They are the ones instrumental in designing the citadels dedicated to hospitality. The ones who consistently come up with ways to make the hotel projects more efficient and cost-effective as well as less complex, while adhering to deadlines. Yes, they are the engineering professionals who are always on the frontier to adopt newer technologies, whilst learning ways to see how this adoption can be balanced with financial viability with their brands’ inclusive goals. Realising the growing importance of this community, in 2007, Marriott International decided to organise an annual SouthAsia Engineering Conference (SAEC). The objective was to ensure that their engineers understood the direction the company was headed in, so they could collectively work towards it. Talking about how the event has evolved, S Saravana Raj, area director of engineering – South Asia, Marriott International said, “SAEC started when Marriott was operating just five hotels. Today, we have 63 managed hotels and 29 franchised hotels.” For the first time, SAEC had an overarching theme, which was ‘Pursue Excellence through One Extra Degree’ for the 60 directors of engineering attending it.
‘Pursue Excellence’ is one of Marriott International’s five core values. R Duraisamy of Chennai’s The Growth Academy gave a talk on pursuing excellence through emotional intelligence (EI), especially in the engineering domain. Talking about this, Raj stated, “In my opinion, while we have hundred ways to pursue excellence, a critical requirement is strong emotional stability. One may be very good on technical grounds, but can fail if the fundamentals of emotions are not understood. In my tenure of six months in this role, I have covered 70% of our hotel and understood that EI enhancement will add more value to our engineers.” Marriott International’s 10th South Asia Engineering Conference touched upon two critical elements – integration and sustainability
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
During the two-day conference, integration and sustainability formed the crux of most discussions. A SME team encompassing a group of experts was formed to accelerate the efficiency of engineering operation within the Marriott International hotels. At SAEC, this team outlined the six areas of expertise for the brand. WK Mak, RVP-South Asia for the company also sketched the continent strategy for Marriott’s engineering team. The global design plays a key role when it comes to engineering and is well connected to realising the growth potential in the engineering division as well theoverall business development of the hotel brand. Marriott International currently has 30 brands globally, with each having its unique requirements. The global design team guides and ensures that the project is delivered as per the brand requirements. During the conference, they summarised the growth potential their division offers. The two-day SAEC also saw some HR initiatives being undertaken to reiterate the Marriott culture to engineers from various backgrounds. Some notable attendees from Marriott International who participated at the conference included Neeraj Govil, AVP for South Asia, WK Mak, RVP-Engineering for Asia Pacific, Gurmeet Singh, senior AD-HR for South Asia, Prem Thakur, director-design and project management for global design in Asia Pacific, Mandar Zaware, director-global design for Asia Pacific, etc. While the team that participated in the conference realised deep down the merits of working in cohesion and the benefits of embracing new digital technologies, they also appreciated the advantages of using EI while taking decisions – something that often gets left out when business comes into play. It is now time for them to put their learning from SAEC into action
