taj brand architecture

1. Bickson rebuilds Taj brand architecture
TNN May 1, 2010, 06.58am IST
MUMBAI: He preferred rustling up delicacies to sweating it out in his father's workshop.
From being an apprentice chef at the Berlin Hilton to heading Asia's largest hospitality chain,
Taj, the Hawaiian-born Raymond Bickson has come a long way.
Now in his eighth year with the 106-year-old hotel chain, the polyglot Bickson has been kept
busy with the chain setting up a new hotel every seven weeks over the last couple of years.
Around 48 hotels in India and abroad are at various stages of development. Just prior to
meeting The Times of India on a sultry afternoon, the 55-year-old Taj chief was fine-tuning
the details for a Gateway property at Bekel in southern India. Dressed in a black suit and a
yellow tie, he apologised profusely for the delay but more than made up for it during the over
two-and-a-half hour session, where he discussed various aspects relating to corporate strategy
to HR issues.
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"Taj is the oldest surviving company in the Tata group. It was close to the heart of founder
Jamsetji Tata and that is also the case with present chairman Ratan Tata. Taj is one of the
most visible brands; it is about luxury and the business is all about touch and feel," says
Bickson. However, historically, the chain's focus has been on adding rooms and Brand Taj
was present across categories — from luxury, business to four-star properties. This is
precisely why Bickson has put in place the brand architecture for the chain, which was in the
works for five years.
In the new format, the chain will have four brands — Taj, Vivanta, Gateway and Ginger.
While the Taj name will be exclusive to five-star luxury properties, Vivanta will sit pretty on
its upscale portfolio. Gateway will adorn four-star upscale properties and Ginger will
comprise no-frills hotels. To dispel the confusion among guests on what Taj stands for, the
chain has designed the brand architecture on the lines of international chains like
InterContinental, Hyatt and Starwood. "Since every hotel, irrespective of its size, had a Taj
tag, it was a major challenge for us to differentiate the product in terms of quality and service
standards," said Bickson, sipping his tea.
He adds that some of its properties, for instance, The Pierre in New York, would stay the
same, as it is an icon. "However, properties that don't fit with the brand architecture will
either be sold or management contracts will be snapped."
Bickson wants to propel the Taj into the top 15 Ivy League hotel chains in the world. In terms
of number of rooms, the big daddy in the hotel industry is the NYSE- listed InterContinental.

2. When he took charge, Taj was ranked at 130 and right now, it is among the top 50. And the
going only gets tougher from here. So the top 15 may look like a distant dream now, it's not
an impossible one, as an acquisition of a hotel chain would make it move up on the list. Till
date, Taj has been purchasing standalone properties and its endeavour to buy Orient Express
Hotels (OEH) hangs in balance. Taj said that it has started to look beyond OEH and is on a
prowl for a hotel chain.
In fact, Bickson himself was an acquisition for Taj. In the early 2000s, when Taj was looking
to buy the Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan, Indian Hotels Company (owner of the Taj chain)
chairman Ratan Tata and the then MD RK Krishna Kumar were guests at the Mark hotel,
where Bickson was the general manager. Their conversations often veered towards Carlyle,
which was a stone's throw from the Mark. "They were guests at the hotel and they kept
asking questions about Carlyle," says Bickson. And during one of those chats, the Tata top
brass offered Bickson the job. Even though the Carlyle deal fell through, Taj managed to get
Bickson. In fact, his checking into the Taj surprised many, as he was the first outsider and
expatriate to head a Tata group company.
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While Bickson had been to India before thrice as a tourist, he was happy to join the Taj as it
provided him with an opportunity to run multiple hotels. In addition, India's economy was
also booming at that time. He had no qualms in making Mumbai his second home as he had a
multi-cultural upbringing. Also, during the course of his career, he had worked in different
countries across the world.
When he became a part of the Taj group, the chain managed some 62 properties with 8,000
rooms. It now has 95 properties with 11,000 rooms. On Bickson's menu are plans for Taj to
operate 193 hotels with 23,000 rooms and achieve a turnover of $2 billion, with one-third of
it coming in from international operations by 2014.
Bickson rebuilds Taj brand architecture
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The author has posted comments on this articleReeba Zachariah, TNN | May 1, 2010,
06.58AM IST
MUMBAI: He preferred rustling up delicacies to sweating it out in his father's workshop.
From being an apprentice chef at the Berlin Hilton to heading Asia's largest hospitality chain,
Taj, the Hawaiian-born Raymond Bickson has come a long way.
Now in his eighth year with the 106-year-old hotel chain, the polyglot Bickson has been kept
busy with the chain setting up a new hotel every seven weeks over the last couple of years.
Around 48 hotels in India and abroad are at various stages of development. Just prior to
meeting The Times of India on a sultry afternoon, the 55-year-old Taj chief was fine-tuning
the details for a Gateway property at Bekel in southern India. Dressed in a black suit and a
yellow tie, he apologised profusely for the delay but more than made up for it during the over
two-and-a-half hour session, where he discussed various aspects relating to corporate strategy
to HR issues.
"Taj is the oldest surviving company in the Tata group. It was close to the heart of founder
Jamsetji Tata and that is also the case with present chairman Ratan Tata. Taj is one of the
most visible brands; it is about luxury and the business is all about touch and feel," says
Bickson. However, historically, the chain's focus has been on adding rooms and Brand Taj
was present across categories - from luxury, business to four-star properties. This is precisely
why Bickson has put in place the brand architecture for the chain, which was in the works for
five years.
In the new format, the chain will have four brands - Taj, Vivanta, Gateway and Ginger. While
the Taj name will be exclusive to five-star luxury properties, Vivanta will sit pretty on its
upscale portfolio. Gateway will adorn four-star upscale properties and Ginger will comprise
no-frills hotels. To dispel the confusion among guests on what Taj stands for, the chain has
designed the brand architecture on the lines of international chains like InterContinental,
Hyatt and Starwood. "Since every hotel, irrespective of its size, had a Taj tag, it was a major
challenge for us to differentiate the product in terms of quality and service standards," said
Bickson, sipping his tea.
He adds that some of its properties, for instance, The Pierre in New York, would stay the
same, as it is an icon. "However, properties that don't fit with the brand architecture will
either be sold or management contracts will be snapped."
Bickson wants to propel the Taj into the top 15 Ivy League hotel chains in the world. In terms
of number of rooms, the big daddy in the hotel industry is the NYSE- listed InterContinental.
When he took charge, Taj was ranked at 130 and right now, it is among the top 50. And the
going only gets tougher from here. So the top 15 may look like a distant dream now, it's not
an impossible one, as an acquisition of a hotel chain would make it move up on the list. Till

4. date, Taj has been purchasing standalone properties and its endeavour to buy Orient Express
Hotels (OEH) hangs in balance. Taj said that it has started to look beyond OEH and is on a
prowl for a hotel chain.
In fact, Bickson himself was an acquisition for Taj. In the early 2000s, when Taj was looking
to buy the Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan, Indian Hotels Company (owner of the Taj chain)
chairman Ratan Tata and the then MD RK Krishna Kumar were guests at the Mark hotel,
where Bickson was the general manager. Their conversations often veered towards Carlyle,
which was a stone's throw from the Mark. "They were guests at the hotel and they kept
asking questions about Carlyle," says Bickson. And during one of those chats, the Tata top
brass offered Bickson the job. Even though the Carlyle deal fell through, Taj managed to get
Bickson. In fact, his checking into the Taj surprised many, as he was the first outsider and
expatriate to head a Tata group company.
While Bickson had been to India before thrice as a tourist, he was happy to join the Taj as it
provided him with an opportunity to run multiple hotels. In addition, India's economy was
also booming at that time. He had no qualms in making Mumbai his second home as he had a
multi-cultural upbringing. Also, during the course of his career, he had worked in different
countries across the world.
When he became a part of the Taj group, the chain managed some 62 properties with 8,000
rooms. It now has 95 properties with 11,000 rooms. On Bickson's menu are plans for Taj to
operate 193 hotels with 23,000 rooms and achieve a turnover of $2 billion, with one-third of
it coming in from international operations by 2014.
With the chain adding new properties and to meet the growing demand, it plans to add
another 15,000 employees on its payroll. The staff strength at Taj currently is approximately
20,000 as against 7,540 when Bickson became MD. For the first time this year, Taj won the
internationally recognised Gallup Great Workplace Award 2010. However, with some 37
more international brands planning to enter the country, retaining talent is a major challenge
on Bickson's plate.
"The hospitality sector has been a poaching ground for IT, airline and credit card companies,"
he says. To counter this, Bickson has put in place a strategy: "We have increased our overall
engagement with employees. Younger talent, especially, is being encouraged to play a bigger
role in the company. Now, we have 689 first-time general managers and 240 departmental
heads." Having spent more than three-and-a-half decades in the hotel industry, Bickson is the
quintessential hotelier with a smile always hovering on his lips. Hailing from a family which
ran car rentals and travel business, it was almost inevitable that he would take an interest the
hospitality. Though Bickson, the eldest of four siblings, assisted his dad in the car rentals
business for a while, he wanted more out of life. "It wasn't sexy washing, oiling or selling
cars."
02 February 2010
By Patrick Mayock
News Editor-International

5. patrick@hotelnewsnow.com
MUMBAI—2009 was a year that Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces would just as soon
forget. The tumultuous 12-month span began with the wounds of the November 2008
Taj Mahal Palace & Tower terrorist bombings still fresh, and continued to trudge along
amid one of the worst downturns in the global industry’s history.
But with a new year comes new optimism, and the
Mumbai-based hotel company—comprised of the
Indian Hotels Company Limited and its
subsidiaries—is rolling on with development while
incorporating a new brand architecture designed to
strengthen its existing portfolio of more than 75
hotels throughout the world.
“The Taj has undertaken a brand architecture
exercise, whereby brand guidelines have been
clarified,” said Ajoy Misra, senior VP of sales and
marketing.
The Vivanta by Taj, Whitefield
Bangalore The existing collection of properties is composed of
six different brands ranging from high-end to value segments. Under the new
architecture, there will be a more-focused offering of four:
Taj Luxury Hotels: luxury-tier properties that boast a credo of “redefining
tradition;”
Vivanta by Taj: the more stylish, design-focused boutique collection;
The Gateway Hotel: full-service upscale and midscale hotels that serve business
and leisure travelers; and
Ginger: Taj’s economy brand.
Building from the ground up
Taj has 12 hotels in the pipeline, including two luxury properties, the Taj Cape Town
(South Africa) and the Taj Falaknuma Palace, Hyderabad. The group plans to add to its
single Vivanta location in Bangalore with an additional eight hotels. It also will open two
hotels under The Gateway Hotel brand, according to Misra.
Additionally, Taj will reopen in May the
palace wing of the Taj Mahal Palace &
Tower, which has undergone significant
renovations since the terrorist bombing in
2008.
Not surprisingly, most of this development
will take place in India, where the
company has its most felt presence. Taj
The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Hotels, Resorts and Palaces comprises
more than 60 hotels in 45 locations
throughout the country.

6. Misra said that while yields still remain challenging, the region is showing buoyancy as
occupancies bounce back—a trend he expects to continue into 2010.
“Hotel room occupancies over the last quarter have seen a healthy increase over last
year,” he said. “There is buoyancy in the market and we expect the same trend to
continue in next the next quarter.”