IIMB CREDAI Business Leadership Programme (BLP)

Programme Overview

The real estate sector in India is at an important crossroad. From an unorganized sector with not so stellar reputation, the sector is slowly taking its rightful place as one of the prime engines of the Indian economy. Three important drivers have contributed to this transition. One is the introduction of RERA that has not only empowered the customers but have also made developers more efficient and process driven. The second driver is the entry of corporate developers and institutional investors who have brought latest management practices and governance standards to this largely family driven sector. The third driver is technology that has sparked an explosion in innovation across the real estate value chain. While consolidation in the sector is inevitable, the new environment has given hope for smaller real estate developers to differentiate themselves and grow.

While developers still need to build properties at a reasonable margin, the way to do it is slowly changing due to these drivers. Leaders in the real estate sector need to be first aware of these changes, be able to manage them through creative systems and processes, and then be able to evangelize the response to ensure that the entire organization is unified in its purpose and action. While charismatic leaders do appear once in a few generations, most leaders need to arm themselves with latest tools and techniques to navigate this transition. Keeping this need in mind, CREDAI has initiated a programme with the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore called the “IIMB-CREDAI Business Leadership Programme (BLP)” for the leaders of the real estate industry. The 2023-24 cohort will be 9th batch of the programme.

This programme is designed to help CREDAI members meet the key challenges of managing in today’s dynamically changing and complex environment. The constant flux in the business and political environment makes it crucial for real estate leaders to continuously review their existing worldviews and explore new ways of building and sustaining the competitive advantages for the firms they lead. It requires not only an in-depth cross-functional knowledge and an ability to make decisions using a strategic perspective but also awareness of personal strengths and weaknesses. The proposed IIMB-CREDAI Business Leadership Programme aims to allow participants to manage this development agenda.

Programme Objective

The objectives of BLP are to help the participants achieve a personal and professional transformation towards visionary leadership in their organizations. The programme is aimed at helping participants to:

• Become strategic thinkers and dynamic leaders who shape the industry’s future and its structure in a dynamic and fast-growing industry.
• Understand and assimilate emerging concepts, technology, and business practices in achieving operational excellence and superior competitive performance.
• Help reflect and build on leadership skills at all levels – personal, firm and at the industry level.
• Develop professional mindset.
• Appreciate trends and headwinds in the real estate industry to be able to manage and use them to their advantage.

Participant Profile

The programme is best suited for real estate business leaders who have at least 5 years of experience in leading their organization. Leaders could be either first generation entrepreneurs or part of the family running the business. To enrich programme experience, the cohort size will be limited to a maximum of 25 participants. Preference will be given to parent-child, sibling-sibling participants as we believe that effectiveness of the program increases with multiple participants from the same firm. Moreover, effort will be taken to ensure geographical, gender, size, and age diversification so as to maximize peer-to-peer learning.

Programme Framework and Content

This programme is envisaged as a fully residential programme and will be organized into 5 modules of 4 to 5 days per module. These modules are spread over 5 months, as indicated below. While the number of days in each module will remain as planned, the content may be modified based on faculty schedule.

This programme covers a lot of ground in a very short time frame. Hence, it is important that the participants attend all the modules to get the most out of the programme. Participants with less than 75% attendance across all modules will not be provided with a certificate of completion. Participants must also plan to allocate some time in-between the modules to work on Action Learning Projects, Assignments and Pre-reads.

Action Learning Projects (ALP) are meant for participants to work on real problems that developers face. They could be ongoing problems or challenges that one or several of the participants face while they are in the programme. They will work on these projects in groups aided by faculty or external experts over the course of the entire programme. The groups will be expected to present during the final module to the entire cohort.