Looking at an Alibaba-like organisational structure: Rahul Yadav

Interview with CEO, Housing.com

Media reports on Tuesday said Quikr is buying Housing.com in a distress sale. Rahul Yadav, chief executive officer, Housing.com, denies the reports. Excerpts:

Is Housing being sold to Quikr?

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Only the Times Group can answer that.

But it is said your investors have confirmed the development...

I received some calls yesterday and I told them this is incorrect.

You first confirmed the sale and later denied it.

I am enjoying it all. Sometimes even I feel like enjoying the way media does it at my cost. I sent out an email to my colleagues last evening telling them to expect the news in today's papers. It was carried despite my denying any such deal in the offing.

So Quikr is nowhere in the picture?

No one is in the picture. I met the Quikr promoter Pranay Chulet six months back. After that we have not even seen each other. Where are all these talks surfacing from?

What about the news on you quitting Housing?

This is again baseless. I don't know who is spreading such rumours and why? I was out of the country when this news was floated again. We have time and again said that we would be recruiting more CEOs to take care of the divisions that we have as we are assuming the structure of a group of companies. So far, CEOs of the companies that we have hired report to me. We are expanding and we need CEOs to manage these businesses. So we are hiring CEOs and that is public news for six months now.

That means you are not quitting Housing?

No, I am not quitting Housing. We are looking at an organisational structure like that of Alibaba's and I would assume a different position. In fact, media reports also said that when Masayoshi Son, Founder & CEO of Softbank was in India last week, he met the short-listed CEOs for Housing who would be taking over my position. One needs some application of intelligence to come up with that. The likes of Son come on a watertight schedule. Sometimes they do not even have the time to meet the Prime Minister. Would he meet and interview candidates for the CEO's position? How ridiculous can someone be?

So what is going to be the agenda for the board meeting?

We have a couple of agendas one of which could be formalising the group's structure. We have been wanting to do that for sometimes now. My role could be Group CEO or whatever you call it.