Balancing Diverse Goals
Despite being the CEO of Yeti Airlines and overseeing its recent fast expansion in fleet, Vijay Shrestha has higher ambitions in non-corporate areas. "I accord higher priority to my social goals than to my economic goals. To be honest, I give even higher priority to academic goals," he says. One can judge the truth behind his statement by two facts: One, he is currently working on a PhD thesis under Tribhuvan University on "Airline Strategy, a Microeconomic Perspective" and two, he is one of the major investors in the publication house that brings out Samaya, a vernacular weekly magazine.
Equally important is his revelation that he is planning to devote 40-50 per cent of his time to social service activities within eight or 10 years from now. "However, I'll contribute to the society not economically but from my skills, knowledge and ideas," he says.
He joined Yeti Airline as the General Manager in 1998 and is now the Executive Director with a change in the responsibility from operational management to strategic management. This has been a period of fast growth and strategic change in the airline. In the past it was more focused on serving the remote areas with Twin Otter aircraft in its fleet. Now with Jetstream aircraft added to the fleet, the company is covering the entire country. "In fact, we are the largest airline in the country with the largest capacity and largest market share - more than double of what our nearest competitor has," he says and is expecting to be declared the best performer in the industry by next year.
An MBA from Tribhuvan University and a post graduate diploma in certified accounting and finance from Association of Chartered and Certified Accountants (ACCA), Shrestha worked about four years while in college as an accountant in a travel agency and he thinks the learning of those four years have been crucial. "If you don't understand the economics of a business organisation, you can never be able to understand your business," he explains the secret of the fast growth in his career. After completing his MBA, he and his small group of friends formed a consultancy firm. Working in that group was another period of fast expanding his understanding of businesses. Then, for about seven years, he worked for the Trekking Agents Association of Nepal (TAAN).
Personal Side
# Areas of interest in management: Strategy, Marketing and Total Quality Control
# Family: Wife, a son and a daughter, but keeps in touch with members of both sides of his family
# Self evaluation: Strengths: decision making. Weakness: slow in making new friends (because, I like to make long-term commitments when I make friends but it is difficult to make such commitments and fulfil them all)
# Hobby: Reading (books on management and periodicals)
# Holidays: Not long ones, only short ones and within Nepal mostly
# Time distribution: Monday entirely for Samay magazine. Saturday for hiking (three-four hours), on other days (after 6 PM only): two evenings for Prime College, one evening for his hotel in Chitwan and one evening at his father-in-law's home.
# Trying to convert to vegetarianism
# Dress code: Not choosy. |
However, despite his professional association with the travel trade industry dating back to college days when he worked as an accountant, his debut in the airline industry was only when he joined Nepal Airways as its Marketing Manager, a job he left after about five years. The company collapsed after one year of his leaving it. Now he is associated also with a private college and running a small hotel in Chitwan as well. But the most difficult among all these, in his opinion, is running the magazine. "It is much easier to run an airline than to run a magazine," he says.
How was he able to lead such an impressive growth in the Yeti Air? His answer is: "Due to the team spirit". According to him, all the decisions are taken by involving the people so that there is ownership in the decision and there will be ownership in the implementation as well.
