It wouldn’t be wrong to call him the “Pillar of Indian Hospitality”. Not many others can claim to have been a General Manager at a young age of 23 years and many decades later, continue to contribute immensely to the industry in various strategic capacities. Humble, knowledgeable, extremely passionate and a visionary, Mr. K B Kachru, Chairman Emeritus and Principal Advisor, South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group, is a veteran, who has worn many hats in his professional journey and carried each job with zest and vigour, no matter what the circumstances. KB is the recipient of many coveted Industry Awards including The Global hotelier and PATWA award at ITB Berlin, WTM London and the HVS lifetime achievement award amongst many others. The one award which he feels most proud of is the Carlson ‘Champion of Champion’ and Fellowship Award. It was our true honour interviewing him for BOTT Spotlight. Here’s more on his journey…
Priyanka Saxena Ray
Having known him for many years, my respect for this veteran grows manifold every time I meet him. The legacy of his work is unmatched in the hospitality industry and it is impossible for anyone to pen his experiences down in a mere article. Yet we try to share details of his journey with our readers……….
Born and brought up in Kashmir at a time when the state used to be thronged with tourists without any fear of terror, the young Kachru made a conscious choice of not letting his parents pay donation fee to obtain a medical seat for him and instead opted to sit for Hotel Management Pusa entrance and clear it. While his mother did not appreciate his choice and stayed upset with him for some time, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir on the other hand, enamoured with the fact that a Kashmiri boy is doing formal education in the field of hospitality, gave him a scholarship for studying at IHM. After enjoying a good stint in the hotel management institute, K.B. became the Students Association President and part of the first-ever batch wherein students were taken as management trainees and not just as stewards, kitchen assistants and receptionists. “Because my father was a government employee all his life, he pushed me to join ITDC as a management trainee. At the same time the Tawaza Department in the J&K Government was ready to give me job of a Tawaza Officer. However, convinced that ITDC was a better option, I started my professional career in 1971,” reminisces the veteran.
Given the fact that he was a committed learner, his training was cut short by six months and he was sent to work as the Assistant Manager at The Ashok Jammu, where he was given a freehand to work and he honed his skills and contributed greatly to the hotel. K.B. worked there for a year and half and also changed his status to “married” by tying the knot with his lady love.
Soon after, the Government of India and Government of West Germany joined hands to offer higher education and training to select few in specialised fields. “I got selected for the Carl Duisberg Scholarship and also attended the hotel school at Hamburg, which was an enlightening career and learning opportunity for me. I gathered plenty of work experience at various hotels across West Germany. After working in Germany for close to three years, I came back to ITDC and was made the General Manager of the Aurangabad Ashok at the young age of 23,” shares the veteran.
From GM of The Aurangabad Ashok, he moved to the newly opened Ashok Varanasi, which yet again proved to be a great working and satisfying experience for him. At all of 29 years, K B Kachru was made the General Manager of ITDC’s flagship hotel The Ashok New Delhi. The initial few months were challenging but the veteran calls himself was lucky to have had a free-hand to manage things his way. There was no bureaucratic or political interference and he and his team successfully managed the hotel and catered to high profile events such as NAM & CHOGM. It was indeed a unique experience to have over 80 head of states together under one roof at one time. He quickly moved up the ladder to become head of hotels division. K.B. was actively involved in the opening of Duty Free shops at arrival halls of all the international airports in the country.
“It was only during the last 6 months of my tenure at ITDC that I had difference of opinion with some people in the government, who started interfering, particularly regarding running of the hotels. Also, I had been with ITDC for close to two decades now and I realised it was time to look for something new. I had already been approached by international hotel chains who wanted me to help them develop their brands in India. So in the early 90s, Mr. Rajan Jetley (my ex-boss) and I formed a company and we started working with Radisson Hotels Asia. The rest, as they say, is history,” he says, a contented smile on his face, one that has long tales of achievements and experiences to narrate.
He was accordingly required to relocate to Singapore, where he believes his greatest achievement was to penetrate the Asian markets in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh and India. The company’s brands, which had no presence in these markets, opened hotels in all these countries under his leadership and guidance, before he decided to relocate back to India. The Indian economy was opening up in the mid-nineties, and it was time to take full advantage of the prevailing circumstances. The opening of the first Radisson in India was at Mahipalpur, New Delhi. From then to now, Radisson currently operates 95 hotels in India while there are 45 more projects in the pipeline.
Till early 2000s, when people were only focussing on metro cities, Radisson went a step ahead and started tapping the tertiary towns and opening hotels spread across tier-II and tier-III cities. As a result, the hospitality chain today has hotels in almost all state-capitals of India, much ahead of its competition.
“The hospitality industry, where it stands today, is different from our times, yet with similar set of problems. Going forward, talent acquisition is going to be a continuous challenge – needing skilled people at all levels is a tough requirement to fulfil. We are an industry that is still challenged with antique laws, overcoming which is another obstacle for people operating in this field. The infrastructure of our country is also a topic of concern. Land is too expensive, FSI is limited and basic things are not available at many places even in metro cities, leave alone the smaller towns. The cost of land being too expensive to build hotels on, along with the operating cost of running a hotel, makes the job all the more tough,” says K B Kachru, with a deep concern for the future of the hospitality industry in India.
In his personal life, he is family man who loves to spend quality time with his wife Neelam, who is also a hotel management graduate and take family holidays with his sons, Amit and Sameer and their wives Bhavna and Gazal. His mother, who is almost 94 years has lived with them since his father passed away in 1986. He enjoys playing with his grandchildren and proudly talks about his 10 year old grandson playing cricket for the DLCL under 14 Delhi Team.
“I have been fortunate to have had great mentors and support teams both in ITDC and Radisson, without whom I would not have been successful in achieving my goals. Some of them today are very successful CEO’s and head Indian hotel groups and international ones too and most of them are celebrities in their own arenas. My advice to the younger hoteliers is to always stay grounded and accept that change is the only constant,” he concludes on a humbling note.
K.B. Kachru is also on the Board of Skill India, a Government of India initiative. He has recently been appointed by the Government on the prestigious Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board. The shrine gets over 8 million visitors a year. In the past, he has also served on the Tourism Boards of many states, PATA India, FHRAI, ICCB and hotel schools including his Alma Mater, IHM Pusa. He is currently Chairman of the CII Tourism Committee for nine states of Northern India and member of the CII National Committee for Tourism. He is also on the J&K Tourism Advisory Committee and the Executive board of Hotel Association of India.
