About Mr. Raj Shetty

V.M. Shetty is a self proclaimed ‘dreamer’ but with a difference because unlike the common man, his dreams are not restricted to the night time activity of sleeping. He brings them to a point of realizable in a man who has the courage to tread the uncommon path.

A humble man with a larger than life personality, Raj, as he is popularly known, can come across as intimidating. However, it is only when he gradually breaks down his protective barrier, that you see the true man – a go-getter with an ambition of being the best hotelier, a committed family man, and a mentor who pushes his team to strive for being number one. As Raj Shetty himself puts it, “the team makes a company succeed. My team of managers has to share my dream because if we don’t share a common dream, then we will never reach the point of realization.”

A man who lost his father when he was a mere 13 year old boy, Shetty knows what the term ‘struggle’ means – “My entire family was into the restaurant and food business so I wanted to be a hotelier ever since I was a child, but with the passing away of my father a lot of adjustments had to be made. I had to work towards my own education and my own dream, without the backing of a father. I began working at a young age ut even when I did work for others, I never looked at my watch. I have also worked ‘without pay’ for a friend because he needed someone at that stage of his venture – I never thought that I am working for my own friend or that I am doing it for free because at that point of time his success was more important than my ego. I preferred to view it as, “this is my friend’s dream and I am an active participant in helping him realize his dream.” It’s like when you watch a movie, it’s entirely someone else’s figment of imagination at play on the screen, but as the audience you become an involved participant and before you know it, you have participated in the realization of the conceptualizer’s dream.

V.M. Shetty has 2000 people employed under him and owns 33 hotels but he considers himself as one of the workers “Every manager of mine is a leader and they have been given a free hand to make independent decisions. I am one man; I cannot physically run 33 hotels everyday. Besider, I believe in analyzing my time and its limitations effectively. I see no reason why I should be an autocratic employer; I have employed professionals who know their job well and their parameters have been clearly defined. My job was to create a team that could spport me in executing my dream as effectively as possible, and I have done that. From thereon, it is for them to exhibit their caliber and live up to the faith that I have put in them.”

V.M. Shetty says, “The secret of our growth is that we go out of our way for our clients and customers. Our service will never end at rigid rules and regulations of a company because we are in the service industry and situations vary from one time to the other. You will never hear my staff refusing a request from a customer because we go as far as we possibly ca. we train our staff and keep them annually updated on any new aspects of service. Good service is the key to being the best chain of hotels and this is what my team and I are constantly striving for.
A spiritual man rather than a ritualistic one, V.M. Shetty says, “I am merely the custodian of the material elements that God has blessed me with and which I attribute my team for having created. I call it ‘material management’ because nobody was born a tycoon. We have all made the money here and will not take it with us anywhere after we are gone. I am not here to reap harvests alone because I know nothing remains forever. One day when I am gone, someone else will carry on my dream because the journey never ends and there is no final destination when it comes to ambition. We can grow bigger as bigger as time moves on but I may not be there to see all of it. The dream has to go on.