Chapter 12: Business Meeting with Dad

Vikram Oberoi was a serious man, for everybody except his son. He had always loved his son as all parents do. After he got divorced from his mother, Vikram had tried to give Rohan more time. He had partially succeeded but he was still building his empire and his time was not always his. When his relatives had pressured him to get married again, he had given in for the sake of the boy. The new mother had not been able to fulfil the need for motherly love in Rohan’s life and Vikram had taken the tough decision to send Rohan to a boarding school in Switzerland.

It was a matter of immense pride for him that his son had become an even better businessman than himself. He would tell everybody who would listen that Rohan had made his first million himself without taking a single penny from Vikram. That was for a class project. When he came back from Switzerland, Vikram had included him in the business as a matter of course. When Rohan had come to him with a project plan to establish a multi-business presence in India, Vikram had taken it seriously enough to investigate and come to India himself to get him started.

Now a smile blossomed on his face as he saw his son enter the meeting room.

“Good afternoon, dad.” Rohan said “I am not late, am I?”

“Not at all, buddy.” Vikram smiled “Grab a drink and we will start.”

Vikram’s style for important meetings was not to have them in the conventional style. He had called this meeting as a cocktail party where the critical staff members were gathered in one of the hotel functional halls, there was a bar in the corner and there were no chairs.

“By now it’s not a secret that we are buying this hotel,” Vikram faced the room “the current status is that the commercials have gone through and only some paperwork is going through which takes its own time. I thought this is the best time to talk to you all, the existing staff and members of Oberoi Group of Companies who will be actively involved in this project.”

He looked around then continued “The biggest announcement I am going to make is that this project will be completely under my son’s supervision – Rohan Oberoi. As soon as the paperwork is done, I will be out of the picture, but operationally I am out of the picture now. Rohan, it’s your hotel, take charge. Your first job is to find a general manager.”

“What? What did you do to the old manager?” Rohan exaggerated his shock which made people laugh.

“He was the owner and manager, buddy, once he sold it, he left to travel the world.” Oberoi said with a smile.

Rohan nodded then turned to the room “Two quick announcements from me to address the rumours I have heard floating around – one, I am not going to fire anyone as part of this change. Everybody who is doing their job well will stay on. We will hire more people as I have a lot of ideas for growth. Two, the name of the Maharaja Hotel will stay the same. It’s a good name, it has brand value and I like it. I have heard rumours that the hotel name will be changed. That won’t happen.”