�Mine is the only hotel company that has not had a change in its top management for the last seven years! I tell them, �Don�t be after money, go for satisfaction, look for a free environment in which to work, where you won�t have bosses breathing down your neck, where there won�t be rigid rules, where you are responsible for your department and its work�.�

ANIL MADHOK, MD, Sarovar Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts Pvt. Ltd., describes his personal life as one that is dull and boring. �I lead a pretty regimental life,� he says, �though my wife and kids have me at discos and places! Not that I don�t enjoy them. I�ve had my share of pubs and late nights. Now I don�t like them. I have to get up by 6 and if I have a late night, I�m miserable at work the next day. I feel washed out. I�d prefer going to a good restaurant for dinner than to a night spot.�

This is the man who spent 25 years with the Oberoi Hotels and quit one day when he was 45 to work for himself. �I can�t really complain about my life,� Madhok says, �my years at Oberoi were fantastic. Things went extremely well with 90 per cent luck and ten per cent more luck! I had a phenomenal innings and of them, I have fond memories.� He then spent 18 months in Dubai. Ask him about that stint and Madhok says, �It was an 18 month holiday that I spent designing a hotel.� From there back to India in 1991 to start his own hotel and restaurant enterprise �because at 45, I had made up my mind not to work for anybody again�.

Madhok was clear about what he wanted to do. Even if it meant starting just one restaurant and running it himself. �I wanted to work for myself,� he says. �And one reason for Sarovar�s success is that I don�t look at short-term gains. At the cost of non-profit, I have built up an infrastructure, a strong company. But this isn�t a one-man show with the owner looking into everything. I am selling management expertise and I have plenty of people to do it for me.�

His working style is a lot different from what it was at the Oberoi. �In my present set-up I have delegated responsibility substantially. People have well-defined roles. They have absolute freedom to make decisions. I have been pulling back from lots of areas as the company has been growing. Initially I did everything. But now I enjoy planning, designing and conceptualising more. Not the day to day routine. I�m doing site visits constantly. But once a hotel is operational, I don�t remain involved as long as it follows my standard guidelines. I devote my time developing further hotels and restaurants.�

That�s his pet project, designing hotels and creating restaurants. He gets involved right from the start, from preparing a detailed statement on the total project, the concept notice. And he likes to be hands on. Madhok says, �I find such work very fascinating. Going to sites and visiting structures which have no air-conditioning, no elevators, no electricity! And climbing up eight, ten storeys.� He has set up 21 projects this way so far and is working on six new ones this year itself.

Madhok�s and Sarovar�s strong point is the staff he has picked up along the way. �All very good people,� he affirms. �In fact, mine is the only hotel company that has not had a change in its top management for the last seven years! I tell them, �Don�t be after money, go for satisfaction, look for a free environment in which to work, where you won�t have bosses breathing down your neck, where there won�t be rigid rules, where you are responsible for your department and its work�.� He himself is familiar with the workings of all the departments. �After 35 years in this line, and with operations my strong point, a background in F&B, an interest in everything from engineering to accounts, I can roll up my sleeves and attend to everything in hotel designing, planning and servicing,� Madhok says modestly.

That�s his professional life. Personally, he�s not as dull and boring as he makes himself appear. His F&B background have made him passionate about good food and wine, naturally. But he is happiest when he is eating simple food at home, Madhok insists. He is fond of eating out because it means checking out restaurants. His favourites are his own, Oriental Blossom, the Frangipani and Rotisserie at Oberoi, Golden Dragon and Zodiac Grill at Taj, Khyber, Mela and Indigo among the stand-alones. He has experimental tastes and has tried most everything that is edible. �I�ve lived five years in Singapore,� Madhok says, �and you can�t live there without eating the most exotic foods! It was a seven-day a week holiday with three meals a day!�

Madhok can turn his hand at cooking too, though he prefers not to. He�s spent 18 months learning how to cook during his catering college days and the basics have remained. �They always do,� he says. �My tastebuds are very sensitive. And when the Oberoi trains you, it trains you! In 1966-67, things were different. Refrigeration was not what it is today. I had to learn how to slaughter, skin and debone a chicken, my fingers used to be in bandages all the time!� He�s got refined tastes in drink as well. J&B whisky, Johnnie Black. �I also like a dry, white wine. A Chablis. Day time, I stick to Campari or beer. Drinking�s not my strong point. I used to smoke a lot once, Panama, Charminar, Cartier, until I developed heart problem in 1984.�

Now he�s into good living and fitness. When he was at the Oberoi, he used to let himself into the health club with a master key every morning before the staff came in and worked out for an hour. Now he has a jogger at home on which he spends an hour while watching the news! He goes on holiday once a year with the family. �I do what I like, go where I want, there�s plenty of parking everywhere, I can dress in shorts and go about unshaved. The main purpose is to spend time with the family, catch up with the kids, this is their time, I make sure I am available to do whatever they want and like. Even if it is eating at McDonalds for four days at a trot!�