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A chartered accountant by profession, who then branched into the construction industry, Satyen Jain feels his diverse professional background well equips him for the family business.
I was always fascinated with the hotel industry as I have grown up in that environment. I started off by doing my chartered accountancy as I felt that it would be a good foundation to any career. Post that, I worked with Deloitte for three years, and then trained in a construction company for one year.
Once I had some experience behind me, I found it was still hotels that attracted me – so here I am, and I have never looked back since.
One thing I was always sure about is that I would always be in some form of business. If not hotels, then I would have been full-fledged in the construction industry.
From Deloitte to construction, and now – I have come from a combination of the organised, to an unorganised industry. What I have gained from my experience is planning and implementation capabilities, which have been effective
for adding new hotels.
Yes, of course, there are expectations from me...the initial years were about getting familiarised with the work, but, ever since I have become the CEO, it has been more challenging.
First it was convincing the team that ambitious targets can be set. Now it is about making sure that those targets are achieved in spite of the adverse market situations.
I have put in four years of work outside the hotel business before joining it, and that has paid off well.
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Having work experience of a diverse nature helps when you have to convince your team about new ideas. As for convincing your team, bankers, customers, other employees, and stake holders - it is all part and parcel of business.
I have also completed my part-time MBA, which helps in facing a lot of new challenges which are thrown up in a completive market.
I do have added responsibilities now, and I take them very seriously. I introduced the concept of corporate teams to manage the hotels, even though we were just three hotels at the time.
That initiative has made it much easier for us when our number of hotels increased to ten; the scaling-up capability was enhanced dramatically.
Our target for the group is that by year 2015, we will operate 30 hotels with 3000 rooms. We will have 12 owned hotels under the Pride Group, and 18 hotels with the management and franchise model, under the Pride Biznotel and Pride
Resorts brands.
In this, my dad is truly my role model; he has been a great inspiration, as he made such a great empire from scratch. That proves one thing - that nothing is impossible. One only has to dare to dream and strive hard to achieve one’s aim.
I think Indian hospitality has a great future, although we still need to work towards the kind of hotel infrastructure required to sustain a growth of 6-7 % GDP. Also, the spending power of individuals will give a tremendous boost to the requirement of leisure hotels.
In all, I think that we have the potential and growth opportunities to be able, in the next five years, to expand our hotel infrastructure to the same level as China today.
Till we reach that benchmark there will always be a shortage of rooms.
Also, there is a tremendous shortage in the MICE infrastructure that requires to be bridged. I think the industry should get more corporatised; hotels will have to be more competitive in the long run, and they will have to cater to even more demanding customers, so I think this will help.
Does all of this sound dull and boring? It’s not so - every opportunity I get during my hectic schedule, I try to do something different and exciting; I am very fond of adventure sports.
During my initial training days when I was working for the construction division at Pune, I spent my weekends learning paragliding at Kamshet; it is considered one of the best paragliding sites in Asia.
In fact, on my honeymoon, I convinced my wife to sky-dive with me in Switzerland. Over the last
five years I have tried scuba diving, bungee jumping, skiing, and rafting.
The rush and the thrill send me back to work fully charged.
Quick Look
Name: Satyen S Jain
Age: 31 years
Designation: CEO and director, Pride Hotels Ltd
Responsibilities: Strategic planning and implementation of the company’s expansion projects in Bangalore, Goa, Mumbai, and Hyderabad. Supervising the operations of the existing hotels at Pune, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, and Chennai.
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COMMENT
Well Sir,i appreciate ur article,i m also into hotel industry and inspired by ur article...there are lots of mental n ph