Most Admired Business Person

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The overall scenario of the hotel industry has improved a lot during the recent years. Various attractive campaigns of Odisha Tourism in the National TV Channels as well as tourism road shows in domestic and international market have been very helpful in branding Odisha’s rich tourism potential and increasing tourist arrivals to our state.

Odisha has immense potential as a tourist destination; still the state is crippled by lack of quality accommodation facilities in places other than Bhubaneswar and Puri. As a hotelier I strongly recommend that state governments should work on attracting investments from the private sector by providing incentives for a period of at least 3-5 years.

At the 23rd Annual General Body Meeting of the Hotel Association of India held on 20th January 2020 at the Taj Palace Hotel, I was taken over as Hony. Secretary of the Association from Mr. Suresh M. Talera, Chairman, Talera Hospitality. As a Chairman of the Hotel & Restaurant Association of Odisha, I implore the state government to gauge its potential and identify the shortcomings. We will not be able to compete in the domestic segment if we do not have enough star-category classified hotels in important tourist destinations, other than Bhubaneswar and Puri. Around 5000 additional number of hotel rooms in different star categories should be set up to compete with the hotel infrastructure of other states. We, therefore, recommend that the government should allow 30 per cent capital investment subsidy upto a maximum limit of INR 25 crores and 5 per cent interest subsidy upto 11 years on repayment of term loans. If the subsidy is given only for 3 years many hotels will come up as required.

I believe that these steps will go a long way in establishing Odisha as an attractive destination competing with other states like Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Goa and Gujarat. I am always keen to promote the state by putting up hotel and resort infrastructures in different destinations and is now coming up with luxury beach resorts at Puri and Gopalpur. And also we have limited opportunities for outbound tourism, Indian travelers would now want to travel within the country. And with its life-support system cut off, domestic tourism is what the beleaguered tourism and hospitality desperately needs.

My Achievements:

Prestigious Odisha Living Legend Award.
The Life Time AchievementAward by Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) ‘Hall of Fame’ Award for contribution to the travel and tourism industry from Sri J. J Rawal.
first person to get the Hall of Fame award in the State.
Swosti Chilika Resort, Awarded with Indian Green Building Council ‘Best Eco-Resort in Eastern India’ in July 2017.
Odisha Excellence Award 2018.
Swosti Chilika Resort awarded as Best Luxurious MICE Resort in Oct. 2018

All the credit goes to my entire team that has been supporting me in my activities.

A brief history on me was presented by Ms. Sonali Mohanty, at the Kelley School of Business, USA for her BBA Paper as her ‘Most Admired Business Person’.

Thank you everyone for coming to 48^th Global Hospitality and Tourism Conference.

By way of introduction this is a presentation on Jitendra Kumar Mohanty, my most admired business person. He is at present a successful entrepreneur in tourism, hospitality and education sectors in his sojourn of 37 years of business life who started from zero to become a hero in the corporate domain in my native province in India’s eastern coast along Bay of Bengal.

He owns a chain of organisations including Swosti Hotel Pvt limited, Swosti Premium Ltd, Bhubaneswar, Swosti Chilika Resort, Gopalpur, Swosti Chilika resort, Swosti Vacations club pvt ltd (Purim Satapada & Bhitarakanika), Swosti Educational Foundation, Swosti Travels & Exports Pvt Ltd, Swosti Institute of Management & Social Studies, Swosti Palm Resorts Gopalpur and Hotel & Restaurant Association of Odisha etc. He has been bestowed with several awards and recognistions in India and Odisha province by Govt and several agencies including international organisations like the United Nations etc. This is due to his hardwork, honesty, creativity, accountability and of being personable to all he comes in the wake of his life.

Mr Jitendra Kumar Mohanty deserves our admiration because he exemplifies the values of Creativity and innovation, being persistent & diligent and being personable.

A . Value 1: Creativity & Innovative

Point 1: Jitendra Kumar Mohanty is one of the iconic and most soughtafter figures in eastern India’s hospitality sector. He set up a star rated property in the provincial capital of Bhubaneswar in the late 80s when ace investors felt the time was not conducive for a hotel of that scale. He faced no competition from peers until mega players in the hotel industry established five star hotels like Trident Hilton International and May fair Lagoon International etc. Therefore he took risks and challenges and became successful and has been continuing so as a champion till time over four decades. So, he creates history.

Point2: He is innovative too. During his days, there was no Softbank or an array of venture capitalists or angel investors to help his entrepreneurial dreams to reach fruition. It is heart touching to quote him that initially his mother mortgaged her jewellery worth 2000USD equivalent of Indian currency to seed fund to propel his ambition and mission. “ For me she was a greater entrepreneur who took the risk of mortgaging her jewellery at that time. My father who was in the construction business, too was very hard working man who never takes leave from responsibilities. Therefore, I tried decided to dedicate myself in a manner where the society would benefit in general. Therefore, concern for humanity and service to humanity is above all his passion and guards it with perfection in all his entrepreneurial endavours for which he is an acclaimed personality in the vast stretch of eastern mainland in India.

Point 3: Mohanty has never been a job seeker. Rather he is a job creator for a backward state of Odisha which is very rich in mineral resources and hence famous globally. Mohanty transformed this challenge into an opportunity to prove his worth and set milestones for all through his success with consistency. He is an icon where he created opportunity for himself in setting trends in hotel industry through innovative way of marketing, networking, team building and quality services at par with global standard in a regional environment, which is a record by itself and hence admired and rewarded by international, national and regional level very often. His leadership ability and passion in steering through towards success is widely recognized, which makes him accomplished as a successful business tycoon.

B. Value 2: Being persistent & diligent

Point 1:His passion for good food and luxury living motivated me to be in the hotel industry and move from strength to strength with successive milestones to have global reputation with consistency. In 90s, Odisha province in India faced an acute shortage of a convention hall. Due to which Odisha was not able to host any major conclave or seminar. Mohanty wondered if other states could install massive conferencing facilities within their hotel premises, then why not Odisha? With the germ of this idea, Mohanty went on to build Swosti Plaza later rechristened Swosti Premium, his second deluxe property in the provincial capital city of Bhubaneswar. Swosti Premium, since its establishment, has hosted some of the most sought after events of international importance. It is now tagged as a five star hotel property. All these have carved out niche for themselves.

Point 2: Beyond Bhubaneswar, Jitendra has expanded his empire in hotel industry in most sought after natural scenic locations including Chilika Lake famous brackish water lake with flocking Siberian migrating birds and big stretch of irawady exotic dolpins and a UNESCO heritage site. This Chilika resort is said to be another tourist hotspot snuggling up to the greenery around and attracting tourists to spend moments and retreat. His passion for expansion in hotel industry has enabled his with success in all his constituent hotels and other units including Swosti Hotel Pvt limited, Swosti Premium Ltd, Bhubaneswar, Swosti Chilika Resort, Gopalpur, Swosti Chilika resort, Swosti Vacations club pvt ltd (Puri, Satapada & Bhitarakanika), Swosti Educational Foundation, Swosti Travels & Exports Pvt Ltd, Swosti Institute of Management & Social Studies, Swosti Palm Resorts Gopalpur and Hotel & Restaurant Association of Odisha etc. Now all his institutions are models in the respective field and has brought in accolades internationally as a role model for case studies and success stories.

Point 3: Jitendra Mohanty is not just another ruthless owner obsessed with building properties and expanding them without any business ethics. Nor is he perpetually pining for media arc lights. Instead, he is rooted in Odisha provinces tourism and its development and has been making incessant efforts towards this end. “As the owner of Swosti group of hotels, I have been making efforts to promote Odisha’s vast bouquet of tourism products and offerings and catapult it to the status of other tourist friendly states with huge footfalls like Kerala and Rajasthan provinces with millions of international tourists to these destinations.

B. Value 3: Being personable:

Point 1: He is a man with an extraordinary vision. He studied in premier universities in India and in USA. His academic time in University of Delhi and University of Cornell has seen him as a affable and personable personality with great humility. Entrepreneurs with a charming personality and communication skills fare better than their competitors when it comes to sealing new deals and attracting new customers. This helped Jitendra to climb up in the ladder of success with global presence.

Point 2:. Jitendra is a humble and team loving person. For all his achievements, he remains the humble entrepreneur next door. His efforts have not have not been limited to building sprawling hotels. He has been at the fore front of hotel and hospitality industry, ably articulating its concerns and woes before government to remove ailments in system and make industry tourist friendly. He is a person who actively participate in issues concerning society and livelihood of the greatest number. Recently, he gave employment to scores of hearing impaired differently abled youth in his industry and trained them to be at par with others. In an international competition in house-keeping, all these hearing impaired new workers excelled and topped in rank surpassing normal employees. Mohanty’s eyes were in full of tears when he greeted these wonders of silence. Therefore, society and entrepreneurial ethics are core to his business value system which makes his stand apart in the crowd of business owners. Mohanty is happy to see that many of his hotel industry under graduate trainees have been personal steward to many Prime Ministers and Princes around the globe. But he always mingles with the rags to riches with equal ease and humbleness without any pride. This has endeared him to be one of the popular business icon and role model in hotel business in India. He feels that Guests are Gods for us. So Treat them accordingly with dedication and warmth.

Concluding remarks: To sum up, these business values are of paramount importance to me as it is said that science without humanity commerce without morality are meaningless and dangerous as said by an Indian philosopher. Today Swosti family comprises of 1200 direct employees and 3000 indirect beneficiaries with a big empire in hotel industry in eastern region of India. Mohanty’s proven ability in his four decades long business endeavor through leadership, innovation, creativity, professionalism and business ethics has left an indelible imprint in me and I want to emulate them in my life too. This is a successful & sustainable entrepreneurial model as I envisage.Thanks all

Sonali Mohanty

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