Achieving operational excellence in diverse hospitality environments

The second day of the eighth edition of BW Hotelier Indian Hospitality Summit & Awards (IHA 2024) hosted the BWH Operational Excellence Roundtable including industry veterans and experts, with moderator Arun Kumar, Market VP - North India, Nepal and Bhutan, Marriott International with panel members including Atul Bhalla, VP - Operations (West & North), ITC Hotels, Anupam Dasgupta, Area VP - North, The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts and GM, The Leela Palace, New Delhi, Sharidhar Nair, Senior Vice President and GM - The Leela Ambience Gurugram Hotel and Residences, Vinit Mishra, Cluster GM, Pullman & Novotel New Delhi Aerocity, Novotel & ibis Bengaluru ORR, Novotel & ibis Chennai OMR, Vishvapreet Singh Cheema, Director of Operations - South West Asia, IHG Hotels & Resorts and Kanika Hasrat, Area Director - Operations and GM - Vivanta, Surajkund NCR. 

They discussed the topic of achieving operational excellence in diverse hospitality environments.

Bhalla commented, “The kind of work that happens at ITC hotels in terms of R&D, development of concepts, cuisines and at the same time nurturing the legendary brands, helps us in achieving operational excellence.”

Talking about luxury hospitality and how to navigate such a challenging sector, Dasgupta commented, “ I think one of the biggest challenges is getting good people and retaining talent. We have also turned it into an opportunity for us through world-class L&D systems.”

He further talked about the importance of security guest loyalty, stating, “Securing guest loyalty is very important. It is not just about loyalty programmes because they tend to be transactional in nature. Winning the hearts of the people is through pure service and pushing the boundaries on innovation through hype personalisation and localisation.”

Mishra also contributed to the discussion stating, “There’s a larger responsibility for planet efficiency that is the need of the hour. As hoteliers, it’s very important to look at both cost efficiency and planet efficiency aspects together.”

Nair talked about the ability to deal with the crisis and work around challenges to exceed operational excellence commenting, “ We have instilled things in terms of our training with regards to business community planning and how to keep a calm head, the leaders made sure that all aspects of the safety and security of the guests were remarkable.”

“My only answer to that is continuous training,” he further added.

Hasrat talked about leveraging technology to enhance the guest experience, stating, “Data has helped us understand our guests better. Today all the data is available through technology” 

Cheema talked about using data analytics, commenting, “ We have various cloud-based platforms that have been executed and implemented which gives us the ability to analyse, strategise and implement.”  

The two-day BW Hotelier Indian Hospitality Summit & Awards (IHA 2024) encompasses over 20 sessions where hospitality veterans and experts across the nation gather in order to provide diverse knowledge and insights. The Summit & Awards is a testament to BW Hotelier’s commitment towards revolutionising Indian hospitality by honouring the Crème de la crème of the industry.