After Hours with Shiju Radhakrishnan, Founder & CEO, iTraveller.com

1. The job: I love the madness, the chaos and then the joy of bringing order into the chaos. Things that I love about my job have little to do with the job itself as much as it has to do with the outcome of the job. Travel by nature is a highly dynamic sector. One always has to be on one’s toes to be on top of the game and there is no room for a laid back approach. When I am able to do
that for me individually and for iTraveller.com at an organisational level, I feel the adrenalin rush.

2. The weekdays: The day begins at 6 am with my reading the newspaper and tracking what’s happening in the travel industry. This time is also dotted with countless WhatsApp/Gtalk messages among team members.  ?
Once I reach office by 9:30 am, I start replying to mails. In Bangalore, a face-to-face meeting would easily take a good portion of one’s day, so I try and have a hangout/Skype meeting as much as possible. On regular days, I discuss various aspects of business with my team members, especially technology and marketing, as these two are going to be the main drivers of iTraveller.com’s growth in the coming few months. We have weekly review with all the departments where we all try and come on the same page as far as execution is concerned and figure out ways to plug the loopholes.   We have a very informal culture at iTraveller.com, so most of these discussions are on bean bags with music playing around or a stroll in the bylanes of Whitefield or at the nearby coffee shop. A good portion of the day also goes on the phone talking to our native suppliers, sometimes investors and also with people whom we are considering for various roles in iTraveller.com as we are growing at a very fast pace.

3. The weekend: We have a weekly unwinding party on Friday evenings, among all the iTraveller staff members. This exercise has proved to be incredibly efficacious in bringing the team closer, resulting in everyone doing his or her part effectively like a well-oiled machine. On Saturdays, it is about tying up all the loose ends of the week, but mostly through mails. Also, Bangalore being a start-up hub, there is some event or the other on Saturdays, and  running a start-up myself, I try and be a part of the Bangalore start-up ecosystem as much as possible. On Sundays, I try and catch up with friends and families. So all social media activities from Facebook to Twitter happen on Sundays. Taking out my family for a movie or a short trip to the outskirts of Bangalore also happen on Sundays only.

4. The toys: Being crazy is a very strong term, but yes, if I have to choose between a book/magazine and my Google Nexus 5 ?for a day-long journey, I would choose the latter. Also, I am started toying with wearable devices these days and have just acquired a Sony Smartwatch, which I use for mail notifications and social media, though I am still to get used to it, but it’s fun.

5. The logos:  As far as apparel is concerned, I am a fan of Levi’s and Gap. Though most of my shopping is done by my wife as I rarely get time to do that, on rare occasions when I get to choose my own clothing, I mostly pick up apparels of these two brands.

—As told to Banasree Purkayastha