Exclusive Interview | Dr. Sheri Kurian, Principal St: Jospeh’s Institute of Hotel Management & Catering Technology- Palai
/“I had conducted one survey among the Hospitality Management students in Bangalore, to identify the student’s perception on their industrial training. It was a shocking result for us that 48.34 % of students had opined that their training was only in banquets and they were not able to learn anything other than shifting of tables and other fixtures from one place to another and very long working hours.”
Editor: Tell us about your journey. How did it all start?
I would verbally express it was a turning point in my life when I was at the cross road after my graduation in commerce way back in 1988. Whether to pursue Masters in commerce or to chartered Accountancy or to do some professional program that would avail me to achieve a good vocation? I took the third option and decided to pursue a professional course. Then the next challenge was to decide between the two emerging professional programs of that era. Computer science and Hospitality Management. However, it was bit more facile task for me to cull Hospitality Management program because the other one requires science and mathematics cumulation wherein, I had already verbally expressed sorry to those coalescence during my plus two level. Took admission in SNR sons college (Sree Ramakrishna Edification Society) , Coimbatore and prosperously consummated my another graduation in Hotel Management & Catering Technology with University Rank .Got culled for management trainee program through campus recruitment by Cochin predicated Casino Group of Hotels Presently renamed as CGH earth .
There were few of my classmates got culled along with me and we all had reported to the Hotel and commenced our vocation . After a few months, I was given an adscititious responsibility of training the employees and incipient recruits of the hotels and for their other branches. In fact, I was authentically relishing those days and more inclination towards the training session every day probably I had emanated from the family of edifiers. Affirmative, such exposure had availed me to identify my faculty asa trainer and it was the commencement of transformation of myself to an academician.
Associated with SNR sons college for two years as Asst; Professor in Hospitality Management Inculcation then shifted my base to Bangalore and associated with one of the then upcoming Institutions as Asst: Professor, after few years I was ascended to Program Head of the Department of Hospitality Management & Tourism. I was perpetuating my academic qualification enhancement along with my employment. Prosperously consummated my Post graduation in Tourism Management and additionally did Diploma program in Swiss Hospitality Inculcation and Management in SEG University campus in Switzerland in 2006.
Perpetuated my academic upgradation by registering for PhD in Business Administration with University of Mysore and prosperously consummated My PhD after four years of registration. It is indeed my Ardency to learn more on Ecumenical Hospitality accommodations and transpired to visit 12 different countries in due course of time and was able to learn their aliment culture and victuals accommodation styles etc.
Published many research-predicated articles on Hospitality and Tourism cognate themes in the leading research journals in India and abroad. Withal inscribed and published many articles in Express Hospitality & Caterer, The Deccan Herald News, Siksha.com etc to denominate a few at present.
Won the prestigious award for the best trainer of the Budding puerile Chefs from the Indian federation of Culinary Association -for two times 2016-& 18 respectively. There are couple of other ones including Guinness Book of records for the best facilitator and organiser and for the community accommodation elongated to the society during my tenure in Bangalore.
Presently employed in St: Josephs Institute of Hotel Management & Catering Technology, Palai. Kerala. As Preceptor & The Principal.
Editor: What do you think it takes to succeed in this industry?
Being an academician for more than 29 years in the field of Hospitality Management Inculcation, I always emphasise on the consequentiality of achieving excellence in the Hospitality vocation to my students right from day one. Some of the essential attributes contributing towards excellence in the hospitality vocation of an individual are:
2.1. Understand the Hospitality Industry First:
Hospitality industry is Popularly kenned as people’s Industry. Ergo, it is very essential for every individual who wish to develop a vocation in this field has to understand what is hospitality industry and its functions. Pellucidity of Information amassed on Hospitality Industry and its logical analysis by an individual makes it facile for him or her to decide upon whether this vocation is their cup of tea or not .
2.2. Zealousness & Positive Posture:
It is one of the most essential attributes that required for a budding hospitality professional who wish to become prosperous in his vocation. Identify that ardency within you and nurture it with positive posture towards achieving your goal. It is quite conspicuous that all those prosperous bellwethers in the Hospitality Industry across the globe today have their zealousness towards the industry and that’s why they are already in the lime light and could achieve better positions.
2.3. A Good observer:
Be a good observer of diminutive factors even because such visual examinations can contribute towards the customer contentment being a good listener to the customers’ requisites avails in coordinating their desiderata.
2.4. Be a Multitask Performer:
Hospitality Industry is very prominent for its expeditious transmuting style of accommodation operations wherein, the employees need to be updated and at parwith the emerging trends and practices in the industry. Multitask performers are most sought after ones and the desideratum of the hour now. Hence it is better to be a multitask performer to become prosperous in the hospitality Industry.
2.5. Adeptness and its excellence:
Your adeptness is something that gives you an Identity in the Hospitality Vocation. Be it in the culinary art or in accommodation, or any other operational department. The kind of Erudition and the adeptness acquired by an individual is the USP for him. One should be focused more on to sharpening his skills so as to achieve its excellence.
2.6. Be good in communication:
I would verbally express, it is the most essential attribute for a Hospitality professional. Ability to communicate efficaciously with the customers and withal with the fellow employees is very much essential for every hospitality Professional. An efficacious communication between the people avails to provide pellucidity to all and no room for any mystifications.
2.7. Be Flexible in approach:
One should be patient enough towards the last-minute changes that transpires more often in the Hospitality accommodation and should be more flexible towards such transmutes which is very conventional affair in the hospitality Industry.
2.8. Team Player:
Team work plays a vital role in providing better hospitality experience to the customers. Consequently, the one who aims at the excellence in his hospitality vocation should be invariably a good team player. In other words, every individual employed in the hospitality Industry should be a team player.
Editor: What according to you can trainees do while they are training at hotels to make it a win-win for them & the hotel/unit?
In simple sentence I would verbally express, An Internship program should be able to provide required adeptness and cognizance about the operations of the Hotel Departments. The students should be able to relate their academic inputs with authentic practice followed in the industry. Wherein, the Industry should be able to provide the required information and practice to the interns.
But in authenticity, things are different. I had conducted one survey among the Hospitality Management students in Bangalore predicated colleges afore pandemic. The objective of that survey was to identify the student’s perception on their industrial training. It was authentically a shocking result for us that 48.34 % of students had opined that their training was only in banquets and they were not able to learn anything other than shifting of tables and other fixtures from one place to another and very long working hours. Further the behavioural issues with and of the staff out there. However, such students have developed some kind of aversion towards the Industry after their Internship.
But today the situations are ameliorated a lot and not that lamentable. I cerebrate the industry withal has realised the fact that not many are intrigued with joining the Hospitality Industry after their internships and not many takers are there for the Hotel and Tourism Industry across the globe.
What we do here in our Institute is that we conduct Internship orientation program in advance for our students afore allotting them to the Hotels. We had signed MOU with sundry Leading Hotel brands for the Industry Academia sodality and we insist the requisites in advance to the industry and ascertains that the students’ requisites are taken care of by the Learning & development Department of the Hotels. We withal provide a detailed questionnaire consist of latest trends, practices followed, terms and terminologies utilized in different departments and the fundamental operational aspects cognate questions. so that they could accumulate information during their internship period and could be utilized as a study material as well. We additionally ascertain that our interns are rotated and exposed to all the operational departments so that they will not be stagnant in one or two departments.
Such things are possible when you have a better professional relationship and interaction with the industry. But we require to leverage the internship program to the next level and we have been in discussion with our partners in this regard. So that Such Internship program should be propitious to the students as well as for the industry. For Example : case study predicated internship programs wherein, caselets could be developed predicated on the operations persist in the departments and collective study and analysis could be done on it and mentors from the Industry and Institute could supervise the logical aspect of the same and if the output of such studies could be utilizable for the Industry for their operational improvisation , it would be a prosperity and win -win situation for both .
Editor: What are some of the trends you see impacting the hospitality industry?
Hospitality Industry is an ever-transmuting Industry. So, it is very much essential for all those who have associated with the Hospitality Industry to keep them updated about the vicissitudes that takes place very often. we can visually examine the transmuting trends of the industry especially post pandemic era.
4.1. Restructuring of the HR : It is the fact that Most of the Hotel brands are focusing more on the Multitask performers as their workforce so that more efficacious cost control could be in place. Upscaling opportunities and evolving work place conditions are another incipient trend in the HR management. There is a massive dearth for the well qualified and Multi adeptness-oriented professionals in the industry. Now most of the hotel companies offer an environment where the employee can simultaneously upgrade their adeptness sets and evolve as per the transmuting trends.
4.2. Technology Assistance: More of tech-predicated operations especially after pandemic is another major trend in the Hospitality industry across the globe. Considerable minimization in manpower is possible and recurring expenditure could be lowered by adopting technology so as to provide quality and uniformity in the service provided to the customers. Voice search and voice control expeditiously growing trend within the hospitality Industry because many guests are turning voice search to find the hotels, restaurants and cafes.
Chatbot is another expeditiously growing trend in the Hotel Industry customers now demand swift answers to questions at all times of the day. Hotels and restaurants will often magnetize queries from people in different time zones, so having staff available is arduous. A good chatbot will answer the most mundane questions without requiring human involution. In more advanced cases, the chatbot can obtain information from the customer and then pass the query on to a human staff member at the earliest opportunity while providing them access to what the customer has verbalized.
Virtual authenticity is another of the major technology trends in the hospitality industry that you require to be vigilant of. In particular, this can make the difference when customers are yare to make a booking, because it will give potential customers a much more pellucid sense of what they can expect when they visit.
Other emerging trends are NFT enabled marketing for Hotel Industry, AI will supersede the chatbot services soon. Robotic accommodations, contact less payments, and many more to suggest. Further, Future Hospitality professionals will have to be more tech-oriented individuals for sure.
4.3. Sustainable Hospitality practices: Fortuitously, Hospitality Industry has realised the paramountcy of sustainable practices to be followed in the Hotel Business as such many incipient trends and practices are in place especially after the pandemic era.
4.3.1. Aliment Preparations:Utilizing Local produce and farm to table dining is becoming more popular as an efficacious way of abbreviating carbon foot print and withal offer the customers a unique opportunity to experience a more preponderant connection to the locations they visit.
4.3.2. Waste Truncation: A step beyond recycling, eliminating single use plastic products is more prevalent in the Hospitality Industry today.
4.3.3. Water conservation: Industry offers a voluntary linen reuse program, converting to low flow or dual flush toilets, rain dihydrogen monoxide harvesting, are more prevalent today in the Hotel Industry.
4.3.4. Energy conservation: It is now a practice that abbreviate the energy use while sustaining and whenever possible, enhancing the guest experience by utilizing energy efficient natural light sensor enabled lighting system. `solar powered heating and lighting systems.
4.3.5. Biophilia designs: Connecting to the Nature- an incipient trend prevailing in the Hotel projects designing with the avail of advanced technology is something more intriguing factor to the customers today.
Editor: Two things you would like to change in the industry.
1. I would verbalize the Hospitality industry in India should take adequate measures to transmute their status from training Industry to retaining Industry. What is transpiring at present in the Hospitality Industry is that, it is more or less acting as a training industry for the employees for their better vocation prospectus outside especially in other allied industries. This is the reason why attrition is very high and people are not able to stick on to the industry for conspicuous reasons. This status should transmute. What needs to be done for turning it into a most lucrative industry for employment should be brainstormed and adequate steps could have initiated to transform the status.
2. Industry should be more open to apportion authentic life situations transpired or transpiring at the industry with budding professionals and faculty members. However, the Industry academia sodalities are much better pace in Europe and US wherein, the students and faculty are sanctioned to study analyse and emerge with solutions on those issues cognate to operational aspects of the Hotels with whom they are associated. Whereas, In India it is so woebegone that our hotels are not keen on such things and they are keeping it as their internal confidential property not for any academic cognate activities.
Editor: What do you expect the industry to do to support academics
6.1. I optate if the hospitality industry in India could actively take part in moulding the budding hospitality professionals by associating with the academic Institutions keeping in mind that the products emerging from the Institute should be at par with the industry prospects and to ascertain that their employability skills should be as per the expected standards and acceptable by providing them adequate inputs in terms of Erudition, adeptness and exposure during their academic period. What is transpiring at present is Each hotel group is investing a lot in terms of training and development of incipiently recruited candidates wherein, The Hotel management is not sure whether this candidate is going to stick on to their organisation or not. But such situations could be minimised by sanctioning the Hospitality Management Institutions to become culminating school for their requisites.
6.2. Train the trainer program could be organised by the industry for the academic faculty members of the Institutes. wherein, Industry could potentiate the faculty members with emerging trends, practices, themes, etc so that they can impart such erudition and adeptness to the students and thereby minimising the gap between what is learned and what is practiced.
6.3. Join hands with the Institute and sanction their faculty and student teams to do research on sundry bottle neck situations persisting in the day-to-day operations so that both will have a triumph -win situations.
