We need to elevate hygiene standards to boost customer's trust: Bharanidharan Ramaswamy

The pandemic has hit industry hard with their operations coming to a halt and organisations shutting down. Amid such a situation, people are still trying to figure out ways to adopt and adapt to ‘the new normal’.

As the government initiated lockdown five with graded openings, the hospitality sector is gearing up to prepare for the activity they will witness June 8 onwards. The hospitality sector, ethics and hygiene are inextricably blended, and the striking importance of this in such unprecedented times doesn’t seem a frivolous one.

To take the conversation forward on what is in the house for the Hotel giants post lockdown, BW HOTELIER in Association with HPMF organised a webinar on ‘Procurement – The Big Game Changer’ in its Breaking The Pandemic Series. The webinar was honoured with the gracious presence of eminent personalities from the Hotel industry.

Bharanidharan Ramaswamy, Director of Procurement, Marriott Hotels India shed light on the importance of elevating the hygiene levels in hotel operations. He further stressed on the importance of the packaging and transportation from the supply partners, given the fact that these can be the carriers of the disease.

While talking about the current situation and future opportunities, he said, "The whole world is going through a challenge and it is not individual. We need to work together on all the initiatives to overcome this. 'Make in India' and 'Aatma Nirbhar' are going to be great alignments for the future. There are going to be a lot of opportunities for not just the hospitality sector but other sectors as well."

He stated that the way forward is going to be 'how we rationalise our suppliers' and 'how we rationalise our items' He went on to discuss on how the automation sector will expand soon as it will not require human interventions for tasks.

Access to CCTV footages to check the quality standards, virtual audits are a few key suggestions he made for the procurement of materials from suppliers post lockdown.