July 2006
Personality

Prabin Panday became involved in business in 1996 and now he is the President of PATA Nepal Chapter. What lies behind this meteoric rise in so short a period?

At first glance, it is the family. As the youngest son of Shyam Bahadur Panday, a businessman who later diverted to tourism business by setting up today’s five-star property Hotel Shangri-La, young Prabin Panday already had a business in which to be involved. But had he had his own way, he would have been running an IT company in USA rather than being the Executive Director of Hotel Shangri-La.

After completing his intermediate level from Shankar Dev Campus, he went to the US for BBA. Though the family elders were trying to encourage him to study hotel management, he went for general management. The reason, as he says, was: “Hotel management study would be useful only for a hotel. Thus it is for firm level management, whereas general management study is useful to run any type of business from any level.” However, growing up in and around the Shangri-La hotel, hoteling was ingrained into him from his very childhood.

While in the US , he also studied information technology as it had already become the buzzword there with the fastest growth in this business compared to other sectors. And he was about to opt for higher studies in IT and form a company of his own in partnership with some other foreign students of his college. But suddenly he was called back home to help the family in its plan to start one more hotel in Pokhara. “Had it been 1999, I would probably not have agreed to come back. But in 1996, Nepal was still like a heaven. So I came back leaving the opportunities available in the States which are far better than here for any type of business,” he recalls.

So, he worked as a trainee in the Shangri-La Village Resort in Pokhara for about two years before actively participating in the boardroom. After his entry, the company introduced several changes in the operation. For example, sales and marketing were centralised and the then existing separate travel agency was merged into the hotel. These steps were taken to catch up with the pace of change in the style of management following the advent of new technology. And with his background of technology education, young Panday’s contribution was important in these changes. Also the focus on human resource development is enhanced and now the hotel takes about 30-40 students from different colleges as interns every year which has helped in selecting the best employees for the hotel. There was change in the market focus too. Earlier, only about 2 per cent of the customers in Shangri-La were from India , now it is increased to 30 per cent. For this an office was opened in Delhi . Similarly, in Europe , Shangri-La was concentrated in France . Now the European marketing is expanded to cover entire Europe .

One major change he likes to mention as his own initiative is the system of socialising among all the levels of management. Young Pandey likes to call himself a pro-staff. Employee Union helps to mitigate the employee grievance, he thinks. Panday helped in the formation of union also in Shangri-La Village of Pokhara. Young Pandey started the practice of the month-long Annual Staff Day celebration and organising sporting events and picnics. “As these help to make the staff and the top management closer, there will be little room for the staff or the union to be belligerent,” he says. This pro-staff sentiment in young Panday might have its roots in his Shankar Dev Campus days of the 1990 revolution. But he says, this pro-staff idea actually came into him, again, from the US experience. “It is the workers who make or break the business as they are the ones who work here 24 hours. I don’t stay in the hotel 24 hours. So they have to be satisfied. If they are smiling, the customers will also be satisfied. The ultimate secret of success in any business is customer satisfaction.”

All these technological and managerial changes helped the hotel to maintain an enviable business while most of other hotels and tourism businesses were complaining of difficulties to get clients and some of them even closed down.

Another reason for his success is his wide friends circle. He studied first in Kanti Ishwari and Bhanubhakta Memorial School and Shankar Dev College . This helped to expand his friends circle and they are now at different key places, which helps him find support in his professional life now.

Turning to the macro level, Panday expresses dissatisfaction at the multiplicity of tourism related business associations. “Perhaps it is because of this multiplicity that there is no cooperation among the different operators of tourism business in Nepal ,” he complains. For this to be corrected, he suggests that the Nepal Tourism Board should be strengthened and expanded to better represent the entire tourism sector and the Board itself should follow a system of enlisting the participation of all the institutions. His other suggestion: he wants the government to increase budget allocation for tourism promotion. “At present, the system is such that there will be higher budget with NTB when there are more tourists, but a lower budget when there are less tourists. In a way, the tourist is paying for tourism promotion. This has to change. The government should provide a matching fund in such a way that when the NTB revenue is less, the government provides more for the promotion and when the NTB revenue is more, the government reduces it or even takes some of it back.”

As the PATA President, he says the innovation introduced during his tenure in marketing Nepal has focused on Nepal specific marketing. Though Nepal was participating in the international trade fairs, PATA now focuses more on enhancing interaction among the Nepali tour operators with their potential partner tour operators in the foreign countries. And the results are encouraging, he says.

Regarding his plan for his hotel, he says he thinks the chain should expand also to Lumbini and Chitwan and other similar places where there is good scope for tourism to flourish.

Personal Side

l. The father of a two-year old son, Panday does not read many books though he keeps himself updated by reading the newspapers and magazines. Watching movie is his normal pastime and especially likes action movies and comedies. A sports enthusiast, he goes to the gym and loves swimming. "I love skiing as well, but unfortunately there is no such facility in Nepal," he laments. He is fond of pets and has a Labrador. Though he also loves driving, he complains of the road condition here and prefers to ride a chauffeur driven car.