Capt. K. Srinivas: “I Want to Contribute to Strengthening Corporate Governance Standards”
- Strategic Leadership and Vision:
- “Mr. Srinivas, throughout your extensive career in corporate leadership, what strategic initiatives have you championed that you are most proud of? How do you envision applying these experiences to your role as an independent director to drive sustainable growth and innovation?”
Capt Srinivas: Played key roles across Indian and multinational organizations managing global strategy. Been part of and led teams through the business evolution in the last two plus decades
· cross functional leadership to plan, organise and execute the organizational global delivery model
· Trans leadership across multicultural teams and regions for more than two decades
· In my current role as CEO , my key focus areas are ensuring strategic alignment across business and lateral functions .Creating processes to ensure accountability, strong execution , internal and external customer relationships, financial discipline and enhancing brand value consistently .
· A key strategic shift in the organizations business model has delivered significant results.
· As an Independent Director, I believe the Transleadership experiences across regions and multi-cultural teams would be vital to enhance organizational culture and delivery
2. Corporate Governance and Ethical Leadership:
“Given the increasing importance of ethical leadership and corporate governance, how do you plan to embed these principles into the fabric of the organization(s) you will serve as an independent director? Can you share an instance where you had to make a tough ethical decision?”
Capt Srinivas: By creating a strong culture where there is no fear and hesitation in reporting Non-compliance is vital. The Board must make this Non-Negotiable as a process across the organization.
· Demonstrating a free and fair process to address any intentional or unintentional non-compliances will provide a fair degree of accountability for personal action as well as provide adequate assurance to everyone of a fair and transparent process.
· Having led critical functions globally, I have always used two golden principles a) ensure there is an unhindered non-compliance reporting and b) while staying at an arm’s length, have an independent team carry out a full due diligence
· As an Independent Director it is incumbent to not only share your dissent in person but also have the conviction to follow through with a dissent note. Clear messaging needs to be done that there is zero tolerance to Non-compliance.
3. Challenges and Adaptability:
“The business landscape is continually evolving, presenting new challenges and opportunities. Could you describe a particularly challenging situation in your career and how you navigated it? What lessons did you learn that you believe are critical for effective leadership in today’s corporate world?”
Capt Srinivas: The workforce has seen significant evolution today. With multiple generations at work, it is a melting pot of talent with its share of aspirational challenges and unique set of needs. For leaders this presents continuously evolving challenges as well as opportunities .
· One of the greatest challenges in recent times in these areas has been the “Return to Office” phenomenon post COVID. Work from home became a necessity for both organizations as well as employees to address the significant challenge that covid presented. However Team dynamics, organizational culture became a challenge to leadership. The “Return to Office” became a challenge for most leaders with the workforce treating it more like a ‘Right’ than a ‘Privilege’. To address this we had to bring in a steady set of incremental measures to make the workforce willingly want to get back to fully working offline. These included Outbound learning programmes , showcasing how it was safe to work from office , running leadership sessions /townhalls to improve the morale of the workforce and finally ensuring close support to each employee to feel wanted in the office environments
4. Diversity and Inclusion:
“Diversity and inclusion are vital for fostering innovation and a healthy corporate culture. As an aspiring independent director, how do you intend to promote these values within the boardroom and broader organization? Are there specific strategies or initiatives you believe are most effective?”
Capt Srinivas: With today’s workforce being a melting pot of multiple generational talent, organizations need to be focused on Diversity , Inclusion as well as Equity to ensure they not only become ideal employers where employees “desire” to work but also receive tremendous benefits to its delivery capabilities through its workforce diversity. With this I would like to push for D&I even at the Board room to ensure the board is rightly representative of the organizational aspirations as well as be skill /domain expertise based
· As an Independent director I would like to ensure personal development of workforce aligns to Organizational development parameters at the micro and macro level. I would like the Board to encourage Creative Thinking ,Have D&I as a hiring norm to enhance team bonding .With organizations becoming truly multi-cultural , cultural sensitivities have become a Top Mandate for Business and HR leadership.
· Having implemented Diversity and Inclusion in global and Indian companies, I have been invited as a Board Member to the RICS South Asia Advisory Board
5. Future Trends and Industry Outlook:
- “Looking ahead, what major trends do you anticipate will significantly impact the industry sectors you are involved with? As an independent director, how would you advise companies to prepare for these shifts to ensure resilience and capitalize on new opportunities?”
Capt Srinivas: Responsible business has taken centre stage and will evolve as a major goal for every organization. With ESG becoming extremely important to attract talent, be seen as a key requirement for investments and contributing to major Organizational Metrics, organizations need to relook at their supply chains, community relationships and environmental impact.
· Organizations need to become “Prosumer “in their approach .
· Digital transformation in every industry is no longer a choice but a Business-as-usual criteria. With AI and IOT making cutting edge and impactful solutions one expects organizations to make Digital transformation and technology adoption a part of Business Strategy. Solutions based on AI, IOT, AR/VR and adoption of Proptech in the Real estate sector, Infrastructure companies is greatly enhancing its solutions for B2B and B2C target segment
· Having worked in both Indian and Multinational companies, I have experienced and gained significantly through the Global best practices at these companies globally. Having been front and centre at planning and executing of these strategies, I would like to work with Board members in cocreating an environment of building key capabilities and create a future focused organization.
— — — — — — — — -
Brief Profile
Captain K Srinivas, MCR, MRICS is currently the CEO of Cornerstone Properties Pvt Ltd, a Bangalore based Real estate development company that invests in land acquisition and undertakes development of these assets across commercial, residential, industrial, and warehousing asset classes through Self development, Joint Developments, Development Management models etc
He is also a Certified Independent Director from IICA under the aegis of Ministry Of Corporate Affairs. He has nearly two and a half decades of experience in leading MNCs and Indian Companies including Citibank, Aditya Birla Minacs, Capegemini, IBM, Mphasis among others. A Proud Alumnus of IIM Bangalore, he has completed Executive General Management Program and Independent Directors Program from IIM, Bangalore. He is also a member of RICS South Asia Regional Advisory Board.
He is a senior executive with two decades of combined work experience on both the Client & Developer side across Indian and Global real estate markets. Born and raised in an army family, he had the privilege of serving in the Indian army and being part of counter insurgency operations, supply chain and logistics functions. Post his Army tenure, he has led Real estate and Procurement/Supply Chain functions at leading companies managing both regional and global portfolios. His corporate experience spans across Real estate Planning and delivery of large developments across commercial, residential, industrial, warehousing and retail asset classes, country/location assessment, mergers, acquisitions, investments, asset management, Supply Chain Management, ESG and Corporate Services. He is passionate about Proptech, Agritech, Defence and Deep Tech industries apart from his love for everything around Designing and delivering Sustainability focused Real estate Projects.
