Venkateshwara Reddy - “Because you cannot do it” So, I did it
“Because you cannot do it” So, I did it
S. Venkateshwara Reddy, Class of 1983
The start of my journey…
I started like all of you, a MADCAT of the 1983 batch. Fooled around in the three years at college, did my training, and got into the Management Trainee program at Centaur Hotel Bombay.
I was forced to stay in a rundown place, living there itself was hell. Going from there to my Hotel on a Bombay local train was something that I still cannot forget. Experiences like these are needed for one to understand life. I was lucky that I was one of the few people whose purse was not stolen on the crowded trains.
I was in a hotel where we were sent to all the departments to work as low-level workers for the first year. I was from the south and did not understand Marathi so I was forced to do very hard mundane work. I was posted in departments like Stores, Airport lounges, Telephones (yes there were telephone operators handling crazy mini telephone exchanges in the back-office area), Food costing department, Housekeeping, Coffee shop, Room Service, and finally in the Front Office and Banquets. This in a way actually helped me in becoming who I am today.
Life as a Management Trainee was more than tough as we usually worked more than ten to twelve hours and on weekends it was a mandatory double shift. Working all the time and not having time to eat did play havoc on my health, but we just had to keep going. Ulcers were there and eating anything hurt - finally, milkshakes and curd rice were all that I could have. I was lucky that my mom was a doctor and I got advice from her and the medication helped. My advice to all our Madcats is that Health is everything. Nothing can be more important. Do take your breaks, eat and sleep regularly.
I was back from Bombay, broken inside, because I had lost someone very dear, but I did not want anyone to know about it, I hid behind work and avoided a lot of people. I said that I was going to become a consultant. I was told by almost everyone that I was too young and hardly knew anything about the business. “How can you start something that no one has done so far and you will fail?” That motivated me and I worked hard and created a name for myself and I became a Hotel Consultant, silently.
Many people don’t know what I do but those who do vouch for me. I now refuse to take up on an average two big projects every month, because I know that I cannot do it. I don’t want to do them because I don’t have the time and not because of anything else. I now do ten projects at a time and I refuse any that come beyond this.
Value of Time
This is something that I learned at Bombay, a city that is always on the move. We don’t understand that time is a very precious part of our life. I was taught about this by a businessman who became my Godfather in Mumbai. We became very close and did business in buying and selling imported cars and bikes. Every time we lost a deal because we went late to buy a car, he used to say “Beta wakt hamare liye ruktha nehi, bada aadmi woh ban jata hai jo theek samay per teek jagh par hota hai.” (Son, time doesn’t wait for us, we become big people only if we are there at the right time, at the right place). I remember this even today, after almost 40 years since he made me understand it. A lesson for each and every one of us.
Information is money
I learnt this very early in life. I used to work with a Restaurant chain during my early days as a consultant. I realised that the information I got from my vendors, who were also vendors of my competitors about my competitors was priceless. This helped me in changing my menus and pricing.
Learning to listen is far more important than talking, being a silent and knowledgeable person helps one in taking bigger and better decisions.
I have never taken up a project without having information about the owners or the location. Projects taken up by many consultants fail because they have not taken the time to understand what and with whom they are going to do business.
Information about the owners, the place of business, and the people who are going to work there is more important than the money we are going to make doing that business. Our reputation is all about doing a successful project and making sure that it stays that way even after we leave.
Knowledge is Priceless
I started a Consultancy, now known as Venus Consultants, named after the God of love ‘Venus’. We really love what we do. It was early 1988 and I was 26 years old and had got back from Bombay. The knowledge I gained from working as a Management Trainee was immense. I was possibly one of the two consultants at that time, and many did not take me seriously as I still looked very young, and they assumed that a young person would not be able to do much.
Many of my clients were at first in doubt if I could deliver. It was my work and the knowledge that I put forward, that made them vouch for me, even to date. I started learning many important aspects of business that are not taught to date in our college.
Learning to ask others was something that I still do, I try to learn the new products and technologies that may help us in our industry. I was probably the first consultant to enable a non-star hotel to have computers in all the departments in 1992 itself. This was at a hotel in Salem, a small town at that time.
Learning to do blueprints like an architect was important. I had to do a course to learn how to do architectural drawings, understand and do drawing to scale even before the AutoCAD software came into existence. When it did, I took a course in doing AutoCAD drawings. This one software still helps me work with architects who send me drawings from all over the world. I am able to correct them and advise them on the changes required for the service areas. I now sport a name as a good shadow architect even for many Indian architects.
Understanding architects and making them understand the actual requirements needed for the project is tough, but essential. Working with MEP consultants, fire-fighting consultants, interior designers, Carpenters, Electrical contractors, Demolition experts, Plumbers, Painters, other vendors and contractors has made me understand how little we know and how much more there is to learn. Knowledge is something that makes one better than our competition.
Today, knowing about a subject is easy thanks to the internet, but knowledge without knowing where to use it, is useless. I know many clients who get their knowledge from the internet but don’t know how to use it and they actually mess up their projects and finally come to me for help. Understanding how much can be done is more important than what and all that can be done. Knowledge with experience is what a good consultant brings to the project. He or She should know when to say ‘No and Enough’ and put a stop to unnecessary expenses.
Learning Man Management
We are all taught many things in College, but this is something that we need to learn if we need to be successful. I was fortunate in learning this aspect because I worked in a workshop for imported bikes and learnt the importance of labor. I learnt this again in Bombay as a Management Trainee. Workers are ones who do the actual work and they just like us, keep hoping for a better life and better position or better recognition for the work done.
Having a great team makes you a great person. This is something that I always tell my managers. I have the best because I decided to teach them everything that I know, and I really want them to learn and leave for a better position or job. Many have left but are still connected to me and say proudly that they are Venus Staff.
When we think of even the dishwasher as an important person in our organization then that Hotel can never fail. I have always spent more time with the workers than the owners of the projects, that I work with. I always get information and knowledge from all of these workers. I help them overcome their fears and make them confident, which always gets the due recognition.
Humans can get depressed very easily; I try to make those who are depressed to understand that they are because they chose to be so. So many of my staff have changed their attitude and are now in a much better position because they now understand their strength. Being very patient with them has got me the very best team. No one is good or bad and situations make them who they are.
Man Management is all about first understanding yourself, why are managing and why are working. If people were given the same chances that we got will they be better than us? Yes, some may, but most of them will not. I understood this when one owner said ‘A donkey can never become a horse it thinks it can, but it never will become one.’
I did try a lot to make a Donkey into a Horse, but I have not succeeded. Not because I did not give it everything but because they did not have the attitude. I have however made many people understand that they are Horses doing the work of a Donkey and these people have galloped away as Horses and are doing so very well in their lives.
Projects Choices
I was back from Bombay after living there for nearly five years and jumped right into Consultancy.
My first so-called Project was a small fast-food place called Montey’s on Monteith Road, diagonally opposite Hotel Ambassador. I built a Tandoori pot and set up a grill. I did very well and soon a lot of people came there for the food, but I had to shut it down when the owner wanted the space. I moved on to do outdoor catering. I got the very first drum Tandoor made for outdoor catering and took it in my jeep to do on-the-spot tandoori chicken tikkas and malai kebabs in many farms and by the beach near Mahabalipuram, now the ECR road. My product cost was not cheap, I used to charge as much or more than a five-star hotel. I was busy every weekend doing outdoor catering, when it did not exist.
I got my first break as a Consultant in Salem. I decided to start with three of my seniors and I ended up staying at the project for a lot of time as I was still unmarried. I put my Bombay knowledge to work and realized that everything that I knew was not required. Running the hotel taught me how to spot a fraud that was going on and how to fire people who did it. I was learning the ‘Hire and Fire’ part of the business.
I also learned that being there for your staff was important. When we teach them everything that was needed for them to become better, we become important in their lives. Almost all the people who have been trained by me at this project are now in good positions and always say that they are ‘Venus staff’ even now. A happy feeling, that we at Venus did something right. We still do keep in touch and most of them stand behind me like a rock when I need staff or information from them.
The next one was also a challenging one, a project that was under construction at Coimbatore. This project made me understand owners who want everything, but don’t know how to do it. This is the project that forced me to learn how to do blueprints to scale. I was forced to go learn this, as the owners did everything their way and most of it was not right. I ended up doing more architectural drawing and I slowly began to work as a project manager, learning everything about construction. I was now being called ‘engineer sir’ much to my amusement.
I truly should thank them because of whom I acquired so much knowledge in construction. Today. I am able to sit with senior architects and point out the mistakes in their drawings. A new business as a shadow architect began and I still do work for many architects from abroad and India, who trust me and send me their drawings for reviews.
After this project, I was on my own and decided to start taking up projects. I have never advertised till date, all my clients were introduced to me by some old client of mine or by the architects who I had worked with or by some vendors who had benefited because I taught them how to improve their product offerings. Word of mouth is the very best form of advertisement. Many of my clients were happy to recommend my services.
I took up projects only if I knew that the owners would listen to me. I did not take up projects to make money. I did them to teach the owners what I knew and learn what I did not. This process continues to this day, learning is now more important, knowing what they did wrong is now very important.
We don’t talk about how much money we make, we talk about how many jobs we created this year. I believe about the need to spread the knowledge that we have to others. Today, I can say proudly we create 300 new jobs every year. Our plan is to create scale that number to 500 every year, and that may sound very ambitious - but we keep trying.
New tech, New ideas, New ways of doing the old work…
I did a lot of work and I had a difference of opinion with many architects and interior designers who never understood the work that has to be done in a hotel. Many did not even understand the spaces required for the various departments. For them, Hotels were just rooms.
New Technology does help in many ways, and we need to upgrade. A lot of people are scared to change and if we don’t, we will be left behind. Technology comes in handy when new products are launched.
Going to exhibitions around the world was something that I never missed. Going to China to buy material for projects was done by way before many began talking about importing from China. Getting materials from around the globe was an important factor in lowering the cost of a project.
You too can become one. There's a bright future for us Madcats if we are willing to walk the extra mile, doing better projects and teaching so many who have no opportunity and to do what we can to help.
I do understand that many of you are in good positions but that should not stop you from helping others to become as good as us and even better than us. Knowledge is something that is useful if it is shared, money should be a byproduct of this process and not the primary object of our existence.
I do hope many of you become Consultants and thrive because so much to be done if knowledgeable people like you help the Architects, Hotel promoters and Hotel operators. This field requires hundreds of us, but as of now there are very few in this business.
Very long, but very interesting article. I enjoyed it. We have so much in common. 😊
ReplyDeleteRizwaan Ansari, '86