‘Fear was never a part of me’

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: a large franchisee network across the world, has ensured that its philosophy has been dinned into Jatia. “There are lessons I’ve learnt while managing the business. I enjoy what I do.”

Part of the learning involves weeding out inefficiencies in the system. “If costs can be controlled effectively, there is no need of passing it on to consumers,” says Jatia. “We work hard to keep our price points.” One way of minimising costs is by combining backend operations. Jatia and Bakshi work together on supply chain, marketing and equipment handling issues. “I run the national supply chain out of Mumbai and Vikram manages equipment supply out of Delhi.” There are other fora where the two meet. “We have something called the national marketing board, the national menu management board and the national supply chain board. We also have something called the partners meeting. Every two months, Vikram and I meet along with our core team members. Key decisions concerning the brand are made on these occasions. This is how we ensure that standardisation is maintained throughout. Our operations people work together. So do development people. But on marketing and supply chain the interaction is on a daily basis.”

This tendency of taking people along characterises Jatia’s leadership style. He is described as fun-loving by his peers but at the same time hardworking and committed to his business. “I don’t compromise when it comes to work. I do believe though that I should give my employees the freedom to decide what they want to do or not do. It doesn’t make sense if I take all the decisions. What is the point of hiring them then?”

The 40-year-old father of twin sons has given complete freedom to his wife Smita too, who assists him in his retail venture as chief operating officer of McDonald’s (west & south). Her beginnings were humble at the company, though. She began with the responsibility of launching the brand as part of the marketing effort to get it noticed. Slowly but steadily she took on more responsibilities — training, HR, operations — eventually becoming COO last year. Today, she manages day-to-day activities, while Jatia is into store development and supply chain management. “It helps to have her on board because I travel a lot,” he says.