Jamshed Daboo's commitment to redefining the Taj experience has led him to successfully reposition the leisure division of the hotel chain

Armed with a management diploma from XLRI, Jamshed Daboo joined the Tata Administrative Services (TAS) in 1986. He subsequently worked for Titan Industries before taking over, in 1988, as the chief executive officer of Tata Quality Management Services (TQMS), where his prime responsibility was to drive the implementation of the Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM).

Mr Daboo’s work experience of 14 years covers the entire gamut of sales, marketing, operations and enterprise resource planning. Currently the chief operating officer of the leisure division of the Taj Group of Hotels, he has successfully positioned the company’s leisure hotels as uniquely attractive holiday destinations for the growing number of Indian travellers.

In this interview with Sujata Agrawal, Mr Daboo talks about his career achievements and what it means to be a Tata person.

You seem to have had a meteoric rise in your career. Would you attribute this to your being a TAS officer?
I always wanted to be a good general manager rather than specialise in any one field of management. I wanted to be with a group as diversified as the Tatas and was impressed with the work ethic here. TAS was, therefore, a logical choice. When I joined TAS it was one of the premiere institutions in the country, and it still is.

Being a TAS officer gives you an all-round exposure that is wider than that offered by any single company. There is no overt benefit or privilege bestowed on you as a TAS official, but the level of confidence shown in you is higher because you have been through a fairly rigorous selection procedure. My final interview stretched over two days and the panel included Mr Ratan Tata, Mr Russi Mody, Mr J. J. Bhabha, Ms Camelia Punjabi and Mr Xerxes Desai.

That is a measure of the importance given to the recruitment of TAS officers, and that is what gives you an edge in the company. The flip side is that you are looked at more critically than others. And, of course, you have to prove yourself.

I got interested in the JRD QV programme (as TBEM was then called) primarily due to Mr S. A. Vaneshwaran, who was with Titan during my stint there, and who later became the chief executive officer of TQMS. Later, as a TAS officer, I was encouraged to participate in the programme and became a part of the core group.

In 1998 I had to move to Mumbai for personal reasons, and was given the opportunity to head TQMS. It gave me a totally different perspective of business and management. Working for the Tata Group from Bombay House, I gained an excellent overview of every Tata company.

We had to sell the concept and promote the cause of excellence among group companies. It was a challenge because there was constructive resistance, and that helped in the thinking process. TBEM is such a powerful tool that companies soon realised they had a problem that needed to be solved. TBEM gave them the equipment and the framework necessary to compete in a changing business environment.

I evolved focused initiatives for the division. It was a challenge because many of our leisure properties are not as grand or as elaborate as the Taj luxury hotels, and some of them — in small and remote locations — were ignored for many years in terms of renovation, people and systems.

The leisure business was subsequently repositioned — internally, as a significant contributor to the brand and to the turnover of Taj Hotels, and, externally, as a significant player, through special schemes, in the Indian leisure market. Now, even in small and remote properties, such as the one at Khajuraho, customers experience the renowned Taj comfort and quality of service.

Today we have a strong base and can attract the best talent from within the industry. We are taking an approach which tells our customers that we are not merely a group of hotels in lovely locations; we are a chain of hotels that provides a unique leisure experience.

How would you define the Taj experience?
Our mission is to offer the finest and the most unique leisure experience. Finest means international quality service with an Indian flavour. Unique means every leisure property offers an experience that is a reflection of that locale and culture.

It’s a perfect blend of international service with a local, ethnic flavour. For instance, the atmosphere at The Taj Holiday Village is of a carnival. At Thekkady the visitor enjoys the ambience of a dak bungalow in forest surroundings (the general manager engages visitors with accounts of the area’s wildlife during the evenings). Staying at the Taj Malabar is like visiting your dream home; the service is warm and friendly, yet discreet.

We offer many holidays within the Taj Group. Each hotel is different, each holiday is unique. That is the trick and, indeed, the challenge of the game.

In the last two years we have opened two new hotels (Taj Exotica,Goa and Taj Hari Mahal, Jodhpur) and renovated others. Health club and spa facilities are also being upgraded. A new ayurveda spa has been launched at the Taj Malabar; its called Tamara (the Malayalam word for lotus). The look and feel is international, but it offers an authentic ayurveda experience.

Cuisine is another area we are concentrating on. There is now a separate executive corporate chef for the leisure hotels, and more restaurants are being added to the standard coffee shop. We have an activity manager at most of our key hotels, and this person organises programmes based on local attractions. We also have several niche products, such as the ‘singles programme’, and will soon be launching a kids club.

Where do you see yourself five years from now?
I’m happy here; I find my work exciting and can’t think of moving. Frankly, in the hotel industry, and particularly in the division that I’m handling, the gestation periods are slightly longer. I would like to double the turnover of this division in four years (as per our target), and that requires long-term play. I have a task at hand and it would be unfair to the company to leave before completing it.

I normally don’t think of ‘what next?’ until the time comes. I don’t feel I must move ever so often. In any case, I don’t see myself leaving the Tata Group, so when I move it’s more likely to be to a different department of the company.

Does anyone inspire you?
I have been very lucky in that I’ve always worked under people who have added to my capabilities. I entered the group with some vague personal values and imbibed a business value system that has helped my development. My first boss, Mr Ravi Kant [currently the executive director of Telco], and Mr Xerxes Desai [the managing director of Titan Industries] taught me some deep-rooted fundamentals of business.

To me business is a component of life and these value-based lessons were more about life in the workplace: how to manage difficult situations, the concept of having grace under pressure, encouraging your subordinates, and so on.

My current boss, RKK [R. K. Krishna Kumar, managing director, Indian Hotels Company], is equally encouraging. He pushes, cajoles and drives us to work to higher and higher levels — and he drives himself equally hard. It is great to work with him; there’s never a dull moment at Indian Hotels. We need pressure and RKK is able to achieve things positively, with a lot of stretch in good times and bad. The pace is scorching, and that’s what we like and want.