Chetan Singh Hayer: World's Best Emerging Leader 2022

WCRCLEADERS in conversation with Chetan SIngh Hayer, Managing Director, Hayer One, Kenya

Chetan Hayer, Managing Director, Hayer One with his team at the WCRCFEST in London

What makes a strong leader? What are your key leadership strengths are make the strongest attributes of success.

Some of my key leadership strengths that I believe can make a strong leader are -

Encouraging open and honest communication; maintain mutual respect and trust; communicate vision; motivate and inspire the group; encourage an environment of accountability; create optimism; encourage professional & personal growth; maintain not only the top-down approach but also encourage bottom-up openness; encourage continuous learning; demonstrate strong conviction; an ambition to succeed in good and bad conditions; understand the significance of

the situation to make decisions; being decisive; excellent communication skills; effective negotiation skills.

An accomplishment that you consider to be the most significant in your career? What challenges did you face to reach to the success.

The successful design, execution, completion and management of an office development project called The Address . The challenges were several and at every stage - Acquisition of land, arranging of finance; technical soil challenges; execution of the construction at every stage (from excavation to foundation to structure to finishes); sales challenges, being the first time developer of a grade A office space. This was an extremely challenging development at every stage, but ultimately a lot more satisfying, when it became one of the most successful office

development projects in Nairobi. It further gave motivation to build the second largest high-rise residential project called The Marquis , the biggest project yet for our group. The Marquis is a few months away from completion and is set to be one of the landmarks of Nairobi for years to come. Our team at Hayer One has been working tirelessly and super excited for its successful completion and handover.

What is a role of leader in these challenging times.

Long term view - we should be willing to accept short term losses for the long term sustained gains. During the Covid times 2020-21, we were presented with several options of cost saving that included salary cuts & layoffs. As we all know it was quite chaotic at the time. There was a high degree of insecurity in the market and our employees were also concerned as other members of their family were being laid off and their household incomes were depleting. We consciously made a simple decision to retain each and every employee and not make any pay cuts. In the short run, this certainly applied stress to our cash flows, but, as we stand now, our employees have appreciated this initiative and stand by us while we are about to deliver the second largest high-rise residential project of Nairobi called The Marquis.

2) Deep ties with partners - Our business requires partnerships with bankers, suppliers, consultants, contractors. Generally speaking, our group policy has been to develop long-term relationships with our partners. With each one of them we have carried many years of relationships through multiple projects. This conservative approach of deepening relationships with our partner has resulted in the outstanding support during the tough times of Covid and now the war in Ukraine. Sometimes, people say that business can be unforgiving. While this may be true, there is also another truth - business is conducted between human beings. A kind and a good business heart recognises its counterpart and these end up forming lifelong relationships, thereby making the tough times - not so tough.

3) Maintaining a high level of grit and resilience - The quote “When the going gets tough, the tough gets going,” is the most apt for this point. During the pandemic time, Real Estate industry faced maximum NPAs, stalled projects, quality compromises due to various factors such as availability of funds or material, etc. We were in the middle of constructing the structure of the second largest residential project in Nairobi and our most ambitious project yet, when Covid hit the world. Barring a couple of weeks, our site continued the construction works during the course of Covid of 2020 and 2021. This required an immense amount of self-belief, motivating the team, steering the partners in the correct direction, managing the existing customers’ expectations as there was inevitable completion delay due to reduction in workforce as a result of covid norms and material availability issues. At Hayer One, the entire team came together to pull us through the tough times. The immense amount of support from bankers, suppliers, customers, consultants, contractors and employees has now resulted in us being a few months away from delivering a landmark project to the city of Nairobi.