Exclusive Interview
Mr Sudhir Andrews
Dean at Ecole Hoteliere Lavasa
Editor - How did your journey start?
My journey in hospitality started in IIM Ahmedabad when the Oberoi Hotels came for the first time for campus interviews. Most of us students did not know much about hospitality opting for the traditional FMCG companies, Banks and noted manufacturing companies. I had four offers already in my bag when the hotel chain came. They gave a very impressive presentation which swept some of us off our feet. However we were still skeptical.
It was my faculty who encouraged me to join the industry, as they believed it suited my personality. They further said that the hotel industry was a sunrise industry and was on the threshold of growth. I later learnt why the Oberoi’s came to the IIM campus. They had taken the Intercontinental chain franchise in New Delhi. Intercontinental introduced modern management practices. The hotel industry till then followed the “My Host” philosophy of Europe which believed in hands-on knowledge and skills (especially in food and beverage) rather than management.
The Oberois needed management people to take them through the new management philosophy being introduced. Seven of us from IIM were shortlisted and called to Delhi to meet the late Rai Bahadur Oberoi and his son P.R.S Oberoi (Biki). I was the only one who joined making me the first MBA from an IIM to join the hospitality industry. Of course the first two years were traumatic as I had to crash down from the ivory towers of corporate management thinking to butchering 200 live chickens.
There were articles published about me with titles “MBA turns Waiter” reflecting the ways the society thought of the industry at that time. I weathered the storm somehow and had a meteoric rise since leaving my own unique foot print in the industry. My contributions have earned me several awards including a few national ones.
Q - What do you think it takes to succeed in this industry?
Most professionals follow the beaten path, to be safe. They become good ‘maintenance managers’ and end up with titles of General Managers or Vice-Presidents. Most see that as their destination. To succeed, one has to make a difference. It involves being creative, bringing new thought processes to the way we do business. That has been my story of being different. Firstly I was the only one in IIMA who joined the hotel industry. Secondly, when I did my management training with the Oberois I was the only one who opted for Human Resources while the others opted for operations priding themselves as Lobby Managers, F&B Managers, etc.
I was teased that I was going to be in the basement for the rest of my life while they were in the front of the house. I looked at my opportunities differently. I was going to influence people of the future. I became the Manager Manpower Development, heading the very same department that trained me. My colleagues were still languishing as Assistant Managers. I also set-up the Oberoi Hotel School, which today is a premier institution, under the acronym of OCLD. I also saw an opportunity to write training manuals and textbooks published by McGraw-Hill as best-sellers till today. Through my books I influenced many minds throughout India and abroad.
Q - What has surprised you about the Indian Hospitality industry?
What first surprised me was that the Industry was old in its practices and perceptions. It took an big American chain to change perceptions of doing hoteliering. The next surprising thing was that the Human Resource practices in the hotel industry were far advanced than other industrial sectors. I had a brief opportunity to work with a giant manufacturing company. I was aghast to see how backward they were in people processes. Another pleasant surprise was the dignity of labour. This industry does not look down upon working with their hands. Hoteliers are action oriented.
Q - Going forward, what do you think will shape the future? What key trends should any hospitality manager be prepared for?
Technology is going to make a giant leap in our industry. It is not only the mechanical and digital technology that we are used to, that will change. It will also be new technologies like nanotechnology, biometrics, food technology, genetic technology, communications technologies, etc. Imagine self-laundering bed sheets, digitized bathroom mirrors, Paging bracelets, etc. Future managers will have to be knowledgeable about these new technologies. We can soon expect hotels in space or under water. Unique concepts of Ice Hotels, Tree-House Hotels or Love Hotels will bring in new dimensions to doing business. Traditional hotels will either have small boutique hotels serving a niche clientele or part of a mega-plex with shopping malls, business centres, entertainment centres, Cineplex’s etc. The mid-priced hotel will be the standard bearer of the near future. Another major change will be women who will join the hospitality industry in large numbers. Since the demand of trained human resources far outpace the supply, we can expect high attrition as the work force will want to rise at a fast pace and will show no loyalty in their progressing in their careers. This will force us to recruit people from small towns and rural areas who may not have the social skills that one requires in this industry.
Q- Do you feel there is enough Industry - Academic partnership or do you feel we need to do more? What are some best practices you would advocate?
Today industry provides internships and occasional academic inputs. Academia needs more. It is ironic that the hotel schools are the main source of supply to industry and yet they woefully fall short of starting standards of employment. The time has come for industry through their local federation adopt schools in the region and provide them full support in equipment, specialist inputs and transfer of latest trends. Faculty on the other hand must spend a mandatory tenure of a minimum 15 days in the industry to update themselves.
Q - What makes studying at Ecole so special?
The industry has discovered that the General Managers who rise from the operational stream are not necessarily sound business managers when they reach that position. Ecole helps to fill that gap and is therefore the only true Hospitality Leadership and Entrepreneurship college in India. There is a balance of hoteliering inputs combined with management inputs equivalent to the first year of an MBA. Students are expected to join in as management trainees.
They are expected to be General Managers by the age of 30-35 years. Other existing hotel schools are good for hotel operations and should be rightly called Institutes of Hotel Operations. By calling them Hotel Management Schools changes the expectations of the industry. Our great strength is our methodology of learning. We do not teach! Students Learn. While most hotel schools in India follow the pedagogic method where the teacher takes the onus of acquiring knowledge and passing them on to students as passive recipients, Ecole follows the Andragogy method where the students are guided to research topics and present their knowledge using PowerPoint to teach the students.
The faculties, as facilitators, correct concepts or give some specialist inputs. We then provide opportunities for this knowledge to be applied in real life situations through case-studies, live practicals, projects, etc. This is called epistemology. All core faculties are trained by Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne in India and Switzerland.
The next great advantage we have is that several hospitality formats are at our doorstep in the valley of Lavasa. Students work in them to get first- hand knowledge of their positive and negative sides. Each student has to do an entrepreneurial project business plan as an option to be their own master someday. We have has a hundred percent placement. We have a unique campus with state of the art kitchens, five restaurants where students eat as guests a also serve. We have a Cyber hotel which hooks up the latest gadgets of the industry so that students use them and see their backend connections. We are the only college with a wine testing lab in the country.
BRIEF BIO OF PROF. SUDHIR ANDREWS
Prof. Sudhir Andrews is a graduate of St. Stephen’s College and MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. He is the first MBA to join the Hospitality Industry. He rose quickly to head the Human Resources of the Oberoi Hotels and set up the Oberoi Hotel School. He later led the Human Resources of ITC Welcomgroup and rose to be Director on the Divisional Board. He commissioned the Welcomgroup Granduate School of Hotel Administration in Manipal.
He later joined the Government and was Principal of Institute of Hotel Management, Pusa, Delhi. He was on the Boards of the National Council and several IHMs in the North and West of India. He was on the National Hotel Classification Committee and worked with the UNDP, ILO and WTO on educational projects. He was sent on a Fellowship by the Government of India to Ireland and England.
He moved to Dubai and spent 15 years serving as a Director HR of a prestigious Hotel Chain, Group Vice President HR for a multinational Arab company, Consultant to the Ruler of Dubai, and Consultant with a British HR Firm. He is the author of 11 Hospitality books accepted as the official textbooks of the hospitality industry.
He is been awarded the “Rashtriya Gaurav Award”; “Rajiv Gandhi Excellence Award”; and several others for his contributions to hospitality education. His most cherished award is the “Sri Ram Award” for the best management thought, presented by the President of India for his original work on Continuity Planning.
He is presently the Dean, Academics for Ecole Hoteliere Lavasa.