Aditi Kothari Desai: Like father, like daughter

Aditi Kothari Desai, Head, sales and marketing, DSP BlackRock Investment Managers

At DSP BlackRock Investment Managers, Aditi Kothari Desai religiously preserves the organisational culture that her father Hemendra Kothari built. Kothari had always put his managers in the saddle, empowering them to take decisions. The philosophy has worked well—the Rs64,177 crore (assets under management) DSP BlackRock has outperformed peers in almost every category.

Aditi, 41, took over as head of the sales team at DSP BlackRock in October 2015 when the assets of the fund were around Rs39,000 crore. Her decision to realign the structure of the sales team helped the company achieve its present size.

The size, however, does not flatter Aditi. “Size is not as important as integrity. It is important to be the most trusted advisor with a focus on performance, and size will follow,” she says. Aditi cites a Harvard Business Review study (‘The Risky Business of Hiring Stars’) to claim that just 30 percent of a fund’s performance can be attributed to ‘star’ fund managers; the rest is due to the institution.

Says Mayana Rajani, a former consultant with DSP BlackRock, who has known Aditi for 17 years: “I have seen her determination over the years. When Aditi sets her mind to achieve something, she sees it to its culmination. She is result-oriented and extremely focussed.”

Aditi religiously preserves the culture that her father built