As the company plans to grow from seven to nine brands this year, Neeraj Govil, market vicepresident, South Asia, Marriott International, aims to grab maximum mindshare in the market BY BABITA KRISHNAN
When you have grown up in a place that is synonymous with tourism, that you might end up becoming a hotelier might seem like natural progression. But when that leads to accolades, global travel, international achievements and a homecoming to head the brand you have been associated with for over 14 years, it garners attention. And more so when you have big shoes to fill!
We are talking about Neeraj Govil, market vice-president, South Asia, Marriott International, who took the reins of India operations from Rajeev Menon. In eight years of heading the Indian market, Menon took it to phenomenal heights of brand presence and success before moving on to becoming COO of Asia Pacific region (excluding Greater China) for Marriott International. Govil, in this exclusive talk, shares his plans to build on it and scale newer peaks. Reflecting on his journey thus far with the Marriott brand, he says, “I am a firm believer in the Marriott culture and if your personal values resonate with the core values of the company you work for, it becomes the ideal marriage.”
MARRIOTT CULTURE
Marriott International is an extremely people focused brand that believes in hiring the right people, looking after the employees and providing them with the right growth opportunities. “I am a great example of someone who was given opportunities. As long as you perform and deliver, there are enough and more options to grow and develop yourself within the brand. It is a very transparent organisation and one of the roles of the senior management is to keep the Marriott work culture alive and kicking,” he shares. With aggressive expansion plans, the brand is continuously on the lookout for fresh talent across all markets that it operates in, but with the talent pool getting stressed, it is a challenge to find the right mix of attitude and commitment feels Govil. One of the main reasons behind success, he believes, is that the brand is able to attract people who identify with the brand culture and want to work there. “We have retained a large workforce over the years for this very reason. If you look across our segment and competition, we have lowest attrition levels.”
One thing that Marriott celebrates is its female workforce. Though it is good within the industry circles, one of Govil’s top priority is to improve the gender diversity ratio as he feels that “it could be and needs to be better”. Today many of Marriott’s leading properties across the country are being headed by women leaders as GMs. To celebrate women and encourage their participation in the decision-making process, Marriott also held the first Women Leaders Meet in Mumbai, where the success stories were shared to encourage everyone to look for and grab opportunities for growth. “We have some really established high-performing and talented leaders, but we need a lot more. I am a firm believer that you have to tap into every single talent that you have and currently I think we have been doing great job in some areas, of course there are difficulties in some markets because of cultural issues, but we have to look at individual brands and properties as well,” says Govil. An ideal example of this is the first combo property of Courtyard and Fairfield that was recently opened in Bangalore Outer Ring Road that has 44% female staff. Govil wants to have criteria specific to each city that will make working at Marriott more conducive for women, as he believes that each city has its own set of issues which cannot be solved with generic rules. “We have to be open and understand the situation on the ground and maybe then have women only do certain shifts. You can’t have a one-size-fits-all approach,” he says, adding that one of the key reason for success is that Marriott is a flexible employer, “Flexibility in terms of what you want to do with your career. We have people who have moved across different disciplines within the group — directors of finance becoming GMs, people in development who now work in operations, etc. That is a big plus for us. One thing that I tell all associates is that it is not necessary to move straight up. You can learn a lot and grow in your career by moving laterally as well,” he explains.
BRAND DIVERSITY
Marriott has been in India for 19 years and has become a brand with great recall. One of the biggest contributor to this, according to Govil is the JW brand. “In India, operationally, we have been doing well due to the success of our key hotels and fruitful partnerships with key developers. We deliver a very strong premium in this market,” he shares. Another brand that has steadily established itself in the country is Courtyard by Marriott as an entry-level five-star brand. With 14 operational and three more scheduled for a 2016- 17 opening, it has penetrated different markets and gathered tremendous response. “Positioning is very important. People experience a brand and then grow into some of our other brands. As disposable incomes increase, people are willing to experiment. One of the key things that we can do is to maintain our leadership position and we will continue to invest in our brands and loyalty programmes to ensure this. I think Raj and team built a phenomenal platform and now we need to go to newer markets and deliver on that promise,” he says. With a diversity of offerings spread over seven brands, Govil is confident of the future.
The two Marriott resorts have also been performing very well for the brand. “While the Goa property has been outperforming its competition, the extent of success and popularity of the Mussoorie resort has come as a pleasant surprise to all of us. The team has worked really hard and currently it ranks number one in Asia-Pacific among all our hotels,” he shares. With
an increase in domestic tourism and a growing demand for MICE, Marriott wants to fuel its growth by exploring more destinations and work at establishing brands like Fairfield and Renaissance as well.
GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT
While the entire industry was going through a slowdown and there weren’t too many new hings to look forward to, Marriott had a steady spate of openings and growth. “When I left India nine years ago, we had six hotels and today we are operating 32 hotels despite five years of slowdown. Part of it is due to the fact that our hotels were signed during the boom from 2006 to 2009. So they opened when business was down and now is when we are seeing consolidation. We have had a good 2015 and I am optimistic about the future. We work with very reputed partners in our hotels, that helped us weather the storm,” says Govil. With properties scheduled to open in locations like Raipur, Belgaum, Jaisalmer and Amritsar, Marriott is looking forward to the opening of JW Marriott Kolkata. “This opening will enhance our distribution across the country. India, currently, has seven brands and potentially, we could have two more coming into this market over the next 12 months,” he reveals. The region can also look forward to properties opening in Dhaka and Sri Lanka this year as well.
But how does he justify having two properties of the same brand in one city (JW Marriott Juhu and JW Marriott Sahar in Mumbai)? While Govil is confident that the combined inventory of 585 rooms will be absorbed, he adds the inventory of Renaissance and Courtyard to the math as well with a smile. “I have come back from Shanghai where we had 21 hotels in one city. Our policy is simple, when there is potential, if we don’t put our brand on that building somebody else will,” he explains.
