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 K B Kachru, Chairman Emeritus and Principal Advisor, South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group, 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.
Saxena’s work beliefs and aspirations for his hotel, in his own words…
Our Aspiration: “Is to be the best in class. In our journey towards excellence, our yardstick from the very first day has been internal. We are not competing against brands; we are only pitting against ourselves. When we want to be better today than yesterday, that’s a lot of progress in a year.”
We Always Believed: “In ‘Culture meets Strategy’. We don’t like to only talk numbers and targets. We believe that people are our most important assets, be it our employees, stakeholders or guests. We nurture the humble side to our personalities too.
25 Years Of Radisson: “I believe we are 25 years young today. As we continue to grow, we will become more and more relevant and in tune with the times. Today, we are looking at what the future will hold in the next 5-10 years and are gearing up for that.”
Radisson, As A Brand, Is Synonymous: “With Indian hospitality. In many cities, people think Radisson is an Indian brand. Goes to show how well-entrenched we are in the Indian landscape.”
