Disrupting the proptech space with SMG’s Chairman Anurag Srivastava
From starting out with $50 in his pocket and a dream of becoming a CEO, Anurag Srivastava has come a long way since landing in Singapore in 1993. More than 25 years later, he is the Chairman of SMG, one of the world’s leading architecture and designing firms, focusing on office and corporate spaces. We sat down with Anurag to find out about his journey, the role his wife played and the latest in the proptech space.
1. Since the company was founded in Singapore in 2001, you’ve been able to expand Space Matrix around the world. What were the key moves you made that led to this successful international expansion?
We realised that the architectural and interior design industry were quite fragmented and global customers are looking for consulting partners who can provide comprehensive solutions across the region. Also, the service model was broken and there was a need for integrated solutions. Lastly, most of our competitors were owner-driven companies with no professional management, technology or processes experience.
So our strategy was to:
- Set up offices across the region and Client Solution offices in the US and London
- Offer a Design and Build integrated solution to clients
- Build professional management and client solution teams
- Invest in technology and processes
- Create a centre of expertise around various areas such as design, costing and virtual reality
2. In an interview, you said that your wife, who is the founder, had the ability to drive ideas while you had the ability to pick and help good entrepreneurs. How has this impacted Space Matrix?
As they say, she is the “Idea Queen” which she is. And I am the “King Maker” which I am not. However, it was her ideas and my ability to imagine them at scale, build the teams around those ideas, work with her in incubating them, get them funded and get the team to scale them. This is the role I played. Now is that “King Maker”? Not really.
3. Since you operate in the building and architecture space, what role does proptech play in your projects? Also, could you please share an example of how you’ve used proptech for your clients?
We are mostly in the interior design and building design space. Outside India, we don’t do architecture. More than proptech, it has been a lot more of designtech for us.
The real estate and construction industry is lagging way behind the tech innovation space. However, every aspect of technological innovation is very relevant to this industry and hence this is ripe for disruption.
We created a company called Livspace, which is solving the problem of designing interiors for home owners at scale which was a totally fragmented industry.
Another example is Pursuite which is simplifying the purchasing process for hotels and restaurants. This was necessary as the design and fitting out process for the entire supply chain is fragmented.
4. One of the recent tech initiatives under the SMG is Saltmine, a company that combines design, content, products, community, eCommerce and last mile contractors. Do you see this kind of integration as the future of the architecture and workplace design space? If so, why?
Yes, this is the future as there are too many inefficiencies across the design process, capturing of knowledge, reusing valuable content, sourcing relevant products and suppliers and building a community of designers and other technical services including contractors.
Some of the trends today are - the shared economy, consolidation of fragmentation, power of new age procurement, virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the advantages of cloud storage which allows people to work on designs and projects from anywhere. These are what we are building on in Saltmine.
5. Space Matrix recently signed a deal with Propstack to combine commercial real estate data and analytics with workplace design. How do you foresee this agreement impacting SM’s growth plans in India?
We’re still in the early days of the partnership. Most offices are very inefficient and static. With Propstack's real-time data and technology platform, we will be able to get more data about how offices and buildings are being laid out and how the workplace can be optimised.
As offices and related costs sit on top of the profit and loss statements of many companies, we hope to combine data and analytics with design to convert them into business impacts for our clients.
6. Looking ahead, how do you see the proptech space evolving in Asia and what will SMG’s differentiator be?
Given the rapid development of global MNCs in Asia, e.g. 100 smart cities in India, rising costs of real estate, the changing profile of modern-day workers, Asian firms becoming global, Asia being the hub of products worldwide, the fragmented nature of both demand and supply chains, as well as technological advancements, I have no doubt Asia will create a lot of innovative business models and solve some big problems.
SMG will continue to look to build companies in this space across interiors, building design, workplace, hospitality and beyond.