Ajay Harinath Singh Greatest Brand Leader 2018-2019

Manoj Namburu
Laying the foundation of
a Better world
Armed with a rich experience of 3 decades, the CMD of Alliance Group, Mr. Namburu has been laying
strong foundations of trust by promoting high levels of ethics and integrity in business practices and
ensuring unparalleled service to the clients. Besides being an accomplished entrepreneur, he is also the
author of the popular book ‘Moguls of Real Estate’
With a rich global experience of
around 10 years as the CEO of
Magma Consulting Inc., based in
Pleasanton, California, USA, Mr. Namburu
spent a significant amount of time helping
clients improve their bottom lines through
the adaptation of emerging technologies.
Despite tasting immense success overseas,
he always longed to return to his homeland
and ultimately returned to India for good.
He was interested in developing software
parks, however, destiny had some other
plans for him in store and he ended-up
joining hands with his childhood friend Mr.
Suneel Bommireddy to establish Alliance
Group. They started the very first project
in Bangalore titled ‘10 Downing’, which did
exceedingly well and derived significant
advantage of the real estate boom.
Identifying “a serious vacuum of large scale
professionally run real estate developers in
Chennai”, he “decided to focus on Chennai
and work towards becoming number
one real estate developer in the city in 10
years.” He started developing large scale
projects and owing to his dedication and
commitment, he achieved great success.
Today, he declares with pride, “In 10 years
that goal to become the largest and number
one developer in Chennai has become
a reality.” Talking about his expansion
plans, he says, “Now we also operate in
Hyderabad real estate development space
and are aspiring to become the number 1 in
Hyderabad market.”
Turning Adversity into Advantage
It is a widely accepted fact that one of the
most important qualities of a leader is
resilience. In fact the true grit of a leader is
not how he or she performs during the good
times but rather how the person displays
emotional strength and professionalism
during the most trying times. Despite
having hit rough weather a number of
times, Mr. Namburu never gave up and
emerged stronger than before. Throwing
light on some of the specific challenges he
faced, he elaborates, “Housing bubble and
recession in 2008, Demonetisation, GST roll
out, December 2015 floods and introduction
of RERA Act were the challenges we have
faced like every real estate developer.
However, the difference is that we emerged
unscathed each of these times while several
developers never recovered from those
shocks and many developers went bankrupt.
He further adds, “Our attitude of ‘Identifying
opportunities in adversity’ is one of the
secrets of our organisation’s success.”
Advocating Reforms for a
Brighter Future
An ardent advocate of some of the reforms
which should be brought about in the real
estate sector, Mr. Namburu asserts, “We
“Both our organisation and our family
are involved in many CSR activities and
one that we are emotionally attached
to is the plantation drive involving
plantation of 2 lakh trees in Chennai city”
strongly feel that Real estate industry
should be given an ‘Industry status’. It is an
irony that whenever the economy is down,
the government first focuses on stimulating
housing growth, as they believe housing
industry alone has the capacity to spur
growth in 150 other industries and provides
employment to crores of people – yet real
estate industry does not have an ‘Industry
status’.”
He is also concerned about the fact that
“Real estate developers depend completely
on funding from NBFCs at high rate of
interest.” In his opinion, “Banks must fund
real estate companies which will give access
to funds at reasonable rates for the industry
to expand.”
He further adds, “In affordable housing
industry while the buyers whose monthly
gross salary is under Rs.75,000 are excited
to buy a home and are ready to pay for the
monthly EMI – yet most of them do not have
the 10% down payment (approximately
Rs.2 to 4 lakhs) required to pay for buying
the home and avail a home loan for the
remaining 90%. The government is giving
up to Rs.2.6 lakhs as subsidy from Pradhan
Mantri Awas Yojana. If only this amount is
given to customers at the time of paying
advance to enter into agreement, the sales
in affordable housing sector which is the
primary growth engine for the country today
can be revived and the growth of economy
can be triggered.”
Cherishing Triumphs
For his outstanding contribution to the real
estate sector, Mr. Namburu has received
numerous awards with the notable one
being Economic Times Ace Tech award
for ‘Leaders of Indian Infrastructure &
Construction’. Owing his success to a great
support system, Mr. Namburu delineates,
“I’m blessed with a family which stands
behind me like a rock of Gibraltar. My wife
takes care of every single matter at home,
so I can completely stay focused on my
work. My parents have always encouraged
me – each time I had a fall, they only used
words of encouragement.” He further adds,
“My partner Suneel’s family is my extended
family. He is a brother to me and inspires
me to excel all the time.”
Giving Back to Society
Giving back to society is one of the most
important and valuable ways in which a
leader can contribute towards building the
nation. Bent on making a positive difference
to the world, Mr. Namburu is involved
in multiple pro-social initiatives. He
54 | india’s greatest leaders 2019-20 |