Towards a sustainable future

A strong culture and corporate values lay the foundation for leadership excellence which must be sustained through collaborations and continued success, said Puneet Chhatwal, MD, The Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL), at a session titled ‘Look beyond yourself’ at the Kochi Institute.

Work with “simple, minimalistic goals in mind, so that we can focus on restructuring our branding, priorities and portfolios without hurdles. Let’s have a growth mindset that is fostered through alliances and partnership for synergising operations.” While IHCL is the first hospitality firm in India to cross $1 trillion in market capitalisation, it did have a rollercoaster ride till 2017.

As one of the oldest and pioneering companies in the Tata group, set up by its founder Jamsetji Tata in 1868, IHCL was known as ‘the jewel of the Tata group’ till 2017. “The global financial crisis (2007–08) and the 26/11 terror attack at the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai made the cash-rich company underperform on growth metrics,” he explained. But they took the challenges head on, ‘daring to be bold and different,’ as they adapted to be nimble and fragile to overcome the adversity, post the terror attack.

Against 142 hotels in 2017, today they have 232 operations across the world, all done through partnerships and alliances.

Thanks to its consistency and service, “we have been rated as one of the most valuable hotel brands in the world by global studies.” For a proud legacy company with over 150 years of heritage, Chhatwal said, “we still value the statement of our founder: For any enterprise, community is not just another stakeholder in business, but is the very purpose of its existence.”

Earlier, PRID P T Prabhakar recalled how a small entrepreneur Harakchand Savla began to distribute food packets to a few cancer patients at the Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, over 40 years ago. “Now thanks to his efforts, many corporates have pooled in money and resources to provide food to over 1,000 patients a day,” he said. Despite limited resources, Savla’s leadership vision earned him goodwill and success in his mission, he said.

Climate resilience

Speaking on the topic ‘Resilience in a changing world,’ Shloka Nath, founder-CEO, India Climate Collaborative (ICC), pointed to the looming dangers of the climate crisis that has already wreaked havoc on vulnerable communities in the world. “Many species disappear, floods and droughts, a result of climate change, affect millions of families who don’t know how to cope with the extreme weather,” she said.

It is also a crisis of social and economic equity, as women, children, farmers and low-income families bear the brunt of climate crisis. “They don’t have access to clean energy, food and good education.” Mankind has a huge opportunity to adapt, innovate and thrive in the face of this extreme adversity, she said, and added “nature-based solutions are cost-effective and efficient in tackling climate crisis.”

With the Indian farmers being hit by erratic rainfall and crop losses, “half of their population can be diverted and trained for green jobs as 70 per cent of the country’s GDP will come from urban areas which are vulnerable to extreme weather changes,” she explained.

Secondly, we have to embed climate resilience in key economic sectors with focus on “local solutions and innovations to drive real, sustainable change.” Climate crisis is testing the best of humanity, and “we must relook at how we consume, eat, travel and build, to heal our planet to make it more resilient against extreme changes to the environment. For lasting climate solutions, “we need to work together with our allies across borders in harmony with nature and communities,” she said.

Welcoming Shloka, RI Director Raju Subramanian said though Rotary has introduced environment as the seventh area of focus, “this move has come a bit late as the emission of greenhouse gases is leading to destruction of our habitats.” He cited the case of Bengaluru where the collusion between builders and officials had led to largescale felling of trees, and disappearance of hundreds of lakes. “The ecological disaster waiting to happen will be much larger than a nuclear explosion,” he warned. He conferred Pride of India Award to Shloka.

Pictures by V Muthukumaran