On the Road to Success

Ambitious

'Home is where the Heart is' and for Dhiren Savla, chief information
officer of the Kuoni Travel Group, a man who has traveled to almost all
continents, Mumbai is where he feels at home. Born and brought up in Mumbai,
Savla self admittedly is a 'pucca Mumbaikar'. An Engineering (Electrical)
graduate from Mumbai University, Savla refused to join his father's business
of readymade garments and instead chose to start his own venture. Though it was
moderately successful, he opted for the stability of a job. He joined his first
job in 1992 at IBPS as an officer, where he was responsible for setting up the
UNIX platform. Always on the lookout for new challenges, Savla joined GE
Shipping's Property Business Development department as a System Incharge after
working at IBPS for three years. For an industry veteran of 16 years, the
journey to the top, being the Global CTO of Kuoni Travels, has not been easy,
"for rising high in life and for realizing your ambitions, you need to,
somewhere down the line, compromise your personal life."

On Work-life Balance

A self-confessed workaholic, Savla can "live without his wife but not
without his Nokia PDA and business cards" and claims to send about 2,000
SMSes a day. He starts his day at 8 am when he checks e-mails on his PDA. After
reaching office at 9 am he stays put till 7 pm. His better half, herself an IT
Manager in Raymonds, although complains occasionally yet has resigned herself to
his obsession for work. "Maintaining a balance between home and work is
tough if not impossible and I would lie if I said that my wife does not
complain. In fact during my six day long vacation during Christmas, I did not
open my laptop, which, according to my wife, is an achievement in itself."
For this New Year though, Savla has decided to mend ways and has "vowed to
give more time to her." Although he admits that being a workaholic is
"not a good thing" as it somewhere leads to a communication gap
between you and your family.

In his free time, which he admits "is rare", Savla
likes to read business magazines (not technical magazines) and non-fiction
books: "the last book I read was the Monk who sold his Ferrari which
inspired me a lot," and is a self-confessed foodie. "In fact I love to
experiment with my food and since I am a vegetarian, I love to sample different
kinds of cuisines although I can't cook for my life." Surprisingly, for
someone who is working in the travel industry and has jetted across the world to
Europe, Singapore, China, Dubai... Savla is not 'really fond of traveling and
would rather stay put in Mumbai.'

Fast Facts Dhiren Savla , CIO Kuoni Travel Group, India. Work Life: Started his professional career as an officer with IBPS in 1992 and thereafter moved to GE Shipping's property business development wing as System Incharge. Left DSP Merrill Lynch as assistant VP in 1999. Was attracted by the dotcom boom, and as a result joined SSKI (now known as sharekhan.com). He was responsible for launching the portal. Joined Kuoni Travels in 2004 as global CTO for their subsidiary VFS (a BPO handling the front office and back office for embassies and consulates). In February 2005, was made CIO for the whole group and is now responsible for the company's travel business in South Asia including SOTC (foreign travel), SITA (domestic travel), the business travel division, HRG, and the global operations of VFS. Likes Doing: Reading non-fiction books and business magazines; loves experimenting with vegetarian food. Hates Doing: Attending unwanted vendor calls Repents Not Doing: Should have worked for a bank although has worked for the BFSI sector because banks have high degree of automation, besides there are a lot of things which can be changed. Future Plans: Working as a CEO/COO for any non-IT company. Motto in Life: Try to deliver the best and do not compromise on anything; be it quality or ethics.

The Job Front

Presently the company is running 'Project Consolidation' wherein Savla
is trying to consolidate and bring under one roof all the IT operations of the
company. "Currently we are virtually running five companies here, and to
manage their business we have set up a data center and are in the process of
setting up a support desk which will operate 24x7. We have also set up a Shared
Service Center (SSC) with SAP as the backbone, which supports the India
operations for all businesses. We intend to make this an outsourcing hub for
Kuoni worldwide operations." Savla counts the transformation brought about
in the business of VFS, a 100% subsidiary to provide visa processing services to
foreign consulates in India, as "truly satisfying". "Earlier
people used to come to VFS offices (which has tied up with embassies) for their
VISA applications etc, as a result of which we had to maintain huge offices in
order to handle the rush of visa applicants. But after the introduction of the
online project people no longer have to come down to offices personally for
completing VISA formalities and scheduling interviews, as all this can now be
done at the click of a mouse, from their homes," he says. After Savla
joined VFS 2004, the business was decentralized; the number of offices was
increased from 13 to 140 in 19 countries, and what's more, the company now
caters to more than 40 clients from servicing merely two clients earlier.

A Team Man

Defining the role of a CIO, Savla said: "A CIO's biggest role is not
managing machines but managing his men. Handling a large team is never easy but
if you become their mentor and guide them about their career prospects then the
task certainly becomes a lot less difficult." Savla should know as he
admits to re-employing his previous colleagues wherever he joins.

While in office, Savla devotes 80% of his time in meetings and
e-mails (which surprisingly do not annoy him) but what really annoys him are the
unwanted vendor calls, "as you have to be polite and courteous to them but
more often than not they are a waste of time."

Future Plans

Regarding that he says, "One thing is for sure that I would not retire
as a CIO. Ideally I will be on the lookout for a CEO/COO role preferably in any
non-IT organization."

Stuti Das


stutid@cybermedia.co.in