Mathiarasu.D, Materials Manager, Radisson Blu Resort Templebay, Mamallapuram

Mr. Mathiarasu who is a native from Madurai, Tamilnadu and lived in Chennai since 1988 is the Materials Manager at Radisson Blue Resort Templebay, Mamallapuram. He got his UG degree in chemistry at Madurai University and MBA finance in Madras University. He was first working as Accounts Assistant in a stock trading company called Stock Scan India. Then he joined in GRT Grand Hotel which is the first unit of GRT Hotels and Resorts as Accounts Supervisor and then moved to GRT Corporate Office. Then he got an opportunity in 2004 to head the Materials department in Radisson Blu Resort, Templebay which is one of the units of GRT Hotels and Resorts.

He believes that the main source of information nowadays is Internet. He used to source new vendors for the new product requirements through internet only. He got the latest launches and updates also from internet. They also have an association called Purchase Professionals Association (PPA) in Chennai and HPMF in all India level .They used to get information through mails and whatsapp about the latest launch and updates from the member purchase managers. They also get information from their group purchase managers. Since the resort is 50 km away from city direct supplier visit is very less.

The main criteria that Mr. Mathiarasu takes in account for short listing the vendors is the Cost for the required level of quality, the suppliers ability to maintain the consistency of the quality, the continuity of supply, the better after sales service and on time supply.

There are key failures in one’s life and lessons learnt from them. There is nothing like key failure in his career. But he faced a big challenge when there was a heavy rain and flood in 2016 for more than 10 days. Mamallapuram has been cut off from Chennai city as well as from Pondicherry. There is no power for more than a week, no diesel for generator, and no cooking gas for few days. However they managed to get everything with some difficulty and served their guests whoever stayed that time with them. With heavy flood everywhere even they got milk supply without fail.

The most challenging part of the job is when they are away from Chennai city and they can’t get anything urgently. Hence they have to plan well in advance the material requirement with department’s cooperation so that to avoid last minute fire fighting. They have to keep the stock at optimum level so that to ensure smooth operation of the hotel. They do forecast the requirement accurately and procure quantities with some extra safety stock.

In the hotel industry the food and beverage people do not plan well for their requirements; usually they will come to the materials department with urgency saying guest is asking now only. They do not anticipate and ask the guest their requirement in advance. They will wait till the guest asks one by one and will come to the Materials Manager with the requirement one by one. This is the biggest challenge the hotel industry Material Purchase department faces. Then the purchase department will have to request the supplier direct delivery or arrange some other transport to handle the situation.

Having a different perception about the hospitality industry he straight forward says that he doesn’t like the hotel industry Job reason being the compulsions of the service industry. Being a service industry, the guests are treated like God. Even if the guests are wrong the service people can’t say anything to the guest and they have to say sorry and apology only. Just because some people have money, this is not acceptable that we stay quite however badly they treat the service staff. Though very few guests are like this, not the majority of the guests. The service people will put their pressure to the purchase department and ask to arrange things abnormally fast. In India the competition between the hotels to appease the guest is more than the developed countries. But Mr. Mathiarasu wants to do the job at most possible perfection as a duty. He loves teaching profession.

When talking about employee welfare our management is very good within Indian industry standard. Our management gives free food and accommodation for our staff and well taken care of their health. We are given all the facilities as per the law; even the management is paying bonus and EPF contribution beyond the legal requirement.

To make the guests happy and their trip memorable for them, the purchase department plans, organizes everything towards the goal of making the guest happy. They coordinate their actions to give the guests great experience and great satisfaction.

Material is money, so they have to handle it properly, to reduce breakage and obsolesce. At the end of the day, the return on the investment (ROI) is the main objective of business. Controlling the cost without compromising the quality is the main task to increase the profit. The purchase department can’t control cost because they want their requirements, but according to the ground reality, in current market situation they need to take correct decisions to minimize the cost.

In the end he concludes saying he likes his company and management in overall aspects and that is his inspiration to pick the best deal. His company is very good in payments compared to other hotel group in Chennai. Hence he never faces any payment issue due to financial challenge to vendors and therefore it is only easy for them to maintain the vendors. Both centralized and local purchase they prefer. For common products it is better to have central purchase but for special products as per the requirement of brand they will go alone and take local decision. Most of the regular products like meat, fish, poultry, fruits, vegetables and provisions they do have central purchase system. It is better to have more than one supplier for essential products.