FOR THE LOVE OF HOSPITALITY

Vikram Cotah speaks about his zeal for management industry, emphasising his love for food, his upbringing, routine, learnings, milestones and memories

- SONU M KOTHARI

AS a teenager, on the cusp of adulthood, all of us have been asked, ‘What do you want to become when you grow up?’. At the age of 13, Vikram cotah, too, was faced with this question. coming from a family illustrious line of sportspersons, Vikram’s parents wanted him to be “a doctor or an engineer as those were the respectable jobs those days,” he points out. But Vikram’s heart lay else where.

“In 1982, I entered taj coromandel,” Vikram says “and fell in love with the place’s vibe, luxury, and happiness. I knew I wanted to be a hotelier.” Life came full circle when he joined the hotel as a management trainee in 1987 after graduating from the Institute of Hotel Management, Bengaluru. that was his first step in the hospitality industry. “From that day to today, I have never seen work as my work. It is a hobby that I enjoy doing,” he comments.

two decades and a dozen promotions later, Vikram is now the cEo of grt grand Hotels and resorts. going through a fair share of challenges to reach this position, he shares, “competition is a necessary evil. Without it, you would not try to become better. When I joined grt, there was one hotel and today we have 22. In another 24 months, five hotels are opening up. We are also going international with a hotel in Maldives.”

Vikram is beyond all these headlines for his professional achievements. During covid, he wrote a book, Mojo in the Mango Tree. Mixing his passion for work and writing, he is soon releasing another book, The Great Butterfly Effect, on grt Hotel’s journey towards sustainability. He sits down for a tete-a-tete with CE, where we unravel this personality beyond his professional life.

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