Neetish Sarda in 2016 began his journey of designing beautiful workplaces and cutting-edge infrastructure, and now Smartworks is reinventing the Indian office experience. He was inspired by how global behemoths like Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, and Facebook created and ran their offices, emphasising the importance of people assets above real estate and other equipment.
According to Neetish, big success comes with significant challenges. “We took risks and converted them into opportunities for us. Our pragmatic shift from a co-working to an enterprise-focused managed space provider wasn’t easy. Not only did we pioneer enterprise on-boarding, but we also became the largest in the space. We also turned the pandemic crisis into an opportunity to transform workplace amenities into shareable, digitally enabled office spaces, providing an edge to our clients.”
Neetish believes that the rise of the gig economy, the growth of managed/flex spaces, technological integration, diversification of locations, and sustainable practices have led to a paradigm shift in the way office space is used and leased in India. “While the industry was primarily focused on co-working spaces for start-ups and freelancers, we took a bold step by introducing enterprise-focussed managed spaces. Today, we have a portfolio of over 8 Mn sq. ft and a presence in 12 cities ( Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Gurugram, Noida, Delhi & Kolkata); over 90% of our clients are enterprises. As the largest player of scale in the country, we aim to reach 12-13 Mn sq. ft by March 2024. With a huge presence in Tier 1 markets, we have offered enterprises faster scalability and office setup solutions. We have recently forayed into high-growth markets such as Jaipur, Indore, and Ahmedabad and plan to expand our footprints in Coimbatore and Kochi this fiscal. In the next 4 years, we aim to scale our total footprint to 25-30 Mn sq. ft," he shared.
Neetish altered the fixed mind-set of enterprises that were comfortable in conventional office spaces and pioneered the B2B model in managed space. He introduced end-to-end tech-enabled spaces and has made Smartworks the fastest-growing & profitable home-grown workspace provider and India's largest flex space operator.
