A strategic initiative to build a future-ready talent pipeline and institutionalise service excellence and culture. Not a day too soon, as the industry needs human capital commensurate to its projected and promised growth. Best is to become self-reliant, grow your own brand with your own incubated people. It is industry leadership that others need to emulate.
The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts launched the Leela Centre of Excellence (LCoE), a strategic initiative designed to build a future-ready talent pipeline. As the company plans to expand from 15 to 24 hotels over the next three years, the initiative is expected to play a key role in inducting, training, and developing more than 3,000 associates across The Leela’s luxury ecosystem. Developed in association with Le Cordon Bleu and GD Goenka University, part of the GD Goenka Group operating over 150+ K12 schools across the country, the LCoE strengthens The Leela’s learning ecosystem at a defining moment in the brand’s growth journey.
The Leela will annually invest in structured learning and capability-building initiatives impacting over 650 associates and managers across the organisation. This includes leadership and functional development programmes for over 250 managers through its Leela Executive Accelerated Development (LEAD) program, specialised bootcamps, conclaves and industry conferences, alongside academic and operational training for over 220 associates across The Leela Palace Services (TLPS), Leela Leadership Development Program (LLDP) and Butler Development programmes. The initiative will also strengthen service and cultural excellence through dedicated soft skills training for over 200 associates annually, while advanced culinary capability-building under Shefs at The Leela will train 30 culinary professionals each year.
Speaking on the occasion, Anuraag Bhatnagar, Chief Executive Officer, The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts, said: “This is something that we are absolutely obsessed about and we want to preserve. As you see in our journey, culture is built through the sum total of what we call the Leela Dharma, the Dharma of Excellence.ˮ
As the organization is growing and scaling, we have three hotels opening this year, we have three hotels opening next year, and four hotels opening the year after. As we grow from 15 hotels today, to 24 hotels and counting over the next 2 -3 years. We need today 11 general managers, we need over 85 -90 ex -cons, we need 250 heads of department and we need at least another 3 ,000 associates who are immersed in the Leela culture of excellence. It is something that we always believe in and we look at the legends in this luxury business, we look at the stalwarts, and then you’re trying to walk in the shadows. The luxury goes beyond, way beyond just amazing palace qualities.
Luxury is the feeling that our associates create, the ecosystem that they create through their service and their rituals which creates a memory which allows our guests to have that experience.
I never miss an opportunity to remind everyone that today Leela is a listed company when we publish our results and of course get access to other companies results.
Leela is the chart popper which is a benchmark of customer love. Our net promoter score is 86. I have stalwarts in this travel and trade business. I have hotel owners sitting in here. I have people who have framed our learning constitutions. Stalwarts who set up institutions of excellence.
So, this is what gives us more ambition, that how do we scale culture at scale? How do we create an excellence centre, the Leela Centre of Excellence, which becomes our incubation system so that we can scale our culture?
The teams have been working tirelessly for over a year now, going through nuts and bolts and I can tell you like everything else in Leela, when we talk of true Indian luxury, everything from the logo and the phrase that Isha read, the Sanskrit phrase, has been put in mindfully.
The logo that you see of Leela Centre of Excellence, the one in the centre is not just a creative thing. It is the Hakeemi Mudra, that is the mudra in our Vedas, that allows you to focus, concentrate and creates inner balance and harmony.
And this is our mission for all our associates. This entire ecosystem of 65 acres, including the 12,000 square feet that this particular center is there, is powered by the Le Cordon Bleu and the GD Goenka campus.
So, for our entry level, our Palace Service Associates program, we’ll be offering them, in addition to the palace services training that the hotels provide, we’ll be offering them a BBA degree in collaboration from the GD Goenka University. For our LLDP program, which we are powered by ISH, they will continue to get their education qualifications through not just ISH, but the Roche. For our LEED program, which will be centered in this institution, we have also partnered with VFS, along with GD Goenka University, and Cambridge University. We provide leadership and expertise to our middle management who will become into senior management. And of course, our senior leaders.
We have a special program curated and crafted for the first time for an organization in hospitality and luxury space by the IIM Ahmedabad.
Nipun Goenka, MD, G D Goenka group and Pro-Chancellor of GD Goenka University, said “This journey began in 1994 under the visionary leadership of my father, Shri Anjani Kumar Goenka, our Group chairman. His revolutionary idea was to build schools that were truly child -centric, institutions that encouraged children to think, explore, and discover in a safe, joyful, and nurturing environment.ˮ
Today, that vision stands tall as a benchmark in Indian education, with over 150 K+12 schools, 120 preschools, 100 -plus healthcare academies, and a full-fledged university in Sona Gurugram. The GD Goenka Group proudly educates nearly 2 lakh students across the country and employs over 30 ,000 people.
Our school partners have invested over 3,000 crores and are committed to invest even more after our guidance provides the best educational infrastructure and high staff at par with global standards. As our timeline rightly says, we guide learners from foundation to flight, from preschool to PhD.
Spread across a beautiful 60 acre in the foothills of Aravalis, the University offers world -class infrastructure, sports facilities including football, tennis, pickle, paddle, squash, swimming, a fitness centre and a shooting range, and many other recreational amenities which will also be available for Leela team members.
In addition, the produce from our state-of-the-art hydroponic farm will be available not only for training purposes but also for guests at Leela Hotel promoting sustainability.
