MakeMytrip CEO Deep Kalra is not a man of few words. But no one’s complaining! His journey - from successful stints with ABN Amro Bank and GE Money, to becoming founder and CEO of travel giant MakeMytrip - has been fraught with learning, and he’s not one to keep them to himself if you’re willing to invest some time in a wee bit of probing. Addressing the Indus World School of Business’ graduating Class of ’12 as Chief Guest during their Convocation, he reminisced about his own convocation at the prestigious IIM Ahmedabad almost two decades ago; he skilfully weaved Tendulkar’s 100th ton (scored only a few hours ago then) into his speech to remind them that their graduation date would remain etched into the minds of millions, and in a reminder of Bill Gate’s Harvard speech, shared 10 lessons from his own life - citing personal examples and learning. After hanging on to every word he said, the Management Compass Team also managed to catch him for a quick tete a tete. A few excerpts:

ON HOW IT ALL BEGAN
“The idea of MakeMyTrip came about from the significant NRI population in the US who needed to travel back home frequently. There were always holidays, weddings, festivals, or parents and cousins who wanted to come visiting, and this meant that there was a ready market of people looking for an easy and convenient way to book tickets to and fro. The Indian market was still not ready for an online travel agency and we had to wait till 2005 when we finally decided that the time had come. 2004 was the year when the SARS scare and 9/11 after-effects meant that travel was on an all-time low in the US. On the other hand, low cost carriers had come to India, and online retail had taken off in a big way. MakeMyTrip’s Indian website came up in the year 2005, and in its very first year became India’s largest e-commerce company.”

WHY TRAVEL?
“Even before we began, we knew that e-commerce was really the space waiting to be explored in India. While in the international market, Amazon had already become the norm, in India, people were slowly opening up to the idea of making their purchases online. Also, while people were ready to explore the world, they were looking for options that were more convenient and easily accessible than their travel agent. One of the turning points in the decision was our interaction with officials from Indian Railways on the online rail tickets booking service – IRCTC. We discovered that IRCTC charged a premium for bookings and yet over 60% of the bookings were for non-air conditioned classes, indicating that it was the preferred option for the common man. This got us thinking and gave us the faith we needed in e-ticketing for the Indian masses. Thus, we saw immense untapped potential in travel and that’s why it was a natural choice.”

ON WHAT MAKES MAKEMYTRIP DIFFERENT FROM A YATRA.COM OR EXPEDIA
“What’s yatra.com,” Deep throws the question right back at our team in mock seriousness. We realise that he is feigning ignorance to tell us in not so many words that for him, it is hardly even competition:

“In a cut-throat field where lowest fares and best deals are enough to sway customers from one website to the other, MakeMyTrip has managed to make a name for itself. We actually tried this research experiment where customers are invited to browse our website and those of our competitors (the website name is kept secret) and then they are asked to rate their experience in terms of ease of booking, user-friendliness, availability of options etc. Their feedback is carefully recorded and monitored to make the process of making your travel reservations even simpler and more convenient.”

ON THE ICONIC MAKEMYTRIP TVC
“The MakeMyTrip TVC was created with a very specific end in mind – to position us as not just an e-ticketing company, but as your travel partners. Travelling in India is still mostly a family affair and while the age of group travels has passed, families are looking to make travel a comfortable and memorable experience. Thus we have not just flight bookings but rail and bus reservations, deals on hotels, and travel packages suited to different needs and budgets. We wanted to capture the imagination of the new, young India that was willing to shell a buck for a comfortable holiday and keen on making ‘memories unlimited’.”

ON LOOKING BACK
“When my venture capitalist friend and I jotted down our business plan in a Mumbai mall, more than a decade ago, little did we realise that we would come this far. While we have a good laugh at how naïve we were back then. The initial plan relied solely on deploying our own money but it was too optimistic on our part and we realised in time that private equity would really see us through. On the other hand, some of our plans worked out better than they looked on paper – by focusing on the NRI market, we were able to make profits in dollars and learn valuable lessons for when we would take on the India market. Again, waiting for the right time before investing in India gave us an impetus that our competitors had been unable to cash on, especially in the first few years.”

ON BEING RANKED 3RD IN THE GREAT PLACE TO WORK INDIA SURVEY 2011
When the conversation shifts to this, Deep, with a smile that lights up the room, tells us that he believes happy employees make happy customers:

“Fun at work is in fact one of the core values of the organisation and we make sure everyone takes it seriously. This in turn ensures that we enjoy a high repeat purchase rate and millions of delighted customers choose us for their travel, every time they plan a trip. It’s a win-win for our people and our customers!”

“”More disposable income for foreign travel and frequent short weekend getaways mean that India is changing the way it views travel,” says Deep as he signs off. “It is important for any organisation to evolve with its customers and this is the secret to MakeMyTrip’s popularity and success!”