GIRISH LAKHOTIYA
A FINANCE GENIUS DRIVING INNOVATION & DISRUPTION IN THE INDUSTRY
A majority of eminent financial institutions across the world roll out the standard ‘off the shelf products’ as per their own policies and meet their respective business objectives. But parallel to this happening, there is a genuine need for set-ups that can address the customer pain points and provide customized financial solutions as per the business needs. On that note, Prachay Group has been identified as one of the most promising players and the core reason behind its intuitive approach is the thought leadership of its key persons.
Girish Lakhotiya (Founder and CEO) is the leading figure who is driving the business operations of Prachay Group at the forefront. Prachay Group consists of a boutique investment bank, a non-banking finance company (NBFC) and an alternative investment fund (AIF). To get some deeper insights into the group’s profile and its service implementations to revamp the current scenario across the financial service industry, serving the needs of the world, we sat down with Girish to converse thoroughly about these aspects.
Girish is the founder of the company and stated that what started as a thoughtful mission years ago has transformed into an inspiring journey for many across the fraternity. In this thought-provoking conversation with the seasoned professional, entrepreneur and leader, we couldn’t help but come across some ‘valuable nuggets of wisdom’ and ‘food for thought’ that our global readership may find of great use. Take a deep dive into this elegant ‘read’ to know what we are referring to in the above premise!
THE CORE MOTIVATION
Addressing his journey as a leader, he quotes, “Prachay Group’s growth has helped me evolve as a leader today. For me, a persuasive leader establishes a mission and then aligns all the team members with it for the comprehensive growth of his adamant vision. My forte was the in-depth understanding of the financial industry as well as the business landscape that propelled me to commence this establishment, acknowledging the dearth of insufficient financial resources for businesses.
I extensively studied western financial markets in terms of their incessant progress from 1900 to 2000. This made me compare the foreign landscape with the Indian market and observe the gap where we are lagging. Financial innovation has been the need of the market where age-old techniques are to be eradicated for a better outcome.” He further adds that the Indian financial industry has to undergo a huge transformative wave to alter the pre-existing circumstances.
Practically, every business is into finance as one leg of any transaction is money, such is the pervasiveness of finance. And when it comes to financial management, every business needs a credible helping hand. India as a country does not lack natural or human resources. Today, entrepreneurs can induce a lot of innovation, development and prosperity across the business landscape if they are provided appropriate financial solutions and guidance. And pioneering this alteration in favour of the business landscape has been the motive force to lay the foundation stone for Prachay Group.
MOST LENDERS WITH A SOLUTION-FIRST APPROACH
Owning a reputation of a preeminent business financing company based out of Pune, Prachay Group has become a torchbearer in the space of non-conventional funding. The service portfolio by the company has been to uphold the business goals and capital growth of the client’s business. The primary motive is to establish a sense of financial security amid cash catastrophes in favor of the business ventures with a concept of secured lending.
When it comes to lending, team Prachay has woven a different lending process that could deliver a long-term positive impact and business value to its vast clientele. Apart from this, developing solutions as per the client’s requirements has been possible due to the incessant zeal and dedication of the teammates who are seasoned professionals with expertise in their respective domains.
The word ‘Prachay’ means growth originating from the ancient Sanskrit language, which represents the core of its business objectives that describes its specializations in the metaphorical sense. The leadership team at the organization is determined to develop swift and efficient offerings that allow their respective clients to resolve their financial woes enabling them to witness growth in leaps and bounds.
Driven by unwavering professionalism, futuristic vision and confidentiality-oriented attention, Prachay Group is well-acclaimed for its key differentiators and unequalled processes.
This is the reason why its clients consider it as an ideal growth partner. Backed by an adept workforce thriving on innovation, Prachay Group has been carving a niche for itself in the financial services space with its prompt and efficient business funding solutions.
“The smart, expressive and experienced individuals at Prachay strive to provide exemplary services to their clients for seamless business flow. We take immense pride in assembling such a team of professionals who align with our motto of driving financial innovation accompanied with excellence,” explained Girish Lakhotiya regarding the financial innovations introduced by them across the industry.
FINANCIAL INNOVATIONS
The key players scaling across the space would never refer to this industry as a service space; instead, call it a product industry. What Prachay has observed is the fact that all the products dominating the market are not in line with the current needs of the businesses with a low level of flexibility. “Business landscape has undergone a dramatic change in the past few decades and the finance industry has not been able to keep pace with it, due to lack of innovative strategies. Innovation is all about problem-solving. If you have a mindset of a problem solver you find solutions to the most complicated problems and situations in life.
With the business dynamics wavering regularly, most lenders are unable to be in harmony with this change. Thus, the need of the hour is constant financial innovation where the services could address the fundamental demands of the local businesses for holistic growth of the economy. NBFCs should be more focused on creating a line of industry-specific, business focussed, and requirement-specific offerings as an up-gradation to the standardized products ruling out the mundane financial offerings,” emphasized Girish, “Prachay Group has been able to make a difference in this direction due to its constant involvement in the ground reality.
Primarily, we started as an advisory business helping the clients reach out to financial institutions. In this process, we recognized the inefficiencies of the banks to comprehend the nuances of the businesses they are catering to. Hence, we concluded to transform our business model to design tailored financial solutions that could meet the actual needs of the SMEs. And today, our product development cycle revolves around formulating customized solutions roadmapped to developing a clearer perception into the business community.”
FINDING THE BEST PLAYERS IN ANY INDUSTRY
Prachay Group has taken a plunge to deliver some out-of-the-box solutions to the real estate industry that belongs to the ‘unfavourite’ category of most financial institutions. Though the real estate industry by itself has consistently grown and delivered over the years, the most lenders have had unpleasant experiences in the past due to their limited understanding of the nuances and peculiarities of the industry.
The real estate industry, after the implementation of RERA, is one of the most transparently ‘reporting’ industries where every information from raw material (land), to the process (approvals, contractors, etc) to products (sales and collection) are reported periodically. Even the listed companies in India do not share such detailed information in the public domain.
But, after the leadership team at Prachay Group decided to join hands with some of the real-estate players, it comprehended the significance of their developed products.
Girish reveals, “What we realized is the fact that the most lenders here lack understanding and empathy of the intricacies of this business. Doing business is not easy. Things don’t go as planned always.”
INNOVATING THE GRAND OLD INDUSTRY- ONE PRODUCT AT A TIME
As per the extant guidelines of the banks, there is a complete restriction of any cash flow to the real-estate developers until any project isn’t fully approved. But, the approval process itself requires a considerable sum of money. There was a huge vacuum in the space where most lenders have been quite sceptical about the favourable outcomes. So, Prachay came up with an innovative ‘approval- funding solution’ that supported developers with funds to process their proposals as well as approvals in the most agile manner possible.”
Another such innovative product that we recently introduced in the market is the ‘Cheque-Discounting facility’. It is a simple but effective offering made by Prachay Group that was rolled out to assist real-estate developers avail of the maximum value in the process of heavy transactions. Girish considers that though these innovative services are small, there are outstandingly productive when implemented for the needs of the end businesses.
ADDRESSING R&D AND TECH-INCLUSION
Today, we witness a paradigm shift in the way of performing businesses and those who are not agile enough to adapt to these alterations will become obsolete. Research for any organization is an investment in the future. If you want to stay relevant and competitive, the organizations have to commit to R&D, elucidates Girish. To spark innovation and get enlightened with the trends in line with any organization’s core activities, R&D has to be under the spotlight. Research can be as simple as understanding the actual customers’ problems or requirements and the possible solutions to what disruptions are expected to come in future.
Prachay Group believes in performing future-driven research that motivates it to bring something new to the table. “Research is a critical factor behind the resounding success of any venture. Sometimes, I am heavily disappointed in the fact that a majority of business organizations across the Indian landscape overlook the significance of R&D. It is not being valued to the extent to which it should be valued. Though, Indian business leaders have that bent of mind to innovate and thrive, lack of encouragement and rule bounded or restricted scenarios have inflicted innovation refraining practices in our workplaces.
Or maybe because survival is a bigger challenge for most businesses in India. Western companies are staying ahead of the curve as they spend over 25% of their turnover on R&D processes. Observing this above-mentioned notion, businesses could get an idea of how crucial research is for their overall success.
Apart from R&D, technology has become an important part of our lives and businesses. There is practically no aspect of our lives or businesses that has not been impacted by technology. So, any business must adapt to the latest technology to remain competitive and relevant in their line of business. Technology is the catalyst that allows businesses to operate at a bigger scale and provide solutions to a larger audience. Girish comments that the real focus of the businesses should be on providing real-time solutions and not on the tech-laced service portfolios. “Technology has to be an aspect assisting you in your solutions – an enabler, not the solution itself,” concluded him.
VALUES-DRIVEN LEADERSHIP
Girish Lakhotiya is a leader with a difference where certain factors have made him a role model to several aspiring entrepreneurs or leaders across the business fraternity. His unique perspectives on leadership have allowed him to scale new highs and forge ahead towards newer avenues to explore better prospects for the industry.
“I believe a leader is the one who leads from the front. For me, leading with purpose is the foremost priority where one’s mission, vision and passion inclines with one’s fervour to make the world a better place than what we came in. I avidly believe that if you uphold some values and ethics, people effortlessly connect to you and your vision as a leader. When people look up to you as an inspiration then you don’t have to be a leader who directs them towards any goal.
Instead, people just start aligning to your inclusive vision, contributing to your success. What drives a way forward for the entire organization is to be true to yourself, believe in your vision, and prioritize customer satisfaction. Effective leadership has no magical formula but a persistent effort to drive people towards a radiant future,” enunciated the dynamo. Furthermore, he also conveyed that facilitating a better work environment for the employees is the foremost duty of the CEO.
“We spend the majority of our waking hours in our workplaces. The impact that any organization is creating in the lives of its employees will always set it apart from the rest and Prachay Group has made sheer justice to this with its fascinating work culture,” claims the leader.
FUTURE OUTLOOKS
For the upcoming years, we have envisioned establishing an entire set of lending institutions that may consider business as a service rather than a product. There are a few major changes that the leader wishes to stimulate across the Indian market. The first and foremost is to inspire and assist the businesses to shift from a product driven business model to a service-driven model where structured and customized solutions are easy to make. And the rest of the changes will follow gradually, revolutionizing the financial services space.
PARTING WORDS BY THE LUMINARY
Before putting an end to the conversation, Girish shares a piece of advice with our readers, “I would like to take this opportunity to request the Indian society at large to be more respectful to the business community. Businessmen are the people who create employment, pay taxes or we could say are imperative for the overall wellbeing and prosperity of our economy.
They are the warriors fighting for our nation in the “trade war” going on in the world right now. Wealth creation is something that everyone should encourage, appreciate and aspire for. The whole rich-poor divide needs to be eradicated from our mindset and businessmen are needed to be looked up to as role models. It’s high time to shed off the anti-rich mindset.”
At the same time, the businesses should operate with more accountability and responsibility to all their stakeholders – the shareholders, the lenders, the employees, the suppliers, the customers, the government and the society at large.
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