04-08-2016, 05:52 PM
Successful hoteliers often travel diverse and unconventional paths to get to the top of their field. None may have traveled further than Rai Bahadur Mohan Singh Oberoi, who was born in a small village in what is now Pakistan. An unemployed college graduate down to his last 25 rupees, he found a job as a clerk at the Cecil Hotel in Shimla, in the foothills of the Himalayas. That was in 1922. He went from clerk to manager to partner, and then made his big move in the city then called Calcutta: He bought the Grand Hotel, a few years earlier after a cholera epidemic, and turned it into a hotel that became headquarters for British troops during World War II.
Over the next 40 years, he would build a hotel company with 26 properties in 10 countries, influencing the growth of chain hotels and the development of tourism in India. At 82, in 1983, Hotels & Restaurants International named him “Man of the World” “because of the expertise and professionalism with which his name is associated worldwide.” Mr. Oberoi died in 2002. And while the name of the magazine and the name of the award has changed, there are still Oberoi hotels in India and beyond, including the Oberoi Cecil, where he got his start. Nowadays, we call it “Hotelier of the World” – and you can vote for the 2016 nominees for the top corporate and independent hotelier
Over the next 40 years, he would build a hotel company with 26 properties in 10 countries, influencing the growth of chain hotels and the development of tourism in India. At 82, in 1983, Hotels & Restaurants International named him “Man of the World” “because of the expertise and professionalism with which his name is associated worldwide.” Mr. Oberoi died in 2002. And while the name of the magazine and the name of the award has changed, there are still Oberoi hotels in India and beyond, including the Oberoi Cecil, where he got his start. Nowadays, we call it “Hotelier of the World” – and you can vote for the 2016 nominees for the top corporate and independent hotelier