Article at a glance:

Rolling out the red carpet

While many elements contribute to a company's success in the hotel business—including location, service, and brand image—in the end it all comes down to a good general manager. That's why training (and retraining) are so important at the Oberoi Group, which owns and manages several dozen luxury hotels in countries from Egypt to Australia. In this interview, the group's managing director, Prithvi Raj Singh Oberoi, tells how his family's business grew from a single hotel to a worldwide chain and explains how it develops employees and managers to continue that success.

The take-away

The company maintains the Oberoi School of Hotel Management, which grooms local talent to be good managers. A key goal is to meet the changing demands of its clientele, which has shifted over the years from civil servants to people conducting business and now includes those businesspeople at leisure.