Hotel Management
Hotels are amongst the most visible and important aspects of a country's infrastructure. Hotel
industry is a closely linked to the tourism industry. A number of factors like promotion of
tourism and rapid industrial progress have given a boost to hotel industry. The opening up of
economies all over the world has lead to revolutionary growth in this sector. With increasing
globalisation, career opportunities in this field are not only limited within the country but there
are chains of hotels which operate internationally providing scope of a career abroad. It is a
glamorous profession which has a bright future. With the growth of hotel industry propelled by
foreign and domestic tourism and business travel, the demand for well trained quality personnel
too has grown impressively.
The World Travel and Tourism Council (1997), had estimated that by 2007, tourists will spend
US$ 884 billion in foreign countries on tourism related activities. The Travel and Hospitality
US$ 884 billion in foreign countries on tourism related activities.
industries have largely profited from the fast growing economy of India, mainly due to the 3.5
million tourist arrivals in FY05 (22 % growth) over the previous period, thus posting a CAGR of
million tourist arrivals in FY05 (22 % growth)
around 7 % from FY00FY05. According to the estimates of the World Tourism Organisation,
international tourist inflow in India would be 10 million by 2020, which means the tourist influx
has to grow at a CAGR of 6.5 % for the next 14 years. According to Government estimates, India
needs about 80,000 rooms in all categories over the next two or three years at an estimated cost of
about US$ 8 9 billion.
A Hotel Management Career
A career in the hotel industry is quite exciting, challenging and rewarding. The diversity of
experience in hotel management is greater than in any other profession. Hotel management
involves dealing with people throughout the day with guests and colleagues in your own and
other departments. The work culture involves good teamwork and leadership. Hotel management
is primarily concerned with food and living space, the boarding and lodging needs of the guests,
and more importantly their comfort, at all times.
Hotel industry involves combination of various skills like management, food and beverage service,
housekeeping, front office operation, sales and marketing, accounting. Today, the rise in
corporate activity (leading to greater number of business trips) as well as the wish to travel on
holiday has made the hotel industry a very competitive one. To pursue a career in the Hotel
industry one needs to love people and understand them. It is an industry which requires an
ability to cater to the needs of others often by putting guest needs ahead of one's personal needs.
Further one has to be ambitious, creative and have the passion to work in an industry that’s
constantly generating new ideas.
With the Indian Hospitality sector witnessing a boom that promises to stay, the employment
opportunities are on a rise. The current demand for manpower in this industry is enormous.
Moreover, the diversity of roles in hotel management is greater than in any other profession.
Hotels require trained staff for all these departments
Food Production
Food and
Beverage
Services
Hotel
Management
Housekeeping
Front Office
Front Office Management:
The hotel’s front desk is the control centre for the property and workers at the supervisory level
and must consist of well trained and motivated professionals in order to achieve business
objectives of high yield, high occupancy rates and above all, top quality service.
These professionals ensure that customer service expectations are being met. hey oversee and
determine the resolution of problems arising from owner/guest concerns, reservations and unit
assignments and other unusual requests and inquiries.
Food Production:
Food Production is an operating system and the quality of food that a hotel delivers to its
customers is a key part of its product offer.
Therefore, chefs play a vital role in the hotel set up. The reputations of hotels ride on food quality
Therefore, chefs play a vital role in the hotel set up.
and thus food production operations are a critical issue. A career in Food Production involves
and thus food production operations are a critical issue.
administrating the procedures used in quantity food production management including quality
control, food costing, work methods, menu planning, food production systems and service.
Food Production
Associate Chef- II
(0-2 years)
Associate Chef- I
(2-3 years)
Chef (3-4 years)
Sous Chef (4-6 years)
Head Chef (6-7 years)
Assistant Executive Chef (7-9
years)
Executive Chef
(9-10 years)
Food and Beverage Services:
F&B services and related areas employ bartenders, waiters and waitresses who are at the front
line of customer service in restaurants, coffee shops and other food service establishments.
line of customer service in restaurants, coffee shops and other food service establishments.
Food & Beverage Services
Steward (2-4 years)
Captain (4-6 years)
Assistant Restaurant
Manager (6-7 years)
Restaurant Manager
(7-9 years)
Job Opportunities for Hotel Management graduates
A graduate can join in the variety of roles to begin with his career. Some of the work roles are
given below for reference.
Management Trainee in Hotel and Allied Industry
Hospitality Executive
Kitchen Management/House and Institutional Catering Supervisor/Assistant
Faculty in Hotel Management/Food Craft Institutes
Cabin Crew in National and International Airlines
Catering Officer in Cruise lines/Ships
Marketing/Sales Executive in Hotel/Multinational Companies
Customer Service Executives in Banking /Insurance and other Service Sectors
Manager/Supervisor in Tourism Development Corporations
Entrepreneurship opportunities and many more
Alternate Careers
Public Relations
The importance of PR is expected to grow, more so as globalisation has revolutionised the
business environment. Courtesy the handson experience of hotel management
professionals, they can get easily acclimatised to the hectic schedules of the PR industry.
Also, quick thinking, being able to work under pressure, an outgoing personality and
excellent communication skills which you acquire as a hotel management professional will
help you build a successful career in the PR industry.
Event Management
Event Management is a multimilliondollar industry, growing rapidly, with thousands of
mega shows and events hosted regularly.
On the professional side, event management is a glamorous and exciting profession that
demands a lot of hard work and dynamism.
demands a lot of hard work and dynamism.
The salaries of hotel employees have increased by 20 to 25 percent in the last one year
alone. This is due to hotels competing with other sectors such as the booming retail and
fast food industries for unskilled and semiskilled labour, the employment costs are rising
with worker demanding higher benefits.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Primary Education in India
The education system in India has been in the news ever since Mr. Kapil Sibal announced his plans to de-stress the system by doing away with the school terminal examinations. While the objective of the minister is laudable and desirable there is a need to understand that the malaise runs much deeper. While all attention has been on the boards for X and XII, urgent attention needs to be paid to the primary and pre-primary education in India. The pre-primary education especially has become so short sighted that young children who should be exploring the world around them and discovering the world as it is are being straitjacket to read and write complex words and sentences which they do not understand. The education system is catering to the aspiration of the parents rather than focusing on the development of the students. Consequently we have children as young as 5 years suffering from anxiety and related complications. These children have forgotten the joys of playing as their time is spend in cramming cursive letters, figures etc.
The teachers have become so insensitive and goal driven that if a parent prefers to let her child learn at her own pace the teacher accuses the parents of non-cooperation and threatens to fail the child. Thus otherwise active children are becoming withdrawn. The parents too are equally to blame. We should realize that by forcing the child they are creating children who will have grades but no life skills.
The need of the hour is to teach the teachers to handle young children without trying to force feed knowledge to them. There are examples where the NCERT has designed excellent textbooks which are learner friendly and tries to teach with activities. But most teachers have short circuited the process by making the students study by rote even the activities. Teachers are too lazy and lacks motivation in developing the children under their care. If we are to produce balanced individuals and worthy citizens we need to change this set up.
The teachers have become so insensitive and goal driven that if a parent prefers to let her child learn at her own pace the teacher accuses the parents of non-cooperation and threatens to fail the child. Thus otherwise active children are becoming withdrawn. The parents too are equally to blame. We should realize that by forcing the child they are creating children who will have grades but no life skills.
The need of the hour is to teach the teachers to handle young children without trying to force feed knowledge to them. There are examples where the NCERT has designed excellent textbooks which are learner friendly and tries to teach with activities. But most teachers have short circuited the process by making the students study by rote even the activities. Teachers are too lazy and lacks motivation in developing the children under their care. If we are to produce balanced individuals and worthy citizens we need to change this set up.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Credit Derivatives for risk management
In recent times the issue of credit risk management has been attracting a great deal of attention globally. Despite various structural developments risk-management practitioners and regulators are still overtly concerned about risk exposure and the issues related to credit default. The issue of the effects of distribution of credit in the economy and how it affects the role of the central banks as the lender of the last resort is vital. Similarly, the use of credit derivatives may reduce the transparency within the financial system regarding allocation of risks and at the same time reduce the effect of money policy transmission. The problem of designing an appropriate regulatory structure are becoming more difficult with derivatives and off-balance sheet items, and are more difficult for developing countries, both because they are likely to face a shortage of good regulators and because they face greater risks Furman and Stiglz (1998). ). In India, for instance, the Central Bank, has issued draft guidelines for banks and dealers to begin trading credit default swaps in the country to mitigate risks emerging due to such trading means.
A vital feature of credit derivative is that they allow for trading and diversification of risk. Credit derivatives allow traders to package the risk inherent in a loan into tradable components. Thus the interest rate risk is isolated via interest rate swaps, the credit risk via credit derivatives and any exchange risk if present is mitigated via foreign exchange derivatives. As the risks can now be shifted to those who are willing to bear them, it will lead to increased allocation efficiency in the economy.In the credit derivatives markets bank and securities brokers-dealers generally serve as the product dealer, acting as the buyer or seller in derivative trading with end users or other dealers.
Credit Derivative Instruments:
Olivier Prato (2002) classifies use of credit derivatives as:
a) Hedging instruments, which allow an institution to hedge its risk on a counter party and at the same time, meet its capital requirements without really affecting its existing commercial interests with the counter party.a) Investment Instruments, which permit a participant to acquire, counter party risk without having to provide funding or enter into a commercial relationship with the counter party.
b) Trading instruments, designed to generate a short-term capital gain over the expected path of credit risk.
Broadly, these instruments can be divided into two categories. Unfunded credit derivatives, which are purely synthetic transactions that incur no financing cost for the protection seller. And funded credit derivatives where the protection seller purchases a security or claim. Unfunded credit derivatives can be further subdivided into four types of instruments:
Credit Default Swaps (CDS)
Credit Spread Options (CSO)
Total Rate of Return (TROR) swaps
First to Default (FTD) swaps
Funded Credit Derivatives:i)Credit Linked Notes (CLN)
ii) Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO)
Credit derivative market will help to improve financial stability by facilitating the dispersion of credit risks. It allows dispersion of risk to a larger set of investors. As such it insulates the financial institutions and banks from credit shocks or at least help, to reduce the impact of the shock. Concerns have been raised that credit derivatives spreads the risk so wide that it may not always be possible to track them in the financial system. This might affect the ultimate stability, although most evidence as of now point’s against it. It is argue that the ship reduces the quantum of risk for each participant and makes it easier to absorb unless otherwise the participants are over exposed to high-risk instruments. One major area of concern among regulators is the backlog of unconfirmed trades, resulting in part from under investments in the back office capacity by major dealers. In light of these ISDA has proposed streamling of novations (reassigning trades) protocol and the industry has agreed to cooperate. In India Reserve bank of India has proposed to make cash settlement in single name CDS. This should help improve the settlement process. The question of effectiveness of credit risk transfer still exists. ISDA has been tracking outstanding notional amounts of credit derivatives for several years. However notional amounts are not sufficient to measure the economic risk transferred. As discussed earlier delta-adjusted volume is a better way to measure economic risk transfer for portfolio swaps. Regulators have to ensure that recipient of credit risk have the risk management system and skill needed to manage such exposures. In emerging markets like India the issue of institutional shortcomings like bankruptcy codes, creditor rights, clearing and settlement agencies can impede the growth of credit derivative market.
The effect of risk transfer on the monetary policy transmission mechanism is significant as evidenced from research particularly in the US markets. It has been found that it reduces the impact of the monetary transmission effect as the importance of interest rates reduces and the availability of liquidity and credit volumes become determining factors. There is a great deal of uncertainty about how critical variables – including credit aggregates, consumption, fixed investment, and inflation – will behave under the new scenario. Hence further studies on this are vital for policy makers to establish action plan to deal with it.
A vital feature of credit derivative is that they allow for trading and diversification of risk. Credit derivatives allow traders to package the risk inherent in a loan into tradable components. Thus the interest rate risk is isolated via interest rate swaps, the credit risk via credit derivatives and any exchange risk if present is mitigated via foreign exchange derivatives. As the risks can now be shifted to those who are willing to bear them, it will lead to increased allocation efficiency in the economy.In the credit derivatives markets bank and securities brokers-dealers generally serve as the product dealer, acting as the buyer or seller in derivative trading with end users or other dealers.
Credit Derivative Instruments:
Olivier Prato (2002) classifies use of credit derivatives as:
a) Hedging instruments, which allow an institution to hedge its risk on a counter party and at the same time, meet its capital requirements without really affecting its existing commercial interests with the counter party.a) Investment Instruments, which permit a participant to acquire, counter party risk without having to provide funding or enter into a commercial relationship with the counter party.
b) Trading instruments, designed to generate a short-term capital gain over the expected path of credit risk.
Broadly, these instruments can be divided into two categories. Unfunded credit derivatives, which are purely synthetic transactions that incur no financing cost for the protection seller. And funded credit derivatives where the protection seller purchases a security or claim. Unfunded credit derivatives can be further subdivided into four types of instruments:
Credit Default Swaps (CDS)
Credit Spread Options (CSO)
Total Rate of Return (TROR) swaps
First to Default (FTD) swaps
Funded Credit Derivatives:i)Credit Linked Notes (CLN)
ii) Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO)
Credit derivative market will help to improve financial stability by facilitating the dispersion of credit risks. It allows dispersion of risk to a larger set of investors. As such it insulates the financial institutions and banks from credit shocks or at least help, to reduce the impact of the shock. Concerns have been raised that credit derivatives spreads the risk so wide that it may not always be possible to track them in the financial system. This might affect the ultimate stability, although most evidence as of now point’s against it. It is argue that the ship reduces the quantum of risk for each participant and makes it easier to absorb unless otherwise the participants are over exposed to high-risk instruments. One major area of concern among regulators is the backlog of unconfirmed trades, resulting in part from under investments in the back office capacity by major dealers. In light of these ISDA has proposed streamling of novations (reassigning trades) protocol and the industry has agreed to cooperate. In India Reserve bank of India has proposed to make cash settlement in single name CDS. This should help improve the settlement process. The question of effectiveness of credit risk transfer still exists. ISDA has been tracking outstanding notional amounts of credit derivatives for several years. However notional amounts are not sufficient to measure the economic risk transferred. As discussed earlier delta-adjusted volume is a better way to measure economic risk transfer for portfolio swaps. Regulators have to ensure that recipient of credit risk have the risk management system and skill needed to manage such exposures. In emerging markets like India the issue of institutional shortcomings like bankruptcy codes, creditor rights, clearing and settlement agencies can impede the growth of credit derivative market.
The effect of risk transfer on the monetary policy transmission mechanism is significant as evidenced from research particularly in the US markets. It has been found that it reduces the impact of the monetary transmission effect as the importance of interest rates reduces and the availability of liquidity and credit volumes become determining factors. There is a great deal of uncertainty about how critical variables – including credit aggregates, consumption, fixed investment, and inflation – will behave under the new scenario. Hence further studies on this are vital for policy makers to establish action plan to deal with it.
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