Taj Case

In the Taj case, we see two very distinctive personalities coming in to play. On one hand, we have Ajit Kerkar, who is a distinctive leader, who believes in relationships with people and grooming select candidates into becoming future leaders. On the other hand, we have Krishna Kumar, who is a very structured manager and who believes in System rather than a person.

Key learnings

• Leadership is something very dynamic which varies with the need of the hour. Ajit Kerkar proved himself to be the best leader during his time by scaling up aggressively from 1 to 80 hotels across the globe.
• Under Kerkar’s leadership, he was successful in creating a very unique “Indian” brand for Taj which drove a different experience to the guests.
• The employees were mostly loyal to Kerkar rather than to the company. So, one could anticipate problem of replacing Kerkar, since he almost had overshadowed the company. His objectives became company’s objectives, where quality suffered a hit.
•  Kerkar displayed a very good use of Pygmalion effect. Though the employees were being under-paid as compared to the industry norms, just because one act of appreciation from Kerkar, employees were highly motivated.
• When Krishna Kumar assumed his office, the company was well established. All he needed was to structure it well and improve the quality. So he shut down under-performing hotels.
• He brought in equity and transparency in performance evaluation. This was a certain boost for those who were not in Kerkar’s coterie. . On the other hand, we have Krishna Kumar, who is a very structured manager and who believes in System rather than a person