One of the toughest categories to select from, with exceptional nominations from all the major hotel chains, the GM of the year award saw much speculation among the judges before they narrowed it down to the winner, Sanju Soni of the Trident, Mumbai.
Sanju Soni was awarded for successfully dealing with the terrible situation post the Mumbai terror attacks along with the human resources aspect. “I took the personal responsibility of speaking with each of my staff to sort out issues and did training programs where we invited family members as well. I had to make good the damage done to business as well. I had to keep my people occupied especially after the terror attacks. I primarily decided to lead the whole process,” said Soni.
When asked by the judges what was the one mistake he made which he wished he could have altered or done differently, Soni replied that he wished he could have taken some of the training sessions himself. “I should have got a little more involved,” he replied.
Nonetheless, he emerged the winner, pipping to the post the other shortlisted GMs who were Andrew Hendrian from the Leela Palace Bangalore, Pascal Dupuis from the Leela Kempinski Goa, Anand Rao from the ITC Royal Gardenia Bangalore, and Guy Godet from the JW Marriott Mumbai.
Jury member Vijay Thacker summed it well when he said, “It’s a tough narrow down with the final three being Guy, Pascal and Sanju but Sanju wins hands down for having absorbed six hundred employees after the incident. If you look at how he faced the challenges, he’s right up there.”
