Spinning a Success Story: Anshul Singhal
Anshul Singhal, the Managing Director and CEO of Welspun One Logistics Parks, prioritizes being the most preferred warehousing company over being the biggest or the best.
In the fast-paced world of logistics, success depends not only on the right qualifications but also on the unique experiences and expertise one acquires in their career.
Anshul Singhal’s previous experiences as the CEO of Embassy Industrial Parks, now known as Horizon Industrial Parks, and the Director of JSW Severfield Structures have done just that. Now the Managing Director and CEO of Welspun One Logistics Parks, these previous roles provided him with the skills and knowledge needed to succeed and thrive.
My experience across various sectors has led me to be able to run this business today.
"From understanding how to run a Pan-India projects business to how to run a Pan-India development business, and then delivering those businesses successfully, it gave me the confidence to take up the challenge in Welspun One," Singhal tells The CEO Magazine.,
"My experience across various sectors has led me to be able to run this business today."
Customer preferred
The vision statement of Welspun One, as stated on its website, is: ‘Our desire is to be India’s most preferred warehousing company.’
According to Singhal, customer feedback is extremely important for Welspun One and is taken concurrently instead of post facto.
"We deliver large real estate buildings to our customers. Throughout the delivery process, we are constantly in touch with them through our dashboard. So, for us, customer feedback happens literally every day," he says.
"Our vision statement says we want to be the most preferred warehousing company in India. We don’t say we want to be the largest or the best. Those things are hard to measure, but preferences are easy.
"If there are two parks next to each other, customers should want to be in our warehouse because of the quality, transparency and the products that we offer."
Customer feedback offers valuable lessons in managing the company, Singhal explains. He narrates an example from Welspun One’s first warehousing project for a logistics company. Being the first project, the group was focused on offering excellent quality. However, a heavy spell of monsoon delayed the delivery by a short period of two weeks.
We plan extremely well and look at every little detail before we physically hit the site.
"The customer called us and said we needed to plan better – rain is not an excuse to delay our building. It was a one-line statement, but it hit us hard," he says.
"I think that was very valuable feedback. It put the emphasis on planning – spending more time on planning and less time executing. Since then, we plan extremely well and look at every little detail before we physically hit the site."
The Welspun One way
The Welspun One team strongly believes in trust, transparency and quality, Singhal says.
"We are the only fund in domestic warehousing which offers investors a portal where they can log in and see exactly where their money is – no other real estate fund or private equity asset management company does this.
"This power BI [business intelligence] technology tool is a dashboard that ensures that every piece of information is available to all stakeholders at the same time. The data is not entered by our employees but by EY. So, all the data that’s entered in it is concurrently audited."
We have a strict prequalification process. So, even to be able to bid for our projects, you have to pre-qualify.
Even while dealing with suppliers, Welspun One ensures utmost transparency in the bidding and tendering process.
"We have a strict pre-qualification process. So, even to be able to bid for our projects, you have to pre-qualify. That has a significant impact on the relationship with our suppliers because it is now transparent and clean," he explains.
Where employees are concerned, Singhal says a lot of training is imparted to them, and Welspun One emphasizes safety through education and box talks.
"We place a lot of importance on working closely with our partners, vendors, deliverers, site teams and suppliers. Most importantly, we try to source sustainably."
We don’t know how to cut corners or quality. We don’t know how to not source sustainability. We don’t know how to not work closely with our partners as one team. It’s just the way we do things.
This process ensures quality and sustainability.
"Our flagship project, which is almost completed, has achieved platinum certification from the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC)," he says.
"This is an area that comes naturally to us. That’s the way we work; we don’t know how to work otherwise. We don’t know how to cut corners or quality. We don’t know how to not source sustainability. We don’t know how to not work closely with our partners as one team. It’s just the way we do things."