“Be approachable,be a good team player, It will take you a long way.”

— Saikumar Baddi

Editor: Tell us about your journey. How did it all start?

It all started when I was 23 years of age and my interest in hospitality was caught when I saw a few professionals walking in their suits coming out of a five-star hotel in Hyderabad, India. My parents wanted me to become a medical professional and I decided to join Hotel Management. After completion of my hotel management in India, I came to know that this profession is not a cakewalk after my hectic internships for long hours, long days, hard work, and late nights. We were just treated as banquet casual workers and all we did was polish and cut onions and peel potatoes. However, after my college, I joined the Taj Group of Hotels as Asst Waiter and my journey started then. After five long years with Taj, I moved to the Sheraton group as a Restaurant Captain and served them for 18 months. After that, I decided to move to Dubai for further studies and joined a Hospitality education program and simultaneously I started working for the Jumeirah International group.

I worked for their flagship hotels Burj Al Arab and Jumeirah Beach hotels and moved up the rank to Head Waiter at the finest Restaurants in their properties. After 2 years accidentally I was looking after a group from Britain who came to recruit Chefs in Dubai and they were dining at my restaurant. They handed me over their business card and asked me whether I would consider working for British ships looking after British Clientele. Then my life navigated towards the sea and I got selected and went to London for training and then posted on their flagship Queen Elizabeth 2 as fine dining waiter. I opened their two ships Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria from the shipyards and established the administrations and operations as Maitre d Hotel. In 2008 I received an offer from The World www.aboardtheworld.com as Maitre d Hotel.

The World is a one-of-a-kind hospitality operation with cutting-edge services for the high net worth individuals who are addressed as Residents. It is a private mega-yacht with 167 private, lavish, and modern Residences where the billionaires around the world call this magnificent vessel their home. The services onboard are highly personalized, ultra-luxury, modern, and attentive. The World circumnavigates the planet continuously and we do not have home ports we explore to remote destinations on this planet including expeditions to the Antarctic, Arctic, North West, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, North East, Polynesian islands, and Ross sea expeditions. I am now leading the F&B team as Director of Food & Beverages managing a team of the finest professionals on this planet. I am with the establishment for 13 years now and I enjoy what I do and my passion is for hospitality services and F&B. I consider myself very lucky to be here because only very few can make it to this destination. I handle the operations, administrations, recruitments, finances, and Logistics with a team of passionate leaders in my team.

Editor: What do you think it takes to succeed in this industry?

Passion, Talented, Creative, Be sophisticated, Learn every day, Positive attitude, Establish a goal, have a vision, Focus, Customer service driven, hard work, ambitious, think out of the box, learn modern techniques, work for the finest establishments where you are valued and respected. Nothing comes in a silver platter you have to work hard and prove yourself that you are the best among others. Education and certification is not everything, learning every day even from a dishwasher, learning from mistakes, failures are key lessons in life and they will lead you towards success, respect every individual, be approachable, kill your ego, visibility in the operations, audit your services and be a good team player, will take you a long way.

Editor: What advice would you give to a young, aspiring hotelier for their internship?

Work hard, Be passionate, Love what you do, Enjoy every day at work, learn to serve with heart, Set realistic goals, start from the beginning, good attitude, have excellent communicational skills, Learn and Learn every day.

Editor: What are some of the trends you see impacting the hospitality industry?

Modern Gastronomy “ Molecular”, Competitive environment, Short cuts or curtailing services to make profits, Mindsets of new generation professionals, Lack of passion, New Generation who do not want to work hard rather want to become Managers in a short time, lack of experience,

Editor: Two things you would like to change in the industry.

Bureaucracy in Indian politics, Laying proper procedures to red carpet policies for Cruise ships and Yachts tourism to promote Marina across our shorelines and Promote tourism in India aggressively we have a lot of potential including the cruise industry which is billions of dollars revenue and employment directly and indirectly.

Editor: What is your favorite interview question and why?

“Where do you see yourself in the next five years?”

I love this question because I can understand the candidate's behavior whether he is passionate or not, focused on personal goals or not, ambitious or not, whether he is an achiever or he sees himself leading the team in the future. Then I would ask the next questions about what plans he has drafted to achieve these personal goals because a goal without a plan will just be a dream.

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