The High Five

In its new avatar, Hotelivate is reasserting itself as a formidable hospitality consultancy force

- Vinita Bhatia

Throughout his career, Manav Thadani has never shied away from taking up new challenges. After starting his consulting career at HVS’ New York office, he returned to India in August 1997 to set up the company’s base in the country. From a one-man unit, he expanded HVS Asia Pacific’s operations into multiple verticals, including asset management and executive search and the HICSA conference.

He was able to achieve these milestones with the help of a strong team that he handpicked along the way. This included the young Megha Tuli who chose HVS South Asia as the starting point in her career and grew through the ranks to become the youngest associate director of consulting and valuation. Natwar Nagar set up the executive search practice in India, while Achin Khanna extended his enviable consulting experience, which encompassed economic feasibility analyses, asset and large portfolio valuations, operator searches and management contract negotiations, master planning and strategic consulting assignments. Another strong member of Thadani’s team is Saurabh Gupta who took charge of investment advisory and asset management practices in the firm.

However, as the years progressed, there arose a difference of vision and opinion between HVS and the team in India on how the business should grow in the Asia Pacific region. “There were too many limitations on how the India office could expand beyond South Asia. Our team, while being the most stable and with the highest market share among all offices across all regions, was unable to break free,” Thadani recalled.

He felt that the new leadership in HVS did not understand Asian markets and how business functions here. A need for more transparent and updated financial models for consulting was felt, and after much deliberation, the senior team in India chose to part ways with HVS.