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A cavalier at heart

With a mantra that reads 'Winning Through Action', Zubin Karkaria has indeed carved out a distinct pathway of unparalleled success. The unfailing secret of success, many would say, is to do everything that anyone can possibly expect of you. And then, having done that, to deliberately take that one giant magnificent step beyond. It is this very simple philosophy of life that best describes his tenacity and vivacity, discovers Savio Rodrigues.

Zubin Karkaria CEO & Managing Director, KUONI India & South Asia

Zubin armed himself with academics to give himself the cutting edge in his journey towards achieving his key success objectives in life. With a graduate degree in business management from the Welinkars Business Management Institute, Mumbai, he went on to complete the Executive Management programme from Stanford University and the Graduate School of Business of the National University of Singapore.

Having started his career in 1989, he then moved on to join the Kuoni Group in 1991. From a humble beginning as a sales executive for trade fairs, Zubin rapidly moved across different strategic business units within the Kuoni Group to currently head the Kuoni India and South Asia arm as its CEO and Managing Director.

Zubin has been universally recognised and acknowledged for his continuous innovations and customer focused strategies. These have won him several sterling accolades including the 'Young Entrepreneur of the Year' Award at the 11th South Asia Travel and Tourism Exchange (SATTE). At the bright young age of 36, he was also listed in the 'Corporate India's Top 25 Young Executives' by Business Today.

With a vision to creating the best travel company in the world that focuses on providing all travel and travel-related services to travellers to, from and within India, Zubin has strived to achieve this with a key focus on customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and profit - which he asserts is the result, and in many ways the success of the first two.

"Obviously, strategising, analysis and planning will be the key, but at the end of the day, you win by going out there and taking strong, decisive action," exerts Zubin. It clearly explains the traits behind which he has an unbeaten track record of success after success in everything he has done. The important factors contributing to his ongoing success, many within the industry say, has been his foresight in identifying and developing new market segments and his ability to continuously anticipate market needs well in advance and engineer innovations to match or exceed these needs.

The travel and tourism industry India today, he asserts, is metamorphosing at a quick pace, thus opening doors to multitudinous opportunities for companies, professionals and even young entrants who have not yet firmed up plans on which career path to tread. "The burgeoning of hotels across the country both from the Indian and internationally renowned stables, the growth of the aviation sector owing to various liberalisation stances that the governments have undertaken, such as the open sky policies and the increase in foreign investments within the travel and tourism sector, are some of the key factors that are catapulting the travel and tourism sector in India," says Karkaria.

Elucidating on the ripple effect caused by the upward swing of the tourism industry, Zubin opines that today more and more college graduates and people looking out for a challenging career are keenly searching for avenues to pursue in either the hospitality or travel and tourism industry. And why not, being a service industry, the opportunity offered to that cutting edge aspirant is manifold, whether it's a chance to meet people on a personal basis from different countries, cultures and traditions, or the opportunity to travel to different places around the world. "It was this very factor of being able to travel to various parts of the world and meet different people that got me excited to pursue a career in the travel industry. Also, this industry witnessed a phase of unparalleled dynamism, progress and evolution in the past decade. This dynamic environment offered me a platform to learn, grow and execute innovative ideas and strategies. These are the very same elements that still drive me today in my pursuit and vision," says Karkaria.

More so, today the remuneration that is offered to the deserving candidate is far more lucrative than one could have imagined ten years ago - this is mainly due to the fact that the demand for the hospitality and travel related jobs are high but supply is low today. However, that might not necessarily be the case a couple of years from now. Therefore if an aspirant is keen to make a career in this industry, there has never been a better time than now. Also one needs to take a note of the diverse jobs that the growth of this industry has opened, which is offering opportunities to non-hospitality or travel educated professionals to move into the industry.

"But, while from the outside, the job might look glamorous and effortless, the key to the success of any individual in his industry is that he must be a people's person, someone who is extroverted and who genuinely believes that the customer is paramount," he forewarns.

For those aspirants who believe that they have the energy to perform, the desire to be different and the endurance to run the race till the end, his message to them is simple, "Be positive, the future of the travel and tourism industry is in your hands. Stay focused on your job, your customers and the people that keep you in the business of travel like your suppliers and industry partners. This is the industry of the future."