Meet Mr NICE GUY

Navigating an unprecedented crisis, improvising business responses, strengthening strategic partnerships, accelerating digital adoption, thinking ahead – Neeraj Govil did all this, and more, with a cheery smile firmly in place

- VINITA BHATIA

Busyness (noun, pronounced biz -n s): the state of having, or being, involved in many activities. That is how Merriam Webster defines the term.

That is how one can best define what Neeraj Govil, Senior VP, Operations – APEC, Marriott International was doing since March 2020, if not before that.

When COVID-19 rocked India’s economy, it jolted the hospitality sector terribly, with many companies still dealing with its aftershocks. Coping with these unprecedented times wasn’t easy, especially since there was no playbook on ways to navigate the crisis.

And that’s when Govil got busy.

For many professionals, COVID-19 was a crisis unlike any they had encountered and it placed tremendous demand on their leadership skills. Suddenly, they were juggling too many balls in the air – keeping the hotels open, keeping the balance sheet in the black and keeping colleagues and owners at ease.

The best way to deal with this, Govil figured, was by empowering his teams, displaying bounded optimism, making pragmatic decisions amid uncertainty, demonstrating empathy and communicating effectively.

When the economy recovered marginally after the first wave, he quickly grasped that if the company had to wait out the pandemic, it needed to realign its existing business practices. Since domestic, especially leisure, travel would lead the way to business revival, it was pertinent to look inwards. A good case in point was the increased focus on localised supply chains to optimise costs, ensure business continuity and also stay green.