If you think that the move of Deep Kalra from group CEO to executive chairman of MakeMyTrip marks the end of an era, he’d be the first to pooh-pooh the notion. For him, it marks the beginning of a new chapter in which he can “spend more time doing the things I wanted to do”.
“It’s a fulltime position, I am equally committed and there’s a lot to be done yet,” said Kalra. “I am not going anywhere.”
When it comes to succession, it couldn’t be smoother. Rajesh Magow, a co-founder, moves up from India CEO to Group CEO. “Rajesh has been with me forever. He was CFO when we went public, then he became COO, then India CEO. He is no stranger to the market. I actually believe Rajesh is a better scale CEO than I am. I have no problem admitting that. As founders, we have the liberty to admit what managers can’t do without feeling insecure.”
Rajesh Magow, MMT’s co-founder, moves up from India CEO to Group CEO.
He said the move would also “reduce overlap” between the group CEO and India CEO roles. “Now the CEO’s role can be exclusively Rajesh’s and as executive chairman, I can be more involved in the product side – that’s close to my heart and I am better suited for that; strategy, although I think strategy is over-rated; mergers and acquisitions; and new geographies – launching in new markets outside India as local brands.”
But even the smoothest of successions can go awry, I reminded him. Remember when Expedia chairman Barry Diller, in announcing the succession of CFO Mark Okerstrom to CEO, after Dara Khosrowshahi stepped down, likened it to “like water running down a hill”? Two years on, Okerstrom is gone and last week, Expedia had to lay off 3,000 jobs, almost 12% of its workforce, as it strives to cut $300-$500m of costs from the organisation.
“I think it’s different when you have a founder and a co-founder situation,” said Kalra. “It’s a different dynamic.”
He added, “I am fortunate and blessed I had someone who can take up the reins in a natural way. It would have been tricky to bring in someone from the outside. We are startup guys and when you bring in an unknown, will they work out for you? Often, it doesn’t work because of chemistry, culture and governance, and you have founders not willing to let go – we have seen this story played out so many times.”
Kalra also said the timing works on the product side because MMT’s chief product officer, Anshuman Bapna, after four years, has decided to relocate to the US and a new product officer is in place, which means there’s more scope and need for his involvement.
Product is where the magic happens
“To me, product is what our business is about. Where does the magic happen? It happens on the small or big screen, it’s how customers interact with us, how changes are happening in tech. It is the most dynamic area and where maximum change is happening.
“We now have a good AB framework where we can test a lot and it’s very exciting to gauge customer reaction really quickly. The kind of feedback customers give you on different parts of the funnel – it’s the perfect blend of art and science. The fuzzy logic stuff, art, gut, combined with the feedback loop which is scientific.”
He singled out MMT’s two chatbots, Myra and Gia, as among the company’s coolest products currently. “They are completely AI-driven and improving all the time. They work within our TripAssist product so that once you book something, you get a PA who can help you along the journey.
“It helps you with interesting things – right gate at the airport, pops up your boarding pass at the right time, offers at airport, gets you a cab.”
Eventually, Kalra said it could get into crowd-sourcing – which check-in lines to avoid – “personalised stuff that people want, surfaced at the right time”.
And the coolest product to come? Kalra said it would be about “what people do while they are travelling”.
“OTAs have been focused on research and booking for a long time, and now you have maps and city guides. OTAs send you somewhere and so they are best suited to take care of you while you are there, end to end. It goes beyond selling people stuff, assistance is more important.
“The big goal is higher stickiness.”
On strategy, he said the reason why he thinks it’s over-rated is that “at senior ranks, we all should do that at some level”.
“This is why we’ve never had a title called Chief Strategy Officer, it’s not a 24 by 7 job. You expect all leaders to think strategy. Like, I expect my CTO to be always thinking about blockchain, asking questions like, can’t this kill OTAs? What should we do about it?
“Strategy is a continuum, not a specific thing.”
M&A, and expansion into new markets on the cards
He will also have more time to spend on M&A and his biggest learnings have come from MMT’s mergers with Gobibo and Red Bus. “The reason the mergers worked – and we called them mergers, not acquisitions – is because we wanted people to think of them as mergers and three years down the line, we’ve probably held on to 90% of the team. Doing the deal is the easy part, making it work is the tough one.”
As for what he’s keeping an eye on, he said, “Niche tech plays.”
In launching of local brands in new markets, Kalra said it could either be organic or through acquisitions. He admitted that MMT’s attempt to expand outside India when it acquired hoteltravel.com, a Phuket-based hotel marketplace, several years ago was a failure.
“If you do a deal, you got to be there. If not yourself, then a senior member of the team and that’s the only thing he or she does. You can’t manage it remotely. Yes, you can trust the local team but you have to have someone from your team there. And despite Phuket being a paradise to visit, we were surprised to find out that not many people want to live there.”
He did not want to name the new geographies but one would not be wrong to guess that it’d be the Middle East and/or Africa.
While the new decade has not started out well, with the Covid-19 crisis, Kalra said that thankfully, there have been few cases in India but travel eastwards has taken a big hit with cancellations of flights to China. And cancellations to Singapore have spiked. “Westwards towards Europe was looking fine, but now Italy is looking bad.
“These crises will happen. We saw SARS in 2003. These things have a cycle, and they get shorter and sharper each time.”
He is excited about the opportunities that new tech will bring to travel and “the question is, how do we maintain our lead and stay two steps ahead”.
“In the next two years, we are going to go from good to great in product and customer experience,” he vowed.
Making Neil Island single-use plastic free
Asked if being executive chairman meant he could spend more family time with the children, he said, “Ironically, both kids have left home and so we are empty nesters. However, I will definitely make more time for things.”
And one thing he wants to make more time for is around sustainability. Through the MakeMyTrip Foundation, the company has launched a project to make Neil Island (Shaheed Dweep) in the Andamans single-use plastics free going forward.
“We have identified it as one of the destinations where we want to make some big, bold bets keeping in mind the fast-paced tourism growth here and the impact it would make on the local ecology in the long term,” he said.
Actions include carrying out plastic-scavenging drives, supporting waste segregation, providing alternatives to single-use plastic water bottles to all tourists, putting up water ATMs, setting up public amenities including showers, toilets and locker rooms by the beach, awareness workshops among tour guides, and capacity building initiatives for tourism industry suppliers.
“We are testing a model that we are hoping to replicate at other tourist destination across India,” said Kalra.
• Featured image: Deep Kalra in conversation with WiT’s Yeoh Siew Hoon at WiT Singapore 2019