In casual attire, he could be easily mistaken for a twenty-something, straight out of college. But, at Dalmia Cement?s office in Delhi?s Connaught Place, he is the man-in-charge.

Thirtysix-year old Puneet Dalmia has been with Dalmia Cement Bharat Ltd (DCBL), for over a decade now and took over as its CEO and MD in January last year. The company was set up in 1939 by Jaidayal Dalmia (Puneet?s grandfather) and has cement, sugar, power and refractory businesses. The turnover of the company for FY 07-08 was Rs 1262 crore (till Dec ?07).

His office is replete with paintings?some depicting human form, others portraying buildings. They are all creations of ?a young artist? and Puneet picked them up himself. It is not tough to understand why. The man is a great believer in the power of youth and started quite young himself.

Though born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth, he did step out on his own. After a three-year stint with his family business, he started Jobsahead.com, an e-recruitment site in 1999 with a seed capital of $500,000 from his father YH Dalmia. ?I got bit by the Internet bug. There were no rules in it. You could create something out of nothing. The velocity of the sector and the innovation of young minds is what attracted me,? he reminisces. After seeing the company through the dot-com boom and bust phase, he managed to turn it into a profitable venture, eventually sold it off to Monster.com for Rs 40 crore and returned to the family business.

?The funding suddenly dried up, the NASADQ crashed. People would earlier write $20 million cheques over a cup of coffee, later they were not even ready to meet you. There was an intense change. From the poster child of the economy, you became a complete untouchable,? he says recalling the time when his company was on the verge of collapse. The temptation to part with the business while it was still successful made him sell it. However, he minces no words in saying that it was a mistake. ?We thought this is never going to be a big business. We miscalculated it. We didn?t understand that it takes time to build a business and you need conviction to play it for long.?

Ask him what has changed in him as a leader after Jobsahead.com and he takes you through an entire list. ?As a leader, it made me stronger because I could take the highs and lows. Secondly, it made me appreciate how difficult it is to create a business and made me tolerant towards mistakes,? he laughs. After his stint with the fast paced world of the Internet, Puneet brought speed and the ability to think big to Dalmia Cement. Having worked with a team where everybody was in their 20s, he ?realised how powerful the combination of wisdom and youth can be. It can be lethal.? Puneet is now leveraging that combination in his family business. While his father and uncle (JH Dalmia) provide strategic guidance, he and his cousin Gautam (who looks after the sugar business and is the joint MD) lead from the front.

One quality that stands out in him besides his high spirits is that he lists shortcomings and achievements with equal ease. Puneet has no qualms admitting that despite an aggressive growth trajectory, the company faces many internal challenges. Most of them he says stem from the fact that DCBL was a family owned company for long which needs to be professionally managed now. ?Mindsets have to be changed. We have to work faster and empower people,? he goes on.

Dalmia Cements has been registering an impressive growth rate. Its sales have been growing at 30% for the last five years and the figure for profit after tax is 80%. But, Puneet says, to sustain this growth some challenges have to be met. Talent is one major issue. And the fact that the cement sector is viewed by many as not very exciting just adds to the woes.

However, redefining the role of the family is a bigger concern. He says that so far the family has been very hands-on and needs to get out of managing the business on a day-to-day level. Secondly, capital allocaters have to be separated from capital receivers. ?We want to make capital allocation a very objective and unemotional decision,? he says.

The restructuring process, which began three years ago by bringing in professional CEOs is working well, says Puneet. However, the process is far from complete. ?Change is a three step process. You need awareness, practice and feedback. And it takes time. Initially, it was challenging because practice was tough. We had to let go, and learn new skills,? he says.

After completing his B Tech from IIT Delhi, Puneet did his MBA from IIM Bangalore. Interestingly, though he did his summer projects with Dalmia Cement, he wanted to work for McKinsey but decided against it. ?I did a traditional two by two matrix to help me decide. Personal freedom and ability to create wealth were the two dimensions. I think McKinsey was low on both,? he says.

Currently, Dalmia Cement is juggling between the number six and seven positions in the industry in terms of capacity. And Puneet?s immediate goal is to bring it in the top five in three years. ?Our long-term goal is to be in the top three,? he says. What is also on his priority list is getting in young blood in the company. ?I think we can bring down the average age a little and create a climate where people can express themselves freely,? he says.

The man is a strong delegator but doesn?t mind sitting late with his employees. ?You have to lead the company from the front,? he says.

Besides giving all the support to his people, he also encourages them to take risks and doesn?t mind when they make a mistake. ?The best decisions are taken when there are opposing points of view. Just like we have some tolerance level within the family that all decisions will not go right, we should have the same attitude towards employees,? he says.

Ask him what he thinks of his management style and pat comes the reply. ?My standards are very high. I am a perfectionist. But I need to lower my bar a little. Going through IIT and IIM makes you have very high standards, which is a good thing, but you can?t apply it uniformly.? Puneet supplements his answer by quoting a book called Whale Done! by Ken Blanchard. ?You have to appreciate every time a person achieves something. If it?s poor behaviour ignore it, but if it?s good behaviour, reward it.?

He indulges himself with management and spiritual books. Execution by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan, Winning by Jack Welch, along with Whale Done! are some of his favourites. When time permits (which is a rarity), he also likes to play cricket and table tennis.

Apart from spending close to 10 hours at work, he likes to spend time with his wife, Avantika and children?three-year-old Avni and five-month-old Priyang. He is more comfortable with a few friends than a huge gathering. He believes that work-life balance is a myth and you have to respond according to the demand of the times. His wife adds, ?When he was with Jobahead.com, Avni had started saying that her father lives in office. But, it has changed a lot now.?

Puneet says that though weekends are peppered with work emails and calls, he tries to cut-off as much as possible. ?It is a good test. After all, I have to build something that runs without individuals. I am passionate about the institution, not my role in it,? he quips. Apart from taking the company businesses to new heights (expansion in South is one key aspect) and tackling internal and external challenges, Puneet has another task at hand. That of enabling Dalmia Cement?s foray into the services sector. ?Our portfolio is in the manufacturing sector. But I also want to be in services. It is half the economy and we are not participating in it at all,? he reasons.

The company currently has a few teams working on infrastructure projects. It is also involved in bidding for modernisation of Delhi and Mumbai railway stations. Puneet says that there other fast growth areas like healthcare, entertainment, which interest him but they ?don?t have the bandwidth to pursue it,? he says candidly. However, he is willing to put money on people who have the ambition to make it happen. He calls it a rockstar model.

Puneet Dalmia is a good example of a Young Turk, who has the enthusiasm and guts to set new standards. In his case, he also has the experience to back his dreams. And he is confident of the ongoing entrepreneurial drive in the country. ?They are very hardworking and ambitious. The demographics are in our favour,? he signs off.

Fact File

* Puneet Dalmia took over as CEO and MD of Dalmia Cement Bharat Ltd (DCBL) in January 2007.

* He started Jobsahead.com in 1999 and sold it to Monster.com in 2004 for Rs 40 crore.

* Born in 1972, Puneet holds a B-Tech degree from IIT Delhi. He is also an MBA from IIM, Bangalore.

* He wants Dalmia Cement to be one of the top three cement companies in the country in the near future.