I'm More Than My Surname: Anand Piramal Above and Beyond the Family Business

Claim to Fame: Son of Bilionaire Owner of Piramal Enterprises, Ajay Piramal and Padma Shri Awardee, Swati Piramal

After doing his graduation from the University of Pennsylvania, Piramal founded a rural healthcare start-up, "Piramal e-Swasthya'. To Piramal's credit it became a case study at Harvard Business School. After that he went on to complete his MBA from Harvard. In 2012, Anand marked Piramal Group's re-entry in real estate being its first employee. Presently, the group is building residential plus commercial real estate forming 75% and 25% of the chunk respectively.

On how it is differentiated from others, Anand says, "It is our approach to build the buildings which are of international stature mand world-class quality like that of any city in the world." Piramal Realty went on to raise Rs 1800 crore from Warburg Pincus and then within three weeks another Rs 900 crore from Goldman Sachs, making it the largest FDI in the sector since 2008.

On keeping the focus only on Mumbai, Anand says, "Real estate is a very local game, even if you look at Emaar, 70% of its wealth is in one city. I think there are lots of opportunities in Mumbai solely. India is expected to grow further in 7-8 years. Mumbai will be the great cities of the world much more than it is now." Apart from his father, Anand has received great learnings from his family's friend, and leading
entrepreneur, Mukesh Ambani. He told me that proceed with your goal of entrepreneurship, if you yearn to be an entrepreneur. When you start a business, you need to learn how to begin with scratch, states Anand. In his own words, "Being an entrepreneur is like playing cricket and being a consultant like watching it as a commentator."

Also Read: Making her Mark - Ananya Birla and My Piece of Sky: Zahabiya Khorakiwala

This article first appeared in the Indian edition of Entrepreneur magazine (August 2016 Issue).