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Ambitious
'Home is where the Heart is' and for Dhiren Savla, chief information officer of the Kuoni Travel Group, a man who has traveled to almost all continents, Mumbai is where he feels at home. Born and brought up in Mumbai, Savla self admittedly is a 'pucca Mumbaikar'. An Engineering (Electrical) graduate from Mumbai University, Savla refused to join his father's business of readymade garments and instead chose to start his own venture. Though it was moderately successful, he opted for the stability of a job. He joined his first job in 1992 at IBPS as an officer, where he was responsible for setting up the UNIX platform. Always on the lookout for new challenges, Savla joined GE Shipping's Property Business Development department as a System Incharge after working at IBPS for three years. For an industry veteran of 16 years, the journey to the top, being the Global CTO of Kuoni Travels, has not been easy, "for rising high in life and for realizing your ambitions, you need to, somewhere down the line, compromise your personal life."

On Work-life Balance
A self-confessed workaholic, Savla can "live without his wife but not without his Nokia PDA and business cards" and claims to send about 2,000 SMSes a day. He starts his day at 8 am when he checks e-mails on his PDA. After reaching office at 9 am he stays put till 7 pm. His better half, herself an IT Manager in Raymonds, although complains occasionally yet has resigned herself to his obsession for work. "Maintaining a balance between home and work is tough if not impossible and I would lie if I said that my wife does not complain. In fact during my six day long vacation during Christmas, I did not open my laptop, which, according to my wife, is an achievement in itself." For this New Year though, Savla has decided to mend ways and has "vowed to give more time to her." Although he admits that being a workaholic is "not a good thing" as it somewhere leads to a communication gap between you and your family.

In his free time, which he admits "is rare", Savla likes to read business magazines (not technical magazines) and non-fiction books: "the last book I read was the Monk who sold his Ferrari which inspired me a lot," and is a self-confessed foodie. "In fact I love to experiment with my food and since I am a vegetarian, I love to sample different kinds of cuisines although I can't cook for my life." Surprisingly, for someone who is working in the travel industry and has jetted across the world to Europe, Singapore, China, Dubai... Savla is not 'really fond of traveling and would rather stay put in Mumbai.'

The Job Front
Presently the company is running 'Project Consolidation' wherein Savla is trying to consolidate and bring under one roof all the IT operations of the company. "Currently we are virtually running five companies here, and to manage their business we have set up a data center and are in the process of setting up a support desk which will operate 24x7. We have also set up a Shared Service Center (SSC) with SAP as the backbone, which supports the India operations for all businesses. We intend to make this an outsourcing hub for Kuoni worldwide operations." Savla counts the transformation brought about in the business of VFS, a 100% subsidiary to provide visa processing services to foreign consulates in India, as "truly satisfying". "Earlier people used to come to VFS offices (which has tied up with embassies) for their VISA applications etc, as a result of which we had to maintain huge offices in order to handle the rush of visa applicants. But after the introduction of the online project people no longer have to come down to offices personally for completing VISA formalities and scheduling interviews, as all this can now be done at the click of a mouse, from their homes," he says. After Savla joined VFS 2004, the business was decentralized; the number of offices was increased from 13 to 140 in 19 countries, and what's more, the company now caters to more than 40 clients from servicing merely two clients earlier.

A Team Man
Defining the role of a CIO, Savla said: "A CIO's biggest role is not managing machines but managing his men. Handling a large team is never easy but if you become their mentor and guide them about their career prospects then the task certainly becomes a lot less difficult." Savla should know as he admits to re-employing his previous colleagues wherever he joins.

While in office, Savla devotes 80% of his time in meetings and e-mails (which surprisingly do not annoy him) but what really annoys him are the unwanted vendor calls, "as you have to be polite and courteous to them but more often than not they are a waste of time."

Future Plans
Regarding that he says, "One thing is for sure that I would not retire as a CIO. Ideally I will be on the lookout for a CEO/COO role preferably in any non-IT organization."

Stuti Das
stutid@cybermedia.co.in

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