Chander Baljee
FY 19-20 was a phenomenal year for Royal Orchid Hotels. It posted growth in revenue and profitability and with everything going in its favour, morale was high in the company. For FY 20-21, its CMD, Chander Baljee outlined a gameplan to further strengthen the brand portfolio, expand to new markets and maximise shareholder wealth – and one of the chief goals was to reach the target of 100 hotels by December 2021. The pandemic upended everything.
So, Baljee took substantial steps to preserve liquidity and mitigate the impact of low demand levels. “In addition to reducing our operating expenses dramatically, we revised our organisation strategy to become more agile. We also started several initiatives, including the Management Development Program and multi-skilling, to rationalise costs and improve customer experience,” he explained.
BEST FOOT FORWARD
Royal Orchid realigned its marketing and revenue management strategy across channels and markets in addition to creating a strong sales funnel to generate business by focusing on local markets. It also designed packages and offers for the right source markets and booking options.
The hotel chain closely worked with OTAs and other distribution partners to drive direct bookings, in addition to aligning with online food aggregators to maximise its F&B revenue. It also directed its focus on ancillary revenue streams such as workactions, coworking spaces, partnership with hospitals, bio bubble business, and the Vande Bharat mission.
“Unconventional problems require unconventional solutions. Thinking on our feet, we improvised our responses as government policies were changing every fortnight. So, we took a short-term approach while dealing with challenges and opportunities as and when they presented themselves,” Baljee elaborated.
While the company had a coherent corporate strategy to deal with disruptions, it gave its employees lot of autonomy to experiment. According to Baljee moving away from a top-down corporate structure, empowered the teams down the ranks. This, in turn, speeded up decision making and as a result, the company could bag a lot of business.
A PRAGMATIC APPROACH
Royal Orchid began migrating towards a tech-centric and data-driven organisation long before the pandemic. It started with upgrading its PMS systems, booking engine, CRM, digital marketing
and analytics platforms, and HRIS tools.
“This helped us understand our guest and employee journey at a granular level. We can now forecast demand, identify opportunities, develop strategies and automate a lot of activities,” Baljee stated. The ability to take decisive actions and honest communication went a long way in helping him wade through these troubled times.
And while the pandemic might have set Royal Orchid back by a year, Baljee stated that it is well on its way to achieving all goals, including reaching the milestone of 100 hotels by December 2022.
