If you’re on a road trip anywhere in India, there’s a huge possibility that every four hours, you’ll find a Radisson Hotel. Hard to believe? Incidentally, it’s a feat no other hotel in India can boast of. And a feat that got accomplished only because the leaders at the Radisson Hotel Group firmly believe in their organization’s motto ‘Yes, I Can’. Celebrating 25 years of their existence in India, the Radisson’s story is one of rare grit and gumption…
A story that started in the late ‘90s with just one hotel in Delhi but grew into a robust 25-year-old group today with almost 150 hotels across the country. So also a story that started with the vision and passion of one man who’s known as a legend today in the Indian hospitality industry, K B Kachru, but grew into a team of dynamic leaders taking the brand to unprecedented heights of success.
Hotelier India celebrates Radisson’s 25 years in India by interviewing key Radisson leaders, chronicling the reasons behind the brand’s stupendous growth, and deconstructing what makes it a class apart – a brand with an international identity but a national heart.
The Birth and Growth of Radisson in India
The Radisson Hotel Group is one of the world’s largest hotel groups with nine distinctive hotel brands, and more than 1,100 hotels in operation and development, in EMEA and APAC.
The elite brand was brought to India by K B Kachru in 1998, with its first hotel – Radisson Blu Plaza Delhi Airport – built in Mahipalpur in Delhi. Kachru then was the Senior Vice-President of Radisson Hotels Asia and soon went on to become Chairman of the Hotel Group, South Asia. As the flagship property, Radisson Blu Plaza holds a special place for the brand in India, and travellers alike, for its proximity both to the airport and metro station.
When Kachru opened this hotel, he literally started from ground zero with just three people. Going down memory lane, he tells us, “That was the time when the Indian economy had just opened up. And I felt India, then close to a billion population, was a huge market.”
At a time when most international hotel chains shied away from expanding their business in India, Kachru had the foresight to see huge business and growth prospects.
His strategy was sharp: Expand in state capitals, and Tier 2 and Tier 3 locations, where international brands shied away from venturing. And it worked!
Explains Kachru, “We divided the cities into districts. For example, we broke Delhi into Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and so on, and opened hotels there. Today, in just NCR (National Capital Region), we have 28 hotels. Likewise, 24 years ago, when we put up a hotel in Katra Jammu, people were very sceptical but our hotel was a huge success. Luckily, we have a bouquet of brands that fit into all hotel levels – midscale, upscale, upper upscale, luxury and so on.”
Similarly, Radisson was the first to go to cities like Guwahati, Gorakhpur, Ranchi, Nagpur, Indore etc, where again no brands ventured. In fact, a street circle in Indore is also named Radisson Chowk after a Radisson hotel there – goes to show the popularity of the brand. So, the expansions were calculated and consistent, helping the brand grow across the length and breadth of the country. Making an interesting point here, Kachru says, “When we moved to Tier 2 and Tier 3 zones back then, we already knew that the Indian GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is going to come from these places. Today, everyone is talking about India’s 50 % GDP coming from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. So, we already had an edge.”
The second measure they took to further strengthen and grow was to align themselves with the Government policies.
“If the Government announced infrastructure to build roads and airports, it’s a no-brainer to understand that if a new airport is coming up, one would need to provide allied services too. So we were proactive. We didn’t want to create something that was not accepted. RHG aligned its objectives in line with Government of India’s policies and priorities for growth in economy and social setup to achieve its potential growth,” states Kachru.
The Radisson Hotel Group portfolio in India today includes all their sub-brands Radisson Blu, Radisson, Radisson RED, Radisson Individuals, Park Plaza, Park Inn by Radisson, Park Inn & Suites by Radisson, Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, and brought together under one commercial umbrella brand Radisson Hotels.
Of Challenges and Partnerships
However, one of the biggest challenges for Radisson was that they didn’t invest in their properties. Hotel chains like Radisson work on the formula of managing their brands themselves while their properties are owned by developers.“We are not specialists in real estate,” informs Kachru. Adding, “So we focused all our energies into aligning ourselves with developers who were contributing to the growth of the city, and we grew together. A lot of State Governments also encouraged and welcomed us.
“Today, we can proudly say that we have strategic partners who believe in us. We deliver what we promise, and sometimes, everything is not doable, which is conveyed to the partners beforehand. You see, building a hotel is easy, but keeping a partnership isn’t. I strongly feel that a strong partnership is like a marriage, where both parties want to stay together, grow together and have a family.
“So yes, we have come a long way in the last 25 years but still have a long way to go. And I’m really proud of the current teams who are carrying the brand forward, taking it from good to great and great to elite,” says Kachru, who is currently Chairman Emeritus and Principal Advisor, South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group.
After playing a pivotal role in building the Group’s business in India since 1998, the hospitality stalwart continues to be on the governing board of the Group’s South Asia business entities including RHG’s Joint Venture companies. He is also an active member of various Tourism and Hospitality Advisory Committees at the state and national levels, member of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) National Tourism Committee, Tourism & Hospitality Skill Council (THSC) of India, and Vice President of Hotel Association of India. .
Growing Presence, Growing Teams, Growing Strategies
As the brand grew across the country, so did the team…
When Zubin Saxena, an enterprising hospitality professional with almost two decades in the industry, took over as the MD of the Group, South Asia, four years ago, he admits he was “high-pressured.”
At 39, he was quite young to take on the mantle of running the affairs, but he concedes in finding a great mentor in Kachru, which made the transition easy. Saxena wasted no time in getting down to business. “We had a global aspiration to be among the top three hotel operators in the world. We were about 100 hotels at that time, all operating independently. We synergized operations, people practises, procurement etc and started acting as one system.” And thus was born the India Unification Plan, a major strategic initiative to streamline systems, increase productivity and up revenue. Talent-building was next on his list. “We started working on our talent – growing internal talent and getting the best minds to build a dream team,” he tells us.
And COVID was a great example, he reveals, of how he used his ‘talents’ to achieve the unthinkable. “The pandemic hit us really hard. But we held on to our belief – ‘this too shall pass’ – and had a very optimistic view of things. The India Unification Plan, which started in 2019, would have taken us three years to implement. But all of us utilised the time during COVID and worked 18 hours a day despite the hotel having zero occupancy. We worked on restructuring the entire blue print of the hotel, and completed it in 12 weeks instead of 12 months. We looked at it as an opportunity to reset our ways of working,” states Saxena.
He takes pride in acknowledging a common trait that runs deep amongst teams across the board. “And that is of ownership. People take pride in what they do. Where the culture is very self-driven, people work like they own the project,” he says.
Finding A Radisson Hotel Every Four Hours
Taking pride in being on both the curves – learning and growth – is Javed Ali, who has been with the Group for nearly two decades. Senior Regional Director, Operations of the Group for South Asia, Ali started his career with the flagship hotel as its GM. As part of the development of the brand, Ali believes, “We are present thanks to the foresight of our founder, K B Kachru, who decided to go to Tier 2, 3 and 4 cites, which often made us the first movers in the hospitality business.”
In fact, it was Ali who first discovered the presence of a Radisson hotel every four hours of drivable distance. Fond of driving, he’d often drive from one Radisson hotel to another with the sole purpose of checking on the hotels’ operations, as part of his job. It was on one such drive from Delhi to Kerala that he realised that he could actually spot one Radisson hotel every four hours!
“I would drive one way and then fly back the other, and my boss would ask me, ‘How come you have only one-way flight?’” smiles Ali, adding, “I would literally be on a Radisson road trip.” He further points out, “The high quality of highways in India has made travel much more pleasant, and of course more convenient if you have a Radisson hotel every four hours. In fact, we are taking this phenomenon to the next level, and having EV (Electric Vehicle) chargers installed in the hotels to take care of range anxiety that electric vehicle owners have.”
“The experiences that we offer our guests should be one of a kind so that it stays back with them for a long time,” avers Vikas Ray, Regional Director, Operations, South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group.
Treating Guests To A Stay Of Comfort And Elegance
The design language of the hotel also echoes the same sentiment. “I think one of the key features when it comes to design in hospitality, especially for resorts, is that one needs to take into account the surroundings, locale, how we can extend an authentic experience and create something which is part of the fabric of that place. That is an interesting challenge. When it comes to business hotels, it is important to know how to create a product that is uncomplicated and seamlessly caters to the demands of the discerning traveller. In my opinion, simple is elegant,” says Sahil Khan, Senior Director, Design & Technical Services, South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group.
The Design and Technical Services team at RHG carefully handpicks the finest consultants in the business, best suited for each project, and then collaborates extensively to discuss design, suitability, function, materiality, finishes etc. The team gets into checking the minutest of details and has a very ‘hands-on’ approach.
The Radisson Ethos – Of Strength And Empowerment
As businesses expand and change, it is important for them to have that solid backbone to lean on and guide the growth. Giving us an insight into the core values that define RHG, Yogendra Agnihotri, Senior Director – Human Resources, South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group, tells us, “The first one that stands out is ‘We grow talent and talent grows us’. We take great pride in this belief from an HR point of view, especially because this is the core of our growth story overall.
“The second one would be the core service philosophy of RHG – ‘We deliver with a yes-I-can service attitude’. We really go beyond to create some memorable moments, creating value for our key stakeholders – the guests, the promoters and our people.
“And the third and most special one – ‘We believe anything is possible’. We have been very innovative in finding solutions to our people-related challenges. During COVID, we created the India Unification Plan, synergizing the strength of all hotels to create a brand new blueprint. We created new avenues of business like Meetha, a reinvention of Indian mithai.”
Celebrating 25 Years Of Radisson
The current mood among Radisson-ites, however, is definitely one of bonhomie and cheer. It’s not every year you get to celebrate a milestone anniversary. “If I may put K B Kachru’s thoughts in Majrooh Sultanpuri’s words, ‘Main akela hi chala tha janib-e-manzil magar, log saath aatey gaye aur karwan banta gaya.’ We are celebrating this milestone every moment, every day and for the whole year with all our stakeholders while following the Group’s service philosophy ‘every moment matters’!” says an exuberant Rakesh Sethi, Corporate Executive Chef, Operations, South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group.
Chef Sethi is also responsible for devising many a culinary innovation in his tenure in Radisson till now. Explaining one of them to us, he says, “At Radisson Group, we are driven by innovation when it comes to culinary experience and have always been at the forefront of creativity for enhancing our Food & Beverage offerings. We are one of the first hotel chains that understood the importance of breakfast and devised Super Breakfast for our guests, which became a market differentiator for us. We have also localized our breakfast offerings according to different regions in India and introduced the same across our hotels in the country.
So, what are some of the initiatives in the pipeline for the Group as it turns 25? Agnihotri, giving us a peek into some of them, says, “We are elated to mark 25 years in India and are recognizing long standing pillars at the Group with gratitude. On this occasion, HR is driving a program that will make India a global talent hub for the Group. The International Talent Export Program will create great career and development opportunities for our talent. We have 14,000 employees working in our hotels, 75 corporate colleagues working in India. For every single one, the Group has opened opportunities across departments and geographies. We will ensure great growth opportunities for Radisson Hotel Group people.”
10 Years From Now…
And what does it look like for Radisson, a decade from now? “Our long-term vision is to be the company of choice for our guests, partners, and talent. Whenever a guest plans a trip, an investor thinks of a partner, or someone is looking for a career in the hospitality industry, RHG should be their preferred choice,” divulges Ray.
The Group recently introduced India-focused brands like Park Inn & Suites by Radisson, bolstering its brand infrastructure in the country. Tailor-made for the Indian market, the brand will apparently deliver a warm and heartfelt hospitality experience in a modern yet familiar home-like setting. The Group also signed a strategic partnership with Ruptub Solutions to develop a pipeline of 150 hotels under the brand over the next decade with the first hotel to debut in Guruvayur, Kerala in Q2, 2024. “Currently, I support operations to further strengthen our brand portfolio of Franchised Hotels across the South Asia Region and firmly believe that it’s better to break your dream down into smaller steps until you figure out a path forward and focus on the most basic action that keeps you moving and inspired,” adds he.
Summing up his vision for the future of the brand, Kachru says, “The market is growing very quick. There’s great connectivity today – the Government has announced new airports and new destinations, which means new opportunities for us too. In the next 10 years, we should be able to double our portfolio.”
That certainly doesn’t seem like a mammoth task for a hotel that’s made expanding its game, and serving with love its passion… Cheers to 25 years of a brand that may be international in its origin but one that remains very Indian in its soul.
