ET had reported on September 5 that the hospitality major was setting up its first global capability centre (GCC) in the country in Hyderabad.
“We view this as complimentary (to our overall strategy) so we have great talent around the world, in different places,” he said. “Not only from a volume standpoint but also define the best people at these technologies in the world. So we view this as something that we’re going to plug into our existing footprint and really have another way to access this talent and bring it in.
It’s very critical in terms of us being able to deliver the strategy that we have, because we need that top talent.”
He added that given the success that other companies have had with digital and technology talent in India, the company expects that this GCC will become something that becomes very important in the overall mix of how the Group delivers its services. Naveen Manga, global chief technology officer at Marriott International said the GCC would focus on three areas specifically – software engineering, infrastructure and operations, and cybersecurity.
“We’re going to focus on those three critical functions that are required for us to innovate and continue to learn as we go and accelerate,” Manga said. “We’re going to staff this accelerator with skill sets ranging from all the way across the life cycle of engineering, from analysts all the way to really high-end skilled workers across the three functions.”
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The company said this announcement builds off 25 years of Marriott doing business in India, which began in 1999 with the opening of the Goa Marriott Resort and Spa. Earlier this year, the company celebrated its 150th hotel in India, the Marriott Katra Resort and Spa. The company’s expansion plans in India are expected to take its room count from around 29,000 rooms across 17 brands as of October 2024, to over 42,000 rooms in the coming years.”The accelerator is just one piece of our strategy here in India,” Pinto said. “When I first visited India in my career was 15 years ago and we had about 16 hotels. We now have 153 with another 84 in the pipeline. So this has been a tremendous growth story for us, but also for the associates that we employ. We have such an established presence and such a strong brand and strong relationships because of the success of our hotel business that it was a natural fit for us to look (at setting up a GCC) here in India.”
