Leadership skills, in today’s cut-throat world, have become a quintessential part of every working individual.

To ascend the stairs of professional success, one must possess and exhibit these skills at every opportunity available. Not only does one attain professional success, but also, he/she relishes the fruits of professional relationships ripened through their impactful leadership.

This edition, The Influential Business Leaders to Watch, highlights such efficient leaders who strive ceaselessly to make a significant impact through their proficient leadership skills.

One such recognized business leader is Suraj Nayak, the Founder and Managing Director at Ecoscapes Landscaping Private Limited.

When asked about his definition of leadership, Suraj says, “Leadership means a few different things. One, I think it means you bring others around you up. Great leaders have a way of supporting others and making them more productive and effective. Two, I think leadership means you put people in the right place at the right time. It is tough, but when you help someone find their ‘groove’ and you let them stay there, they excel. Third, leadership means you trust and respect those that you work with. If you do not trust someone (or at least give them a shot), there is no way they can be a productive part of your team.”

A Benchmark of Quality

Suraj and his team at Ecoscapes take pride in their range of offerings and their expertise in delivering them. “At Ecoscapes, we dream about landscaping with our eyes wide open. Honestly, with each passing morning, we all miss a breath of fresh air owing to our concrete jungles. Our company completely understands you when it comes to the longing for surplus greenery around us. Hence, we pledge to put all our efforts into designing the landscapes and deliver promising results,” Suraj expresses.

The team at Ecoscapes always vows to offer their clients with best quality service. It prioritizes maintaining a well-balanced relationship with the environment and has sharpened its skills to attain the highest level of workmanship. “We rely on the policy of giving back more than we take from nature,” says the team.

The team also takes pride in serving Residential and Commercial Landscaping where it ‘Designs and Executes’ Hotels, Resort s, Hospitals, Educational Institutions, Public Parks, MNC’s, and Private Residences.

“At Ecoscapes, our team of dedicated staff is highly experienced at all levels of landscape designing and landscape maintenance. When it comes to project execution, we have accomplished in building a reputation for attention to detail, prospering consumer satisfaction, and flexible scheduling,” Suraj asserts.

Overcoming Challenges

The path of a business leader is laden with adversities and roadblocks. Talking about his own share of challenges, Suraj says, “The major challenge for me was that I come from a family background where people are either in the government jobs or are engineers. My family never understood business as a concept. It was very difficult to make my parents understand and realize that I can do business. In my early days, friends and relatives never took me seriously or supported me, they rather made negative statements that I was not doing the right thing. But if I must be very precise, the most difficult challenge was that people never valued landscaping, and gaining that trust of building a business out was a real challenge.”

“The biggest stereotype that I had to overcome was getting into the landscaping business or taking it as an entrepreneurial career for myself. Landscaping was always considered a hobby and not a business. I always knew and believed that there is a future if I continued my work and I never stopped hustling,” he adds.

Every business leader needs immense motivation to overcome such tedious challenges. Speaking about his source of motivation, Suraj expresses, “The biggest thing that motivates me to outperform is that I have chosen a profession which is also my passion. Every day when I wake up in the morning, the first thing that I do is to water the plants in my garden and somewhere this passion brings me happiness which is my major driving force to outperform every time.”

Sustaining Excellence

To scale one’s business to the heights of its glory is every entrepreneur’s unwavering ambition. Suraj possesses the same drive and commitment towards taking Ecoscapes to zeniths of success. When asked about his way of achieving this success, he says, “Be it constructing a memorial park in the heart of the city, landscaping a residential project, or creating an aesthetic garden in a tiny balcony, every project comes with its own challenges. It can be technical, weather, temperature, or the combination of all them. For instance, the people with a very less amount of sunlight in their residence would still aspire to have a garden. We never disappoint them. We always come up with sustainable alternatives like a Zen garden and suggest plants that do not require much sunlight. We never disappoint a customer who approaches us even with a sea of expectations. We convert every single challenge into an opportunity and eventually a success through constant and ceaseless efforts.”

Driving towards a Green Future

Ecoscapes, Suraj, and the team have molded their expertise and offerings to cater to the changing needs of their customers. Emphasizing his passion for preserving and caring for nature, Suraj asserts, “At Ecoscapes, we care about a healthy future. We take pride in serving residential and commercial developers, including health care providers, educational institutions, parks, and private residences in Bangalore.”

Ecoscapes has built an unflinching reputation for themselves, through their attention to detail, flexibility, and commitment towards ceaseless customer satisfaction. These attributes have earned the company a diverse clientele that includes renowned companies like Aditya Birla Group, Sobha Group, and Marriott Group.

In the years to come, Suraj, through Ecoscapes, aims to revolutionize the industry. “Most of the products used in this niche industry are imported from countries like Singapore and Germany. This makes the costs skyrocket. We want to make our landscaping services more affordable to the customers by locally manufacturing these products,” says Suraj.

Suraj also plans to expand Ecoscapes from Bangalore to other cities soon. He also intends on spreading awareness about the importance of living amidst nature’s shelter and comfort.