Nakul Anand, the new executive director on ITC’s board, is an out-and-out hotelier. With an eye for the finer things in life, Anand leads the hospitality business. That’s not all. He is responsible for the company’s travel & tourism business as well. In a career that spans over three decades, ITC’s hotel business has grown from a fledgling diversification for the cigarette maker to one of the best hotel chains in the country.
Anand joined ITC Hotels’ management training programme in 1978. Colleagues know him as a result-oriented workaholic, who comes in at 8 am and works late. But that doesn’t hold back the once-upon-a-time disc jockey from pursuing his reading. An economics honours graduate from Delhi University with an advanced management programme degree from Bond University, Australia, Anand has introduced Six Sigma quality standards and created a unique quality control model of operational excellence.
That was imperative, as Anand doesn’t sell rooms. He sells sleep. ITC Welcomgroup, therefore, has imbibed the science of sleep. Sleep, according to Anand, has a larger dimension wherein all senses come into play.
ITC-Welcomgroup maintains a closely monitored sleep index.
The WelcomSlumber kit in the hotels is a result of extensive research, wherein guests are provided with a selection of aroma-therapy products, among other necessities. Anand wrote in his blog last year that the hotel was working on a chocolate that induces sleep with carefully paired natural ingredients.
A ‘dreamkerchief’ has also been developed.
Now, if that doesn’t seduce a guest into a slumber, it’s unlikely that any other hotel room will.
