Business
Varun Manian, taking business to greater heights
Varun Manian, a third generation entrepreneur established Radiance realty Developers India Limited in 2012 with a vision of creating premium housing projects for the future. The company later emerged as Radiance Group of companies including Radiance Facility Force (solutions for all facility management requirements), Radiance Home Interior (providing home interior solutions), Radiance Total Care (a specialist in home-services) and Radiance Address (resale and rentals of land/apartments).
Varun in a conversation with QNA talks about his company, the challenges, future plans and a lot more:
Having a legacy of 3 generations in this business, what sort of advantages you have as a running business?
Varun: The biggest advantage for me is to have a mentor, sounding board and confidence in my father. He has excelled in doing everything always right be it the business or people who have believed in him.
What are the challenges, how do you try to overcome them?
Varun: While the business has a legacy, the markets have evolved tremendously over time. The offers and needs of people have completely changed. The constant need to reinvent the wheel and serve the community is a challenge. The political and economic scenarios have also metamorphosed. Rules that made sense three years ago, don’t make sense now. So, being able to adapt to such changes is always a challenge. Being aware, having continuous exposure to market predictions, and a hands-on approach to customer needs and wants are my tools to combat these challenges.
As a whole group, you are taking care of a lot of things like services in interiors, health care and a lot more. But what do you think is the more used service by your customers. Why?
Varun: Realty is our core strength. While diversifying from our infrastructure business, we were keen to serve the end consumers directly as it is definitely more gratifying. All the other corollary services are developed with the intent to serve our realty customers so that they have the comfort and trust of a long-lasting partner in their life.
Tell us something about the Global Adjustments Foundation. What else is the company planning to do on the CSR grounds?
Varun: Our family has established the Global Adjustments Foundation that provides free life coaching to maximise the emotional, physical and leadership skills of women. Homepreneurs, IT workers, nurses, police, soldiers, students and teachers, have participated in these interactive workshops and benefitted from it. The foundation also provides scholarships for girls excelling in academics and supports them through their entire technical education alongside free life coaching classes.
Radiance CSR has always been proactive to serve needs of its community, be it the Chennai or Kerala floods – we have always extended our earnest support. On the other hand, I personally take interest in animal safety and protection. I have been fortunate to partner with Shravan Krishnan – a passionate conservationist in Chennai and help build the Besant Memorial Animal Dispensary in Chennai that helps treat and save street animals.
Also, Radiance Sports consistently spots and encourages upcoming sporting talent. So far we have sponsored Varsha Gautham, Sweta Shervegar who grabbed silver in 49er FX Women’s event at Asian Games 2018 and continue to nurture upcoming talent in squash like Abhisheka Shannon.
As the company is headquartered in Chennai and has also emerged in the Middle East over time, what is the next target?
Varun: We are always open to emerging markets, we would like to be known as the destination for all our services in the entire of South India.