Rahool Kr Talwar - Consulting in Hospitality Sector - The New Growth Curve

Consulting in Hospitality Sector - The New Growth Curve

In the 80's and even 90s, the Hotel Industry in India did everything on their own. But since then, they have realised that they cannot be the sole treasure trove of knowledge. 

So, they started looking around and this is more so true in case of smaller hotels and restaurants. In came Consultants in all shapes, sizes and competencies. Some brought in the wealth of knowledge having worked for decades in the hospitality sector. 

Others were niche, having deep domain knowledge in Food and Beverage, Interiors, Housekeeping, Kitchen Design, Staff Training and so on.

Today, the Consulting industry has evolved and things are more professional and clients have understood that it's better to let an expert do the job.

Hospitality industry in the last two decades that I have personally witnessed has seen a sea change in terms of adaptation of technology and also in terms of improving their product portfolio. We have featured stories of a few Madcats in this issue of Catcalls who have evolved into the role of Consultants venturing out on their own.

We sat down with Rahool Kr Talwar, Executive Director, Rethink Hospitality Private Limited  of the batch of 2002-2005. Over the years, despite being ‘young’ by Industry standards, he has evolved, making a mark as a consultant guiding those who are looking to invest in the hospitality sector.

How has the industry evolved over the last two decades?

The hospitality industry in India is currently a $23 billion dollar Industry and it significantly contributes to the Country’s GDP. This is a fact that everybody knows and I am not throwing something new. 

But what's interesting to note is that the Food and Beverage sector in India is growing steadily at a CAGR of 14 % and this industry in the organized sector is about a $1.2 Billion Industry in specific and is slated to grow tremendously. In the last decade we all have witnessed a lot of international brands coming into India and a lot of homegrown brands steadily expanding their footprint in India. This has led to the improvement of supply chain and cold storage facilities, which we are all witnessing as hoteliers, as consumers and guests.

The industry has evolved in multiple ways, we have seen a lot of home grown brands moving in from the traditional mom and pop restaurants moving into the organised market segment in the last two decades. While we are seeing the capital cities expand their F&B portfolio we are seeing a spurt of activities in tier 2 & tier 3 cities. We in India, have a rich and vast culinary heritage so much so that, every 200 Kms you move in any direction you will find a new flavor,  that has vastly remained untapped or rather said not been commercially exploited to its true potential (in a good sense). While certain states are very good at marketing themselves and India Tourism has been doing a wonderful job with their Incredible India campaigns over the last couple of years 

In terms of evolution I see a lot of new age trends coming in with the ultra rich traveling the world over and wanting to start some concepts that they have seen while traveling abroad & having the capability to invest. 

At the same time a personal grouse I have and I say this with a fair amount of confidence as I travel extensively across the country during the course of my work. Most of the menu across the country has become Paneer Butter masala, Butter Chicken, Tandoori chicken and the standard 3 varieties of dal and tandoori roti. What we are subtly losing is our true culinary heritage. I am specifically talking about this as it has been quite systematic as it begins from home from an early age. Our traditional food is not being fed to children probably owing to factors such as convenience, ease of cooking, and well marketed products from the MNC’s. Working parents are another factor contributing to the same so when kids grow up, they all want western food.

While we are very good at adapting to an Indo Chinese, Indo Asian, Indo Italian & Indo American at least in the organized sector, we seem to be losing our rich culinary heritage, In a way i am grateful for the year of millets campaign which is now getting traction across the globe.

What kind of clients from the hospitality sector look for consultants?

It could be anybody, somebody who is starting up. My favourite CSR  activity is to counsel them against starting a new venture especially if they are not from the Hospitality background. But even after that, if they come back and are serious, we help them go around the maze of setting up a facility and its operations. It may also be an experienced hotelier who knows the importance of having a consultant on board so that his journey through the project and pre-opening is kind of smooth. There are clients who are dilly-dallying, as well and then there are a few who don't know why they want a consultant on board. They just want to be directing the consultant about what they perceive is right, while not using the true potential of the consultant.

Our clients vary from startups like someone who is trying to test a new concept - a testbed maybe a kiosk mode, to experienced hoteliers and restaurateurs, or to builders both for well-designed clubhouses to other amenities they offer to home buyers, to active senior citizen living homes, to central commissary or Central Production Units CPU’s, to ghost kitchens, to hospitals. One of the largest industries looking around for consultants today is the Workspace foodservice or cafeteria design industry. A lot of architectural firms in this space are looking for specialized food service design consultants who can cater to the requirements of the ever growing IT / ITES population which is one of the booming sectors in India. Currently, as well as with a lot of FDI flowing in, we see the manufacturing sector also going into the mode of pampering their workforce. 

It is also because earlier the offices were either small format or mid format but today there is an explosion of large format office spaces and companies are pampering their employees with all the facilities that they can offer. This is termed as employee experience and hence there is a requirement of a consultant to guide these companies in getting the right mix of what they would want to have to offer in their cafeterias. Companies very subtly want their employees to focus on work and not how to get to the office or worry about what to cook and carry.

We as consultants work around varied geographies, topologies, markets and segments. It would be rather prudent to say that an in-house expert's experience is limited to the regions that they operate in. While I am not denying the fact that there are exceptions and there are companies who are very focussed in terms of what they want but, how to get that delivered is where we come in with our expertise. 

When did you decide to become a consultant?

Ah!  That's a pretty good question! 

Let me give you a background, back in school I always wanted to become an aeronautical engineer. I always had a bent towards engineering in me right from early childhood. But I knew that I was very bad at mathematics and that if I were to do my aeronautical engineering and get into space and rocket science that’s the area  that I always get into. If I was to head a mission, it would definitely go into the Bay of Bengal. So I thought that let’s save the limited resources the country has, and that they could put it to use with better people (chuckles). I got a seat on merit in Hospitality at IHM Chennai and when I lo ok back I actually do not regret that decision taken back on that day. 

I had 3 options., Taking an Engineering seat, the second one was a seat in architecture. Unfortunately for me both these seats worked on capitation fees, and I did not want my parents to shell out and burn a hole in their pocket. So I decided to pursue B Sc Hotel & Hospitality Administration that I got at IHM Chennai, the Institute of my choice after clearing the JEE and a round of interview with 12 panel members, I thought I knew I was bidding adieu to mathematics, that’s something that I hated back then. But little did I know that 5 years down into hospitality, mathematics and numbers would be the base of all design my calculations. Be it an area in space planning or the meal loads in terms of kitchen production design and market research that we do for our clients. 

I was pretty young when I decided to take this step, I was just four years into the industry. It was getting mundane to an extent repeating the same things in multiple versions and honestly it wasn't exciting and was not making my gray matter tick. That’s  when I did decide to become a consultant, but I faced a lot of harsh criticism both from people that I knew, family friends, people in the industry including some veterans. People actually told me that you become a consultant when you have enough experience and that when you are heading to your retirement. But what I saw was something different. I saw that I am giving myself a good 10 years to learn, make mistakes, learn from those and never repeat them. That's what I did and got where I am today.

The fascinating bit of our core consulting is in hospitality and foodservice design and back (heart) of the house (BOH/HOH) planning, I would say its multifaceted and requires a combined knowledge of operations, engineering, architectural design, ergonomics & Aesthetics in terms of Interior design. That's what intrigued me to get into this space and I realized that there were very few players when I did a SWOT analysis 13 years back. I decided to get into this space and I told myself that I will grow like how a child does. You learn to first get on your back, then on your hands and feet and then learn to crawl around, then learn to stand, then walk and then you leap. You learn to run and looking back that's predominantly the path that I had taken. Looking back today while I write this, is an emotional moment.

There must have been the good, the bad and the ugly moments when it comes to dealing with clients. With / Without naming them, can you talk about your experiences? 

Well, I wouldn't deny, yes! There have been clients who have hired us, got the job done and did not pay us a single penny, back in my initial years of consulting. Thanks to them today we have solid documentation in place now!  

Another bad experience or I would rather put it as a learning experience, is that very early in life, life has thought not to do business with friends and family. In 3 instances, my college mates have taught me some valuable lessons for life which have been a learning experience and today I thank them because that is how we do business today.

I have many learning experiences as I would term them. This includes our clients calling us back again to give us work, without us having to reach out to them. There have been clients who have dissuaded our advice and later realized that we were good / right and they have become our forerunners in being our brand promoters.

For a IHM Student, what would be the ideal qualifications / expertise to acquire before they can offer their services to clients

Unfortunately facility planning as a subject is thought about in a very brushed off manner in the final year. The subject is actually very deep and you need to first think! Not just think, but think ahead of peers, visualize, you need to understand buildings, you need to think before what others can think as to what's going to be the future. You need to  conceptualize and need to  be able to do a visioning exercise. Not just for the product or service but the structures and  engineering around it. The architecture and ID elements around it, which comes with a bit of knowledge about the two subjects and field experience. 

While we have these subjects being taught to us in college, unfortunately our curriculum is way too outdated. We have a long way to go in terms of bringing it to today’s day and age in terms of technology adaptation and design thinking. 

Students need to learn additional skills which are not taught in college - like building design, operating software which help in design. I spent about one and half years learning AutoCAD, Revit and 3ds Max. Other than that, one most crucial skill one needs to have is basic common sense and problem solving ability which unfortunately is not so common!

They could also become student members of FSCAI for learning.

What is it that India can learn from consultants in other geographies?

Today, consultants in India, although a handful in number, have formed a society called the Foodservice Consultants Association of India, FSCAI. I happen to hold the position of the treasurer, the first elected treasurer of the association by the members of the association. We have a few consultants who do foodservice design consulting, across geographies. I am proud to say that now consultants from India, design for the world.

When compared to the consultants from other geographies, there is also an active international body of consultants - The Foodservice Consultants Society International. FCSI which has various chapters across the globe and define food service standards globally and work with OEM’s, specifically for the foodservice Industry. 

What we learn from them is that their agility and that their adaptation of technology is much faster than ours. Their deliverables are very clearly defined, very specific in what they offer, not that we don't define them clearly here in India. But it has a more professional approach, what works in their favor are the legally binding clauses. Contracts abroad are enforceable and we all know that unfortunately it's not so in India - once you go to a court in India we all know the story! 

Food codes are very clearly defined abroad, which again is there in India but, it's very ambiguous and can be interpreted in multiple ways to suit one's need. We need a collective effort, we need to join hands and improve it. 

As an entrepreneur, what's been your biggest support system?

Yes there has been a phenomenal learning as an entrepreneur, something that I am sure I would not have learnt if I continued in a job. When you don't have your pockets full of money and when you are clear that you don't want to raise capital from external sources, you bootstrap with the limited resources that you have. That's what I did, right from setting up a proprietorship firm “The Hotel & Restaurant Facility Planner” (THRFP)  back in 2009 and then finally a private limited company - “Rethink Hospitality Private Limited” (RTHPL) in 2019. Looking back, the journey has been beautiful of course with lots of ups and downs. The one support system that I would always give due credit to is my parents Keshor and Anuradha Talwar, my younger brother Agam and my beautiful wife Tejal and her family - all of whom stood behind me rock solid all through my journey as an entrepreneur.

Other than this, I would love to give the credit to a few other people through my journey my college friends Ashok Udupa, Taranjeet Singh Madan, Praveen(Khader) my other batchmates, To my team especially Sajan CK, George and Sumeet, who take care of the business with me. My mentor right from my early days of consulting, Chef Andavan Kadir. Another integral part of my life is my extended family - the Core Committee of the IHM Chennai Alumni group that I refer to fondly. Nimi Kadir, Chef Rubinath, MB Venkatesh, Aparna, Chef Rubinath, Radhika, Bipin Kumar, Sajan, Kanchana Rajagopalan, Rajesh Gopalakrishnan and Manoj Kumar who have collectively always been holding my back, keeping my sanity in check, A good friend, Dr. Rupali Bahri, who supported me when I suffered tremendous business losses in 2014. She was the one person motivating me and letting me know it's not the end of the world and there is more to life. 

Back in 2018 I got an opportunity to work with Ignatius John and Venu Rao on certain projects.

To all our clients who have put their trust in us over the years and enabled us to deliver what we had promised to them and to FSCAI.

Last but not the least my teachers in school and professors in college especially Chef Thimmaya who taught me fundamentals of facility planning, Mrs. Parimala Ranjith with whom I have the distinction of being her student and then colleague, Chef Greta Samuel, Mrs. Gita, Mrs Vanaja, Mr. KS Nagarajan, Mr. Victor, Mr. KS Sabapathy  Chef Roberts, Mr. Washim, Mr. Anil Goyal, Mr. Tapo Vijaykar, Mr. Thirulogachander, Mr. Elangovan, Chef Anantakrishnan,  Chef Mathew, Chef Perumal, Mr. Michael Santhosh, Mr. Ravi, Mr. Eugene, Mr. Jitendra Das, Chef Sentil, Mrs. Sharmila, not to forget our lab/kitchen attenders Raja Anna, Munaswamy Anna, Karna Anna, Annamalai Anna. 

My bunchum buddies from school days, Mr. Kunal Malhotra, Mr Harjeev Singh Sabherwal, Mr. Ashwin Vishwanath and Mr. Raghavandran.

My first GM Mr. Prabhat Verma, My trainer Mr. Amar Rao & Ms Chaya D, My Duty Managers Mr. Ritesh Sharma, Mr. Jishnu Unni, Mr. Rakesh Parameshwaran, Ms. Shobna, Mr. Ashish Loach, Ms. Sandhya other colleagues Ms. Sushmita, Ms. Sudesh, Ms. Deepa, Mr. Harjeet, Mr. Ramesh, Mr. Vijay, Ms. Keerthana, Ms. Keerthana P, Mr. Manu Shankar, Ms. Reshma Mr. Febin, Mr back in my days at Taj 

To Mr. Cicil Wilson, Mr. Natraj, Mr. Ashwin, Mr. Rajesh Mani, Mr. Prem Hari. Mr. Sathish, Mr. Sailesh, Mr. Aditya, my bosses in Amex and my colleagues Dinil, Ashwin, Akash, Manish, Kaushik, Sonia, Pooja, Sindhu, Preeti, Mitesh.  

In short these people have been my biggest guidance and support system!

Rahool Kr Talwar, Class of 2005

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