You’ve probably seen the headlines. S N Subrahmanyan, the man at the helm of Larsen & Toubro (L&T), recently sparked a firestorm by suggesting that if India wants to beat the world, a 90-hour work week isn't just an option—it’s a necessity. It’s the kind of quote that makes LinkedIn go into a collective meltdown. But if you strip away the viral outrage, you’ll find a much more complex story about a project planning engineer who started in 1984 and now runs a $30 billion empire that builds everything from the Ayodhya Ram Mandir to nuclear reactors.
Most people see L&T as just a "construction company." Honestly? That’s like calling Amazon a "bookstore." Under "SNS," as he’s known in the corridors of power, L&T has mutated into a high-tech hydra. We’re talking about a company that designs its own semiconductors, builds the world’s largest green hydrogen plants, and manages a global IT services portfolio that rivals the biggest players in Bengaluru.
The "Grow to Sell" Strategy You Need to Understand
Subrahmanyan isn't just a builder; he’s an aggressive capital allocator. He operates on a playbook he calls "grow to sell or sell to grow." Basically, if a business isn't yielding the right margins or fits poorly with the future, it’s gone.
Remember the electrical switchgear business? Sold to Schneider Electric for a cool ₹14,000 crore. The mutual fund and insurance arms of L&T Finance? Divested. Even the Hyderabad Metro—a massive feather in the cap of Indian infra—is on the list for stake divestment as the company pivots away from owning assets to just building and managing them.
He’s doubling down on what he calls "asset-light" segments. By merging LTI and Mindtree into LTIMindtree, he created a $4.5 billion tech giant. Why? Because IT services have "beefier margins" than pouring concrete. Currently, these service-oriented businesses contribute nearly 30% of L&T's consolidated revenue, a shift that has fundamentally changed the company's valuation on the stock market.
Real Talk: The Order Book is Terrifyingly Large
As of late 2025, L&T’s order book sits at a staggering ₹6.67 lakh crore. To put that in perspective, that’s more than the GDP of several small countries.
- International Dominance: Nearly 50% of these orders come from outside India, primarily the Middle East.
- Energy Pivot: While roads and bridges are their bread and butter, "Energy Projects" is the new star. Revenue in this segment jumped 48% year-on-year in recent quarters.
- The Saudi Factor: L&T is basically rebuilding Saudi Arabia right now, securing massive contracts for the NEOM project and various solar plants like the 1.6 GW Sudair project.
Why 2026 is the Year of Lakshya
The company is currently sprinting toward Lakshya 2026, a strategic plan aimed at pushing revenues past the ₹2.7 lakh crore mark while keeping the "Return on Equity" (RoE) healthy. But Subrahmanyan is already whispering about Lakshya 2031.
He’s obsessed with "Frontier Areas." If you think L&T is just about cranes and helmets, look at their new chip design business. With over 400 engineers in Austin, Munich, and Tokyo, they are designing analog chips in-house. It’s a move that feels "kinda" crazy for a construction firm, but for SNS, it's about staying relevant in an age where every piece of infrastructure is becoming "smart."
The Human Side of the Machine
Despite the "90-hour" controversy, colleagues describe SNS as a "simple man" who shows up early and leaves late. He’s a runner. A cricket fan. He listens to Western classical music to unwind. It’s a weird contrast—the man who demands grueling hours from his staff is the same one who stepped off a stage to shake hands with 200 young recruits just to make them feel seen.
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He hails from Chennai and holds a civil engineering degree from NIT Kurukshetra. That technical background is why he can't be easily fooled by site managers. He knows the "nitty-gritty" of how a dual-feed cracker or an offshore platform is built because he’s probably been in the trenches (literally) during his four-decade career.
What Most People Get Wrong About the L&T Leadership
People think SNS is just a clone of the legendary A.M. Naik. That’s a mistake. While Naik was the "builder" who saved L&T from hostile takeovers, Subrahmanyan is the "technocrat" who is making it digital.
"We are using digital twins for faster design and customization. In manufacturing, we are integrating all point solutions into a single platform." — S N Subrahmanyan during a 2023 strategy session.
He’s pushing the company to be carbon-neutral by 2040. They’ve already built India’s first electrolyzer for green hydrogen. They are building the Bullet Train (Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail). They are the muscle behind the Zorawar light tank for the Indian Army.
Actionable Insights for Investors and Professionals
If you’re tracking S N Subrahmanyan or L&T for your portfolio or career, here is the ground reality for 2026:
- Watch the Debt-to-Equity: Currently sitting around 1.3, it’s manageable, but as they scale into semiconductors and green hydrogen, capital expenditure will be the metric to watch.
- Geopolitical Risk is Real: With such a huge chunk of the order book in the Middle East, any instability in the GCC region hits L&T harder than almost any other Indian stock.
- The Talent War: The "90-hour work week" comments aren't just rhetoric; they reflect a management style that prioritizes speed and scale above all else. If you're looking to work there, expect high pressure but world-class projects.
- The "Services" Re-rating: Stop valuing L&T as a construction company. Value it as a conglomerate where the high-margin tech and finance wings are subsidizing the massive, stable infra projects.
L&T is basically a proxy for India's GDP. When the country builds, L&T grows. And under S N Subrahmanyan, the company isn't just building structures—it’s building a tech-heavy legacy that might just survive the "90-hour" news cycle long after the tweets have faded.
Keep an eye on the Lakshya 2031 blueprints when they are finalized later this year. That’s where the real "secret sauce" for the next decade of Indian infrastructure will be hidden. For now, the company is a well-oiled machine that shows no signs of slowing down, regardless of how many Sundays the boss wants people in the office.