Titan of hospitality industry
Prithvi Raj Singh Oberoi was born to hotelier Rai Bahadur M S Oberoi on 3 February 1929 and had his early schooling at the St Paul’s High School in Darjeeling. He pursued his advanced education in UK and Switzerland. Although his father was keen that his son should become a Chartered Accountant, P R S Oberoi opted instead for a career in the hotel industry and graduated in Hotel Management from Lausanne in Switzerland.
Thereafter, there was no stopping Oberoi who established his first hotel and then went on to open a chain of hotels all with the Oberoi tag. Soon enough the hotels picked up business well and earned name and fame for providing the finest in luxury, service and quality. Oberoi took over as the Chairman of the East India Hotels after the passing away of his father M S Oberoi in 2002 and remained at the helm of the group till 2013.
The Oberoi Hotels and Resorts expanded with the opening of the Trident Hotel Chain and Oberoi who was ‘Biki’ to his wide circle of friends and acquaintances placed a good amount of stress on man management and was known to frequently emphasise the theory that people are the most valuable asset of any organisation. The Oberoi hotel chain also expanded abroad to countries like Mauritius, Indonesia and Egypt.
One of the early entrepreneurs in the industry Oberoi established the first star hotel on the global map and all his hotels both in India and abroad boasted of very good occupancy rates. As a global leader in the industry he was often called upon to provide leadership for the management of luxury hotels in several countries. The Oberoi group had the distinction of being the third largest hospitality chain in the country and Oberoi served as the Executive Chairman of the group.
Oberoi established a number of organisations where training in hotel management was imparted and among them was the Oberoi Centre of Learning and Development which commenced operations in 1967. A number of laurels and distinctions came the way of the suave and articulate hotelier who ensured that his hotels never slipped down the hospitality index. In the year 2010 Oberoi was awarded the Corporate Hotelier of the Year title by the Hotels Magazine. The Indian Government conferred on him the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian honour for his exceptional service to the country.
The International Hospitality Institute hailed him as one of the 100 most influential people in global hospitality. Oberoi also received the Lifetime Achievement Award at ILTM and the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award as well. The leading financial newspaper in the country, the Economic Times too conferred on him a Lifetime Achievement Award. His son Karan Deep Singh Oberoi took over the reins of the group as CEO of the East India Hotels after P R S Oberoi called it a day.
Oberoi lived a full, eventful life and passed away at the age of 94. He had however remained active in public life and even at the time of his death he was a director in several companies and also had a stint as a director of the Jet Airways. The doyen of the hotel industry was a trendsetter in many ways and was a highly respected and revered figure in the industry with many followers who picked up the nuances of hotel management from the pioneer.
‘Biki’ Oberoi’s passing was mourned by a very large cross section of the hotel industry and several laudatory references were made to him by stalwarts in the field who hailed his invaluable contribution to the hospitality industry.
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C.V. Aravind is a Bangalore-based freelance journalist.