SPECIAL REPORT
ITC ’ s Nakul Anand is shaping India ’ s next generation of hospitality leaders and its untapped potential as a tourism magnet .
By BARBARA BOHN , MANAGING EDITOR
Nakul Anand ’ s decision to become a hotelier was inspired by a book . Not the business books he would devour when he was older , but a novel he read as a young boy : “ Hotel ” by Arthur Hailey , published in 1965 , around the time that a few 5-star properties had opened in India .
His biggest insight : Hotels are a “ business of businesses — there ’ s no monotony ,” says the executive director of Kolkatabased ITC Ltd . Indeed , he assiduously avoided anything looking like monotony as he rose through the ranks of the company where he has spent his entire career .
One example : Early on , Anand recalls , he was told by the predecessor in his new job as a hotel night manager that napping was fine as long as he was available for emergencies .
“ I did that for a couple of months and then I realized I wasn ’ t adding value to myself ,” he says . Instead , he began thinking like the night general manager .
“ I began to do things far beyond what I was supposed to do ,” he says , such as lowering targets for electricity consumption or considering how to more efficiently deploy manpower . “ Anything that happened at night , I was accountable for .”
“ When I look back , I think a lot of it was driven by something that made sense in very recent years when I read ‘ Good to Great ,’ one of my most favorite books ,” Anand says , sitting at the ITC Grand Bharat , A Luxury Collection Hotel , in Gurgaon . “ A level 5 manager is one that , when there is failure , he looks at the mirror first to see , what did I do wrong ? When there is success , he looks out of the window to see who helped me get the success .” “ Nothing is given ,” he emphasizes . For his four-decade career at ITC , from his mentorship of generations of young hoteliers , as a leader in making “ sustainable luxury ” far more than a motto at his company ’ s 109 properties , including 15 LEED platinum-certified luxury hotels , and as a visionary force in unifying and promoting Indian hospitality and tourism , HOTELS is pleased to honor Anand as the 2019 Corporate Hotelier of the World .
‘ INTELLECTUAL WORTH ’ Anand , who graduated from college in 1978 and joined ITC the same year , has been in the hotel business almost as long as the conglomerate itself : Founded in 1910 as a
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26 hotelsmag . com November / December 2019