Rakesh Sharma On Maintaining The Taj Legacy And Embracing Technology

I want to be able to say that we deleted servility from our culture and were able to guarantee that everyone is treated with respect”.  The basic rule for success, believes Rakesh Sarna, managing director and CEO, Taj Hotels, Resorts And Palaces, is respect for the brand, job, colleagues and your guests.

 

- Babita Krishnan

No one would have thought that the meeting of corporate heads with Rakesh Sarna, the new MD and CEO of Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces, on September 9th, 2014, would be one unlike any before. With the entire top management and every general manager in attendance, he spoke nothing about rewards or revenue management, but it was all about mutual respect. "I spoke about mutual respect because that’s an issue which has to be reinforced. There are many companies and hotel groups and they are all great people. But we are blessed to be in the house of Tatas that adds to our responsibility. If we want to continue sitting under the shadows of Jam setji, we have to work hard to deserve to sit there and the only tool to help in that is to start with mutual respect. I think in our company and in our society, there is a disconnect with that word, which needs to be corrected. And when that happens, servility will go away – there is a very fine line between good service and servility," Rakesh Sarna recounts the highlight of that meeting. But 19 months and many changes later, what is the status at the brand today? 

Much has been said about the changes made in Taj, but Sarna believes that what they really did was to get back to the basics. "Because at the end of the day, we are in the hotel business and our only goal is to make sure that our guests experience something that is consistent and something that is experiential," he says.