construction.

• The challenges posed by amendments in the Code, midway during the construction timelines, were

deftly handled by adopting the hybrid structural system of Flat slab system in Basements and Framed

Beam – column system for the Superstructure. The structural system was further simplified with

standardisation in beam and column sizes to the maximum extent possible.

• Procurement of tailor-made lengths of R/F steel to minimise wastage.

• Water saving measures enabled by use of curing compounds for concrete used in construction.

In your opinion what is the most significant aspect of leadership?

In my opinion, the most significant aspect of leadership is living up to what you preach.

 Your perception of an empowered society. How far your industry has / can contribute for the same?

To me, an empowered society is one where the marginalised members of the society get control over their lives. In such a society they are able act to help themselves and others to maximise the quality of their lives. Our industry can help providing quality housing, that include adequate water & electricity supply and sewerage & other waste disposal system, which is a distant dream for large part of the society today. Fulfilment of such basic needs help them become part of an empowered society.

PERSONAL GRID

One thing you wish to change and one thing you wish to retain about your industry?

One thing I wish to change in my industry is the casual approach towards the commitments made to

customers. The thing that I would wish to retain is the optimism that tomorrow will be better than today.

One thing you have to let go off as an entrepreneur/leader?

I often tend to give excess weightage to analysis based on worst case scenario. This has helped me stay away from many risky investments, but it also resulted in me giving up some opportunities. This mental framework that has become a core part of my decision-making process, is something I need to let go. I am working on adopting a better framework of risk reward balance that I can incorporate in my decision making, so as to improve myself as a leader.

Whom do you owe your success to?

I owe my success to my family, my team (including both employees of my organization and service providers) and the customer centric approach I hold while working on all my projects.

Best thing about your job?

Best thing about my job is that it helped me become part of the nation building, by create quality housing and infrastructure, which is a key constraint for growth of any developing nation.

A message from you to all the future entrepreneurs/leaders?

If you must choose between your growth and growth of your organisation, chose the latter. That will ensure your long-term growth.